24 May 2021 Did some more terminating of wires, I'm still waiting for the relay and ring terminals to arrive so it's holding me up with really getting on with the wiring. 25 May 2021 I was able to close the loop on the cooling system thanks to one of the water pipes off my spare engine. Carried on with terminating wires in the fusebox and also wrapping the wires I've run to the engine. Just waiting for a couple of ring terminals and the earth bars to arrive and I will be ready to get the engine running. I will be adding coolant because I want to be able to start my engine and let it run for a bit before turning it off to give the new rings a chance to bed in. Before I get to starting the engine I will need to double check my wiring. 26 May 2021 Had to do a bit of work on the TVR sorting out an earth problem, but had a go at tightening up the crank pulley, but could not lock the engine up using the wheels on the ground so I will need to sort out the handbrake first. Also managed to pick up a set of MX5 seats with headrests for £50 which I was pleased with, the Euphonic ones are tombstones and don't fit with the style of the car, also one of them is badly torn so I might practice myupholstery skills on that one and hopefully be able to sell it. 27 May 2021 I got the handbrake cables fitted, I needed to enlarge the holes in the brackets so they sat squarely and so I could get the retaining clios in place. I attached them to the brake calipers and then the compensator to the handbrake. I bolted the handbrake to the tunnel without too much drama apart from drilling one of the mounting holes in the wrong place but got that resolved. I used riv-nuts again for the bolts again. Initially when I tried to adjust the handbrake I couldn't get the brakes to work properley, then I remembered I had not done the manual adjustment on the calipers, once that was done the handbrake worked great. I was able to finally tighten up the pulley bolt correctly. Still waiting for the ring terminals I need for the final connections in the fusebox and they are now 2 daya overdue. Delivery seems to be getting more unreliable from ebay sellers in general. Ordered some others from Amazon which should be here tomorrow. 29 May 2021 The replacement ring terminals arrived today! I tightened up the power steering pipes and filled the reservoir with fluid. Checked over the cooling hoses and started to fill the system with coolant. Had to stop when fluid started pouring off the clutch arm, at first I thought I had missed a hose but when I checked there was no fluid running down the engine it was coming directly out of the clutch arm hole in the gearbox. Given the amount of fluid coming out the problem was at the back of the engine and it had to be a problem with the core plug at the back of the engine. The only way to find out was to pull the engine again, so after disconnecting the minimum, the engine came out and the core plug at the back of the engine was missing! There was a fair bit of choice language in the garage at that point. I have no idea how I missed putting that core plug in, even when I refitted the flywheel I didn't notice a bloody great hole in the block! I left the garage at that point, there's fluid all over the floor and tools everywhere I'll deal with that tomorrow! Time for a glass of wine. 30 May 2021 Tidied up the mess on the floor and pulled the clutch and flywheel off so I could get to the core plug. Fixed the core plug in place and then refitted the flywheel and clutch after cleaning them all up to make sure there was no coolant left on them. Refitted the engine to the chassis and got most of the bellhousing bolts loosely in place as well as the engine mount nuts and bolts. I loosely rettached the power steering pump to the engine and refixed the fuel rail and injectors. 1 June 2021 Only a couple of hours in the garage today. Tightened up all the bellhousing bolts and engine mounts. Refitted the starter motor, and reattached the wiring loom to the engine and got the plenum top back in place. 2 June 2021 Got all the electrical connections back in place and also terminated the two last connections. Bolted the exhaust system and clutch slave cylinder back on. Refitted the radiator and refilled the cooling system, no leaks this time! Ran some basic continuity checks on my wiring to make sure the ignition switch was wired up correctly to the starter motor, and fuse box, once I put the fuses in it all seemed to work as expected. Tomorrow I think will be time to connect up the ECU and try getting the engine running. 3 June 2021 Hooked up the earths for the fuel pump and the cooling fan. Temporarily wired in the oil pressure gauge and light so I could check it when it ran. Couldn't find my ECU lead so had to make an emergency trip and borrow John's. Back home I hooked it up and pwered up the ECU, everything looked normal, inputs seemed good. Hooked up the fuel filler and poured a couple of litres of fuel in the tank. Turned the starter, the engine turned over nicely but wouldn't start. I could hear the pump running so that seemed good but disconnecting one of the fuel pipes revealed no fuel. Back to the pump and I disconnected both hoses and ran some temporary hose into a fuel can, turned on the ignition again, no fuel coming out of the pipes. I whipped the fuel pump unit off and saw that the fuel was sat at the back of the tank and not down in the well where the pickup was! Unbolted the tank and tilted it slightly to let the fuel drain down. Put everthing back together and turned the key again... the engine started after a bit of cranking! It settled into a nice idle, no nasty knocking and healthy oil pressure on the gauge (and oil light out). I let the engine warm up and waited until the fans came on. So pleased that all the work on the engine seems to have been worth it. 4 June 2021 Not so happy today, seems there is an oil leak from the front of the engine. Can't see anything leaking from the cam cover or sump so possibly the front crank seal. So I've stripped down the front of the engine and there is definitely oil around the lower oil seal area. Need to strip out the timing belt and remove the crank timing cog to get a proper look. I've ordered a spare oil seal anyway. 5 June 2021 Stripped off the timing belt and crankshaft sprocket and the oil seal was not sitting correctly on crankshaft, the inner lip was twisted out a bit, I've pulled it out and cleaned up the oil, I will fit the new one when it arrives this week
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
Categories |