Tuesday, August 23, 2011

First Start

The new fuel regulator arrived in the post yesterday. Fitted today....Result!!! The engine ran a little rough at first until I noticed that my temporary bung had fallen out of the servo pipe - a thumb over that and the engine ran as sweet as a nut!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQgKJUhNg7A

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Starting to start!

Well, all was set for the big day! Oil changed, new filter and fuel pump temporarily set up in a plastic tub. I pinched the battery from my C1 and connected it to the loom and turned the key - nothing happened! A quick search showed a almost no fuses in the 'small' fusebox. A week passed and a trip to halfords produced a box of assorted fuses - replaced the lot just to be sure! Turned key - at least this time some of the dashboard lights lit up! Having consulted the Gurus of Locostbuilders (thanks everyone!) I began to go through the loom carefully. By consulting the ECU pinout diagram, I discovered that one of the ECU earths was not made. Once that was found, the starter relay clicked. No noise from the fuel pump though. A further search revealed another missing earth. Finally the engine turned, but no sparks. A check revealed 12v at the coil pack so I began to check the crank and cam sensors. Whilst doing this, I found a connector that was not quite 'clicked' together - HURRAY, sparks!!!!!!

For a while, I had been worried about the vacuum connections from the throttle body - there are 4 - 1 to the servo, 1 to the EGR. One had no attachment to it whilst the other had a red cloth pipe attached. A check on a friends car showed that this should go to the fuel pressure regulator - this already had a pipe from it though. The 2 could be pushed together with difficulty though. So, fuel in plastic pot, time to turn the engine. No joy, several times!!! Then the team of keen observers and cameraman (wife and son!!) spotted the puddle under the engine!!! Fuel was coming out of the pipe from the fuel regulator. Opinion was that the diaphragm could be split, thus sucking fuel through. A picture was posted on Locostbuilders to help. I was slightly concerned that I was actually looking at the regulator, especially as it had sytec fuel spec hose attached to it and it looked different to the photos. I removed the regulator to even more confusion as I could not see how it functioned! A google image search gave all the answers!!! What I have is an adaptor that allows the fitment of an external (variable pressure) regulator - hence the fuel spec hose, the 'extra' red cloth hose and the fuel being delivered into the inlet!!!!! Problem solved - all I need now is a fuel regulator and I should be in business!!!