IT LIVES!!!

 

Yes, the traditional "it lives" post. A lot has happened over the last few days, a fair bit of stuff has arrived in the post that's enabled me to finish a few things.

On Friday I picked up a box of fasteners from Margnor that allowed me to change all the exhaust studs for M8x50 stainless grub screws & attach the manifold with new nuts & lock washers.

A new sump plug arrived & was fitted, I picked up some oil & a filter which allowed me to turn the engine on the starter for the first time - there was no oil pressure, so I had to take the exhaust off again, take down the sump & poke a whole pot of Vaseline up the oil feed (many lewd remarks left on anti-social media), then put the sump back up, re-fill the engine & this time the oil warning light went out.

A relay arrived which allowed me to connect the ECU to the ignition feed & turn it on for the first time.

Other fasteners in the box from Margnor allowed me to finish mounting the throttle-body onto the plenum, which in turn allowed me to finalise the routing on the fuel & vacuum lines.

So small parts allowed big advances.

Finally everything was in place to theoretically allow the engine to start. The wiring loom was still unfinished (to say the least), but with a couple of the sensors on the garage floor but plugged in - & one on the kitchen worktop & forgotten - I switched on the fuel pumps & turned the key.

The engine turned over for maybe 10 seconds, then it got faster, faster still, did it seem to be 1/2 running? I pushed the throttle, it turned faster still & yes - yes it was definitely running!

No exhaust pipe, no cooling system, no alternator, the wiring in a mess like this:-

Also before I'd turned it over with a spanner I'd squirted oil down the bores & the exhaust manifold had had a lot of work done which had dislodged soot, so it was VERY loud, smoky & sooty.

A little while later I turned the key again & this time it started instantly, but ran at about 3k revs for 2 seconds then cut, when I tried again it did the same, so I'm hoping that when the sensors are in the right places & the ECU can tell what's going on it'll work better. Also the exhaust will be on by then so it won't be MAKING SO MUCH NOISE!

Since then I've tidied & wrapped the loom & clipped it down. The next job is to fit the LAMDA sensor in the exhaust & get that on the car. By then the air filter & ducting should have arrived so the remaining sensors will go on & we shall see what we shall see.