sdibbers said:
What a great read Dan! I feel like I've learnt a lot from reading through your posts. Can't wait to see her in action.
Thanks a lot mate!
Progress has been somewhat slow recently as work has been so busy. I have done a few bits though. The radiator now has top mountings and I have sourced an appropriately sized expansion tank, I do need to fabricate a decent mounting bracket for it now though.
The radiator top mounts are simple brackets made from 3mm steel plate bolted to a pair of bobbin mounts that support the radiator.
I had this rad fan available, I think it is from a Ford escort, it is slightly narrower than the mounting points on the rad so I made a couple of spacers to fill the gap. It fitted up to the mounts perfectly but I was unhappy with the distance it sat from the core.
Basically it takes up too much space and looks crap! My mate suggested buying a Mini fan.........something I have to admit I never considered! The fan turned up today and is soooooo much better, unfortunately it has arrived with its lugs snapped off :evil:
The ebay seller responded within a few minutes of me telling him about the damage with a promise of a replacement so it is not a total loss.
Look at the difference, it is clipped in on the OS and just resting on the NS due to the missing lugs.
It is a far better fit, even though it is broken!!
The engine is a runner now and the cooling system works perfectly, the engine ran well enough but a little rich. It got it's first bit of attention today when I removed and cleaned the dirty throttle valve, I have done this on nearly every EFI car I have owned and I have never been disappointed with the results.
As can be seen, it was a little bit coked up..
There should be an air gap around the disc....
I spent around 20 minutes cleaning it with brake cleaner, the results are clear to see.
With a clean throttle fitted, the engine sounds much happier and is running leaner. This is a relatively basic open loop management system which has no oxygen sensor to feed back how it is running so the basic set up needs to be good before an attempt is made to adjust the mixture using the CO potentiometer. Once I have finished the installation I will have to give it a full service and reset the base idle and mixture using a Ford STAR tester and a CO meter.
Dan