Well I figured it was time for an update. Progress has been painfully slow. Getting ready for my recertification boards. Since the last post all the wiring of the switches and "safety systems" have been done. I wanted warning lites for all the functions in the car(water, oil temp, pressure, and trans), so a low pressure cutoff was added to the remote oil filter.
It is set for about 7 psi, so if the oil pan doesn't do its job and keep the oil around the pickup, or the accusummp doesn't keep the pressure up, and I don't see the oil presssure lite on, the fuel pumps will shut off. A bypass switch has been installed to aid in starting the engine. Both hands and feet will be busy on any startup. The clutch has to be disengaged for the starter to turn over.
On the oil filter mount there was an extra 1/2" mount, so an oil temp lite sensor was wired in. It is a double lead sensor so the oil fan relay ground was added to it. When the lite comes on the fan is activated. Temp sensors were added to the transmission pump as well, and will turn the fan on when the temp is met.
The pump will remain a switch trigger only because the switch was already installed.
There are three water temp sensors now. The first is manual for the gauge. A spacer was added so the second and third sensors could be mounted.
The second is for the radiator fan and the third is for the Spal pump controller. This is being added so the pump will start slowly and increase speed as the temp rises. It will also run the fan and pump after shut down to eliminate heat soak.
Wiring or rather rewiring of all the dash switches required rerunning of all the wires to the switches except the Accusump. All of the wiring connectors have been replaced with weather pack connectors. the standard connectors were a PIA to seperate or connect.
Other tidbits added are a spoiler to the rear with wheel well vents and the rear screens have been added as well.
The last retaining bolt on the spoiler is to be added as I couldn't get a feel for its placement til the vent was completed. Double large rubber washers were placed between the spoiler and the body.
That's the good news. Now for the bad. When we first cranked the engine we noticed the no:1 cylinder on the right side of the engine didn't fire well and there was some backfiring out the exhaust from unspent fuel. We checked the coil, swapped it out for another more powerful unit, checked compression and even the plug. All was O K except the spark from the plug was weak. We finally found a speck of metal deep in the plug that was causing it to foul. Upon cleaning it the engine ran fine. After getting the car home from the shop I started running into the alternator overheating problem which we think has been fixed. So the engine probably has about 45 minutes of total run time on it. While running the engine I noticed the same cylinder would take its time to start firing(see the crappy video in post #80). While the engine was out I took it over to the shop where it was installed and the head was pulled as the metal in the plug worried us a bit. What we found was the intake valve was hitting the piston just above the valve relief and was gouging the piston. The good news is the valves have been checked and there is no damage to them. The engine will be torn down and the pistons will be fly cut for the larger valves. Each cylinder had tiny bits of metal at the low point in the cylinder. The no:1 just happened to get it into the plug. That cylinder(piston) was as clean as the day the pistons were put in, which means there was a lot of fuel and little firing going on. The cylinders look O K and show no damage but will be rehoned.
In hind sight, we figured that every one in the build process had made a mistake. The short block builder knew that aftermarket heads would be used, just didn't allow for the larger valves as he didn't have the heads when he built the assembly. They were ordered later on. He used stock pistons(reliefs). I made the mistake of setting the heads on the engine to see what it looked like semi assembled. The engine builder torqued the heads already on the engine and didn't check for interference with the valves.
Lesson learned? Always do a check with clay to see what kind of clearance your valves have. We were lucky that it didn't cost us an entire engine. So it will be a couple of more weeks til all is buttoned up and reassembled. Then we will have a refiring of the engine.
Bill