J. Salmon RCR-40 Build

Re: Sooo close.

Visions of the guy from Top Gear going up in flames in the Camparo (sp?) pop into my head.

Congrats on being >< this close.

Oh hey, I just remembered I wanted to ask you what the height of your dad's rear wing was and if it worked well with the mirror location. Or would you/he raise ofr lower the wing for better use of the mirrors?

Thanks

I know the wing is high. I don't remember the mirrors having any issues with it. Unfortunately, it is stowed away on the trailer. Once we get the 40 running and a few other little things taken care of, we will move it out of the garage and move the SLC in. We have a laundry list of stuff for it. I will get lots of documentation at that time.

Plane leaves in the early am, but we are still hard at it and I haven't packed a thing. Got the Can link working, but not getting crank position or cam position signals. Trying to figure out if it is the hookup of the harness or one of the sensors themselves. Since I plugged in the harness and the engine has been run on a dyno, I am betting it's the harness.
 
Jay,
Check the harness to see if it is pinched anywhere and also check to see if any of the pins in the engine harness connector to the ecm have backed out or are bent. Can bus systems uses only 2 wires twisted pair for the network. Are there any diagnostic codes to tell from the box to tell if there is signal from crank sensor or not.
Dave
 
We were able to determine that the Crank sensor and cam sensors are not reading. We were also able to get the injectors to fire by tricking the harness by sending a pulse back; we verified that both harness plugs work, but they are not liking the sensors.

The harness is supplying 12V to both sensors. GM shows them being 5V sensors. We found a 12V crank position sensor for an earlier motor, but the wiring harness is different. After shuffling things around for a bit we were able to get the crank position to read, but things are still not smelling rosy. I finally put a halt to it.

So, I have some issue with compatibility of the crank and cam sensors that I will have to figure out. At least I know where we are.
 
Jay,

Your crank sensor CRP 58X for the LS7 should be GM# 12585546 and the cam sensor should be GM#12561211.
There is another crank sensor for the Gen 3 motors CRP 24X 12360228. Make sure you have the right one. I'm not sure about the voltages.
Dave
 
Jay,

Your crank sensor CRP 58X for the LS7 should be GM# 12585546 and the cam sensor should be GM#12561211.
There is another crank sensor for the Gen 3 motors CRP 24X 12360228. Make sure you have the right one. I'm not sure about the voltages.
Dave

Dave,
That's what we determined. We also determined that the sensors in the engine are newer 5V sensors, but the harness is outputting 12V. The wiring doesn't exactly match the schematic from fast. The harness is keyed for the plugs on the new sensors, but like I said the voltage is wrong. So we tried a 12V sensor and the plugs are not right.

It comes down to needing to talk to FAST and/or Kinsler. That's tomorrow.
-J.
 
It runs!!!!

After checking everything over, we discovered the pin out was wrong on both sensors. The engine is using the newer, factory tan 5V crank and cam sensors, which do work with 12V power. Once both sensors were straight, it fired right up. Getting a little popping but throttle response is unreal. It is quieter than I expected at idle, but plenty mean on throttle.

Now I have to go back and re-bundle everything, but this is a big milestone for me!

Video, as required!
YouTube - RCR40, First engine run
 
wow, that sounds like a angry beast :D
nice sound, sadly for trackdays in NL or Belgium to loud I guess...
it sounds like around 100db?
also very responsive engine, me like :)
and ceramic headers and exhaust?
are there also more freindly trackday exhausts that still make a racecar noise?
 
Jay,

Glad you got figured out. Sound's like a Rat motor to me. Time now to get the laptop out and play(tweek) with fuel and timing settings. I take it that some one else made up the harnesses for you. Play safe and have fun.
Dave
 
I always drink beer when I'm puzzled or stumped by something too.....then, when you finally figure it out, there's already a nice beer in your hand ready to celebrate with!!

Sounds awesome!
 
Jay,

Glad you got figured out. Sound's like a Rat motor to me. Time now to get the laptop out and play(tweek) with fuel and timing settings. I take it that some one else made up the harnesses for you. Play safe and have fun.
Dave

Definitely time to tweak, but I fired it up again that night and it had already learned a bit and ran even smoother, no popping. The harness came from FAST, it was QC'd at Kinsler, but with a signal generator, not a real engine. It's a universal harness, so there is some unused stuff. But it fits pretty well. The 12V sensors have a reversed hot and sensor leads from the 5V, and a slightly different plug. The harness came with adapters. Once we knew what the set up should be, we moved the wires around in the plugs so that it is a clean install, no adapters.

I always drink beer when I'm puzzled or stumped by something too.....then, when you finally figure it out, there's already a nice beer in your hand ready to celebrate with!!

Sounds awesome!

The guy in the video is an electrician by trade, but he's f-n brilliant and can do about anything. I never would have gotten the thing running without his help. Incidentally, he can weld like no one around, including crappy aluminum. He does require a steady supply of beer though :)

After shooting the video, I went for the scotch!
 
Firewall

Worked on getting the firewall and front footwell sealed.

On the passenger side, there are two bundles that go from the main ECU to the ignition module in the transom. Since I want to be able to open the panel without removing the harness, I put two holes of the right size at the edge of the panel and then slotted them. I cut the grommets so that I could feed them into the holes. Once it is tightened, the grommets seal things pretty well. The rest will be sealed with silicone once I am sure we are all good.

In the front, I had predrilled for a split firewall grommet from Seals-It. I bought the ones with no hole, measured with a caliper, and cut the hole with a scalpel. Sure am glad I remembered it ahead of time, since there is no way to drill and tap the holes now!

On the driver's side, the situation was tricky. The bundle is big, and it comes out at an angle. First I drilled a big hole with a hole saw, then I drilled and tapped for the Seals-It grommet. I again measured with a caliper, but this time I cut an oval hole to allow for the angled harness. The I went back and cut the panel in half, such that each piece has two bolts to hold it, and that the metal rim of each half of the grommet would help hold the two pieces together. I may need to add a few extra fasteners aroung the edge, but I think you'd be surprised how solid it is. Now there is just a very thin slot to be covered.

These Seal-It grommets are nice: Pegasus - Seals It Split-Style Grommet Seal
 

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Shifter

We are bending a center console that will cover the wires and raise the shifter.

The entire point of using the Ricardo was to get the sweet shift action that's so nice in the Ford GT. I wanted to use the factory shifter that was designed to work with it. In the GT, the center console is huge and the shifter sits at the edge, at an angle. As it turns out, that angle is nice. It places the shifter where I want and makes it a bit narrower, functionally. I cut the pressed steel piece apart and kept the three important parts: the shifter mounts, and both cable stops. I had these welded to a flat plate that I made that would be easier to bolt to the center console than the odd shaped factory part. I put the parts together in the exact same orientation. Since it was an odd pressed part to start with, it welded up pretty ugly. I want it to be exposed, so I used body filler to clean it up and cover the welds. It's primer painted now, and it's smoother than it looks. I am going to paint it black to match the dash. I looked at making a billet aluminum piece, but to be honest the steel is really stiff and it needs to be thin, so I think this will be a nice functional piece.
 

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