Project Sierra GT 24V

[Remko GT]

An update:

The plenum is now on. I haven't got piccies of the completely finished article but to give you an impression;

We had lots of problem because of this:

We had to put a 20mm spacer between the throttlebody and the plenum so the throttle body could clear the plenum.
The consequence however is that the black plastic intake pipe would never clear the VIS valve. Temporarily we've put a rubber hose in stead of the VIS. Won't be optimal but like I said, it's a temporarary measure to get it through the inspections. After the inspection the plastic pipe will be binned and we'll make a aluminium intake pipe so the VIS can be placed. not sure whether I'm goinf to run it over the VIS or run it underneath. Both will be difficult but I'm sure we'll find a way.

Oilpressure is fine, monday we tried firing it up but a couple of things aren't quite as they are supposed to in the loom. We had spark, oilpressure and fuelpressure but the injectors aren't doing their job. They don't get the pulse needed for them to inject. There were some more stranhe things happening. When I turned the ignition key all seemed fine. However, when I turned it back on ignition remained on. Not good. We tried solving this by cutting some wires we thought we were connected wrong. Might be that one of those cuts could be the reason for the injectors not working.

It also turned out the rad I fitted has a miniscule crack in it so I will have to replace it. Luckily I have another lying around. The thermostat hose leaked slightly. Shifting the clamp and tightening it back up solved that. No oilleaks and/or fuelleaks.

On to other things. I repainted the seperator plate (between the engine bay and the compartment where the heater motor and wipermotors sit) in white instead of the original black. Turned out very nice I'd say. I had my reservations thinking I could always paint it black if it didn't turn out nice but I'm not touchiung it anymore.
I made a bracket for the coilpack out of aluminium. That took me about 5 to 6 hours but I'm very happy with the way it's fitted now. HT lead lenth was a problem though. I could just manage to get it here

The bracket isn't really visible but you get the idea.

Fitted new seals and pistons in the rearcalipers, painted them and fitted:

Haven't finished the fronts yet
Rearend:


Tidied up the wiring behind the dash and added rearleccy windows, leccy roofwindow, leccy mirrors, still in the process of wiring in a heated front screen as well.

A general piccie of the car atm:


I hope to have another update next week to say that it runs.

[Leebay]

Looks very smart. Really liking those Oz wheels  

[Remko GT]

She runs!

Saturday most of the problems were sorted out of the loom. Not all because somehow the iginition is still maintained as soon as the ignition is turned off with the key. That's this week's job.
After we solved the problems of the loom and it appeared the loom was fine. At least, it should be but it still wasn't firing up. For one reason or the other the ECU wasn't switching the injectors so they didn't work.
We took off the ECU and bridged the 2 pins, immediately we could hear the injectors ticking so the loom was indeed fine.   Then why wasn't it working with the ECU fitted?
Maybe the ECU is faulty? Possibley so I arranged another one. Turned out the ECU sold to me (well not really because I got it with the engine I bought a couple of years ago) was the wrong one.  
With the borrowed ECU she fired on 1 turn of they key. The best part was that she wasn't spluttering, ticking or whatever. Even the tappets were quiet.   She was running sweet as a nut. It really is a low-mileage engine, the oilpressure was diisapting very slowly and the starter motor had no problems at all turning over the engine.
I'm well chuffed  

I can already say the engine is really eager on the throttle.

How we left it saturday night for some celebrations.


The tank is now entirely fitted (untill saturday it was only suspended by the strap, I bought new clips, bolts and rubber bushes) arch liners have been fitted and rearbrakelines are completely done.

Next week's jobs:
Rebuild and fit front brakecalipers.
Make new frontbrakelines (from MC to the GoodRich flexi hoses.)
Sort out last issues with loom and mod it for the MS ECU
Finish wiring up heated front screen
Finish wiring up front foglights and dash switch
Fit rear and front lights and indicators.

[capri v8 driver]

I can already say the engine is really eager on the throttle.

hello remko,

wait till you drive it, the 24v responds much beter on the trottle and goes much beter in the mid and high rpm (if you sort out the vis).

greetz paul.

capri v8 driver.

[Remko GT]

The brakes are done, judging the feel of the brakepedal (already rockhard even though there is still a little bit of air in the system that will be bled from it tomorrow) it appears I've made the right choice swapping the MC. Was a bit of a pain to make up the hardbrakelines from MC to that valve that goes to the rearbrakes but we managed allright. The MC I am using is one from a Sierra GLSi from the Uk so the connections were on the wrong side. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice as Non-ABS all-disc Sierra's are VERY rare in Holland and using the 240mm/drumbrake MC wasn't really an option.
Came across a strange thing when fitting the Granny Cos calipers though. When I fitted them it turned out the offset was 6mm off.    AFAIK the offset on Sierra and Granny discs should be the same. I had to space the calipers 6mm out towards the wheel. Otherwise the discs hit the sliding bracket. A friend of mine arranged me a couple of longer 10.9 bolts to bolt the calipers to the carrier, I am putting these in tomorrow as well. On a sidenote, I didn't need top redrill the holes in the carrier to M12. The thread in the sliding brackets was M10 x 1.5. Thank god I checked that before I had the carriers powdercoated.  

The wiring loom has been modded to suit the MS ECU. Marty came by last weekend (thanks a bunch m8!   ) and sorted the settings. As soon as the loom was fitted and the settings changed to suit my engine it fired up immediately. So we haven't cocked up the wiring. Yay!  
Even though it wasn't idling yet (no ISCV connected and no throttlecable) it was running sweet as a nut. Even more than on the EEC IV. Can't wait to set up the mapping properly. Can that be done on the road rather than on an expensive Rolling Road?

We also managed to close the bonnet. We needed to make and fit bonnetraisers to clear the throttlebody.
I personally hate the look of bonnetraisers but for now it will have to do.
Mondaynight we made a bracket for the throttlecable. When we conncted it to the accelarator it turned out the throttle is really short. We tried changing that by playing with the pivotpoint on a spareaccelarator I still had but not enough was gained to be useful so we left it for now. Going to be fun getting used to the short throttle.  
We do need to mod the accelarator bumpstop to prevent it to be able to be kicked too far and wreck the TB or the cablebracket.

Few more things to do and then we can testdrive it. Probably 2-3 weeks, can hardly wait.  

[capri v8 driver]

hello remco,

Can that be done on the road rather than on an expensive Rolling Road?

yes, you can do it on the road, but i would visit a rolling road. i also would ad a a/f meter. this way it's easyer to tune the engine.

the reason why i say rolling road is beter than on the streets, whit a rolling road you have a dyno print out and you can see the difference in the power/torque output after you chance something, whitch is more precise than you but dyno. and the other reason is safety. the problem will be to find a rolling road, where the operator knows what he is doing and know how to set up the ms.

greetz paul.

capri v8 driver.  

[Remko GT]

I agree to a certain extent, I remember reading in a mag that mapping on a road is better because the air humidity and all that kind of factors are hard to simulate on a RR. Tbh, I rather do most of the tuning on the road, saves me a lot of money. Do you know a good tuner being able to set up the MegaSquirt? I know 1 but they don't have a RR and seem hesitant helping me because I haven't bought the damn thing with them.     Even though I bought a shite load of parts with them the last 14 months. Thanks a bunch guys.........  
I don't need an expensive A-F gauge. I read on the MS forum if I program the LC-1 controller correctly I can use a cheap volt meter to read the lambda. From there it's easy to convert to the A-F ratio. (for example 1v = 14,7:1)

[Jeroen]

Either way, it's gonna be a lot of work to get it spot on under all conditions. Just watch out for lean outs under power if you don't want holes in your pistons

[Remko GT]

More progress, the loom is almost finished. Only a matter of cleaning up the powersplice and then tape it up.
Few more weeks and it should be ready for the RDW inspection.

I don't doubt it's going to be hell of a lot of work tuning it right but a lot of fun as well.

Btw, Jeroen, I was reading back on my thread on the FSOC. You still up for a final assembly party of the GT? I am starting with refitting the interior somewhere next week. Maybe even next weekend.  

[Remko GT]

Been busy this week so another update  

Yesterday I made the loom for the fan-switch longer because we decided to stick it in the bottom rad hose (@dan24v: your positioning of the switch is spot on) rather than in the top-hose. Another 20 solderings done.     Because the tophose was already cut in half I stuck a nice RaceTech watertemp sensor there.

Anyway, the wiring loom is comletely done. All taped up and ready to be connected. Doing that tonighT together with a general tidy-up of wiring and hoses im the engine bay to prevent it getting into hot / spinning parts.
Tomorrow or next weekend we're making a new ECU cradle. The original one is no good anyway.
The LC-1 (WB sensor controller) will sit next to the ECU inside the car.  

The front end is now completely assembled. The frontbumper needs new mountingbrackets but we still need to make those so it's hanging a bit down but it looks good nontheless.
A couple of years ago I acquired brand new headlight lenzes. So we gathered the best headlighthousings, lense retaining clips and lenses and assembles practically new headlights. Repeaters were also replaced with new ones. Underheadlight trim was fitted, the Cossie grill and the bumper as well. Now it really looks like a Cossie from the front. Tbh, I was a bit emotional yesterday. Seeing the car looking like that after all the hardwork is very inspiring and emotional.
I hope I don't forget to bring my camera so I can finally make some new pics  

Made a start with the headliner as well before dinner. The one that came from it was very dirty so I started pealing the toplayer off. Will be visiting a textile shop this weekend to pick a nice new toplayer to cover it up again. I think it will be similar to what's in a GHIA. I like  Next week I am starting with fitting the interior. Can hardly wait to stick the leather interior into it.  

[Remko GT]

Update and new piccies:
Cleaned the car up and made a start fitting the interior and dash
Needed a couple of extra gauges to keep an eye on things so fitted a trio of RaceTech gauges:

Also fitted the Sapphy rearseat. Needs to come out again because I planned a trick mod to properly secure it. It will include a lot of grinding and welding. Should be doable saturday.

Frontbrakes are now completely done as well
):
 Not looking forward to that.

[Taps]

Looking excellent Rem  

Ya not got the dash and column right though m8 should be on the other side of the car  

[capri v8 driver]

hello Remy,

look's good.

do you think that you have the car ready for the european ford event?

greetz paul.

capri v8 driver.

[Remko GT]

Probably make it to EFE yeah. I am looking at 2-3 more weeks of building and then we're starting with tuning of the MegaSquirt.

@Taps:    You get me a RS500 and I'll drive a RHD car  

Bugger, can't swap the fag lighter position.
I did get the ECU,  LC-1 and fusebox bracket done and fitted. Also works as a moisture repellent. Will get piccies of it this weekend. I didn't get the bottom dash done as I was knackered and called it a night @23:00 yesterday. Stewering wheel is more or less centered. I centered it by eye but obviously still needs to be properly lined out wit laser eqiupment. Will get that done as soon we're entirely finished in the engine bay.
We still need to seal the engineloom grommet in the bulkhead. I had to cut one up slightly to be able to fit it to the modded loom. We forgot to fit a new rubber before my m8 soldered on the ECU connector.    
Luckily I saved the one from the DOHC loom that came out 2 years ago.
And still that bloody inductionpipe. That's going to be tricky.  

[Marty]

Looks better than last time I saw it
Nice work

[Remko GT]

Thanks Marty! We do our best   It was looking a bit sorry for itself when you where there, wasn't it?  

[Remko GT]

Forgot to upload the new piccies...  

The rearlight wiring turned out to be easier than I had hoped, I found some wiring with good plugs on it. I took out the little connector that was broken (was ground so that was where all the disco effect came from), tidied up the other connections by slightly bending them back so the make good contact with the taillight clusters again. Was tedious to do but awell worth it because the taillights are doing what they are supposed to do. Yay!  

The rearseat mounting turned out to be a lot more work than I had anticipated. But we're getting there. Will make some piccies tonight of the progress. Unfortunately I had to remove the wiring to the taillights and fuelpump because it's exactly where needs to be welded for the rearseat mounting. Hopefully we get around welding it into the car tonight.

Still no induction pipe, my m8 keeps telling me he's on it but I still haven't seen anything. I'm suspecting he's making something really special out of it and keeping it a secret. Late birthday pressie maybe?  

2 of the doorcards turned out to be cut sloppy around the doorhandle covers. When I fit the covers, the leathery part in the doorcard slips out from inbetween the cover and and the panel leaving a gap. Have to find a solution to fix that. Got an idea but haven't got around to it yet.

Updates soon again.

[tiff]

that's cracking!

every time I look at a BOB engine it makes me want to get mine done........

[IansSaph]

not quite a BOB tho mate. read back two pages.

Ian

[Remko GT]

Thanks for the reply Tiff, I like the fact you think it's factory fit but it's actually a BOA with the BOB plenum on it.  

[IansSaph]

Sorry mate, i couldn't wait for you to tell him i had to spoil the illusion!

Bit of effort and mine will look as good (or better) next year.
My bonnet will close....

Ian

[tiff]

still nice!

[Remko GT]

Sorry mate, i couldn't wait for you to tell him i had to spoil the illusion!

That's okay m8.  

Bit of effort and mine will look as good (or better) next year.

I doubt it......  

My bonnet will close....

You got a cunning plan? The thing is, the adapterplate can not be thinner or the driver's side (in your case the passenger's side) plenum will foul the camcover. 24mm in total is the absolute minumum.

[IansSaph]

That's okay m8.  

I doubt it......  

You got a cunning plan? The thing is, the adapterplate can not be thinner or the driver's side (in your case the passenger's side) plenum will foul the camcover. 24mm in total is the absolute minumum.

We shall see mate, its an exersize in initiative.    

it won't be a direct fit granted, but trust me it will fit.  

good work mate, how far off the rollers are you (dyno testing)

[madasahatter]

Cant wait to take it out to give it a thrash remko next time i see you          

Then it might need to be you next to me and see what happens somewhere in germany!!!  Have you fitted the longer 5th gears i gave you???    

[Remko GT]

Don't know if it will thrash ready m8. Still need to tune it (especially the accel tuning, don't want holes in my pistons.) Haven't stuck in the 5th gear. Will do that when I need a new box...  

Couple of weeks and then I hope to get it ready to put on rollers. Might even postpone it untill it gets a custom exhaust and conefilter with proper cold-air-feed. That PiperX Viper looks soooo good.
If you want to make the BOB plenum look really good, grind/sand off all the casting lines and stuff. That's the icing on the cake imo.

[Remko GT]

Big update:
Got the VIS operational on the BOB plenum like it should and drove it out of thae garage on its own power for the very 1st time:
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0188.flv]
Too bad it's still heavily overfuelling but hope to get far getting it right tomorrow. Thans to Christophe I realized the switchpoint of the LC-1 on my MS is wrong and hope that's why have very strange readings. The displays on MgaTune indicated a Lambda of 1 while it was obviously heavily overfuelling. Hope for better results tomorrow, if the readings are still strange we'll try recalibating the LC-1 and hope that helps.

[capri v8 driver]

Big update:
Got the VIS operational on the BOB plenum like it should and drove it out of thae garage on its own power for the very 1st time:
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0188.flv]
Too bad it's still heavily overfuelling but hope to get far getting it right tomorrow. Thans to Christophe I realized the switchpoint of the LC-1 on my MS is wrong and hope that's why have very strange readings. The displays on MgaTune indicated a Lambda of 1 while it was obviously heavily overfuelling. Hope for better results tomorrow, if the readings are still strange we'll try recalibating the LC-1 and hope that helps.

hello Remco,

you are getting there, it looks good. can't wait to see it at european ford event.

greetz paul.

capri v8 driver.

[madasahatter]

Looking sweet it is        

[Remko GT]

Thanks m8! Appreciate it.    Another BIG update:
Turned out I had wired in the wrong analogue output from the LC-1. I initially used the brown wire, which is the output that simulates a NB lambda reading, after having resoldered it to the 2nd analogue wire, the yellow wire, the AFR readings made a lot more sense and we've managed to dial out the heavy overfuelling untill 3k rpm. I realised some of the exhaust gas setting we're of too. Can't remember all the details atm because I'm a bit pissed but got we did get it idling on a AFR around a lambda of 2.352 on WB setting so that's around a AFR of 14.7. Also the revvs pick up far better than yesterday, it doesn't completely smother in petrol anymore, good enough to take it out on a real testdrive, put it on autotune and see what would happen. That didn't do any good so we made some more changes and decided to turn off the autotune and taking it 1k to 3k revs ourselves. After that I think water came out of the exhaust idling, meaning we are deffo getting close. Tomorrow I am going to adress the handbrake cable adjustment because it's too tense but apart from some minor "problems" everything is spot on. The handling is perfect, no vibration in the steering wheel whatsoever, brakes work great, I couldn't be happier with today's progress.
Couple of video's:
On this one it misfired or backfired when I was a bit too enthusiastic with the TB and revved it above 4k rpm where we haven't adressed the fuelling yet aso it was way too rich there, scared the shite out of me though when it amde a bang where I hadn't expected it
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0189.flv]
A short vid of the 1st time we take it onto the open road from enclosed private property:
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0190.flv]
A 30 sec vid of the dash and interior:
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0191.flv]
An on-board vid while the car is driven by my m8 Sander, really leaving private property and taking it out on the road for a real spin:
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0192.flv]
A vid of the exterior, the engine bay and the interior of the car, also showing the leather Saph rearseat install:
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0195.flv]
And one where we open up the taps and hit the brakes, crank up the volume, and enjoy the noise of the V6 :DD
[url]http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/RemkoGT/2008/Filmpjes/?action=view&current=CLIP0193.flv]