Not so good... Update tomorrow.

Not so good... Update tomorrow.

 

bugger - sounded like you'd cracked it earlier!

bugger - sounded like you'd cracked it earlier!

Yeh been like that for a while, personally I'd throw megasquirt at it tomorrow, though the guys at the garage like a challenge and are like a dog with a bone and won't give up. Jay thinks the timing marks on the crank pulley are out and has retimed the engine to around 30 degrees btdc they are known to be out because BL made them....

Jay reckon's he's found another 30bhp, but it won't tick over and the co2 is all over the place. He says it power slides good though.... the fooker lol

Edited 25 May, 201610 yr by B33fy

Timing marks are ok, so timing back to 8 btdc. The only thing left is the camshaft timing, maybe a tooth out or something. Hassle to check it, might as well throw a new camshaft in whilst the front cover is off. Big thanks to Jay and the team for spending considerable time and effort on it this week

The plan now is to get the later hotwire injection system, a megasquirt ecu, coil packs etc and some wire to connect it all up. The inlet manifold has to come off for the swap so might as well swap the camshaft at the same time and deal with a slightly noisy hydraulic tappet. Just need to get the parts together as quick as possible. The delay will probably be getting the ecu which tend to be made to order as they were originally a DIY build for the boff.

Going for megasquirt as its the most developed engine management system for the Rover V8 engine, with loads of support, specialist parts and various forums available for any queries.

Edited 26 May, 201610 yr by B33fy

Current position is megasquirts are built to order about a week's turnaround from payment. So will sort that ASAP. Will probably pay the extra and go for a full sequential system rather than batch firing or semi sequential. Each injector can be fine tuned along with each bank of injectors to optimise running. Also makes it future proof if I ever decide to do another engine build.

I've also bought a complete injection system. It's the later Hotwire injection system with Bosch high impedance injectors, MAF, wiring etc etc... Comes with a free engine.. lol

Not much to update unless you are a techie.. Bought a MS3X system, full sequential with wasted spark setup, though it will run a coil on plug system but it's not really needed for an old skool set up, you can only polish a turd so much... Was told a week's turnaround, though once paid for its suddenly 2-3 weeks, funny that...

Anyhow wiring loom, sensors trigger wheel etc are being sent out so I can wire it up in anticipation of the ecu turning up. Picking up injection system/engine on Friday. Spoke to the owner last night apparently engine is good to go so am tempted to crack it open, refresh and throw it in the car while I'm at it. Though the snodhurst crew probably won't be too impressed, so I'll save it for a rainy day. Just need to order a couple of wideband lambdas, one for each bank.

 Picked the 3.9 engine up on Friday from deepest Wiltshire. The engine was in a workshop in a farm out building of which I've never seen anything like in my life,  stone buildings built on a huge grand scale around two courtyards, grade 2 listed. I digress.. 6 hour round trip, then back at the workshop and stripped a few bits off the engine by 12 midday.

 

Broke a bolt in the inlet manifold which was a little irritating given that was the money shot.. Not to worry took it home and in between watching the brisky crew at brands managed to sort it out.. Image below of the inlet manifold with a twin plenum base siting on it. The original 3.9 base sitting next to it looking very small in comparison. James grimacing in the background looking forward to another afternoon of helping me..not. lol

 

 

Anyhow gave James a very small wire brush and got him scrubbing up the manifold, in the mean time I had a look at the collection of parts I seemed to have amassed to make some executive decisions about what to use^ The natural choice would be to stick with the 3.9 plenum and base as its got all the parts I need to make the megasquirt work. On the other hand the twin plenum setup is more complex older, bigger, needs more plumbing, the inlet manifold needs port matching to the base and I don't know if the TPS or idle valve fit properly.. though its shiny and clean..

 

 

Shiny and clean wins..., going for the twin plenum on the 3.9 manifold as per the first image, spent the rest of the weekend swapping bits over cleaning, fettling etc. Thankfully the later Idle valve fits the twin plenum, if not it may have been a deal breaker though the megasqirt can control the idle using ignition cut though it makes for a lumpy idle. I've yet to port match the base to the inlet manifold

 

 

 

 

Edited 5 June, 201610 yr by B33fy

All cleaned up and fitted brand new injectors and sensors, all fitted on the car now along with the appropriate plugs and tails in readiness for the new engine loom. Had to move a few bits on the engine and do a little re-plumbing though pretty straight forward overall. For the techies, later system has later high impedance Bosch injectors and a better idle air valve setup which I prefer to keep. Binning the hot wire mass airflow setup and adding air temp and air pressure sensors. This will be controlled by a new crank trigger wheel and sensor along with a modified dizzy and new sensor which acts as the cam sensor to control sequential injection and ignition.

Got a couple of Innovate wide band lambdas, to measure the air fuel ratio in each bank of cylinders, along with a couple of coil packs for a wasted spark setup. Very tempted to go for individual coil packs and sequential ignition, though it would delay things as they would need to be ordered from the states (LS2 setup is most popular) Doesn't really offer that much more for on old Skool engine, though looks pretty cool if done neatly.

The new ECU and various bits are due at the end of the week so full steam ahead then. Off for a few days so hoping to crack it this time

Edited 14 June, 20169 yr by B33fy

Bit more progress though slow and painful..

 

Coil pack bracket made and coil packs now fitted.

 

 

 

Crank trigger wheel and sensor now fitted

 

 

New top end now on engine, with lots of plugs and tails.

 

 

Empty space on left side of scuttle after ripping out the old ECU and associated wiring.

 

 

Tomorrow install new ECU and start working through the wiring. Can't wait....

Off tomorrow so early start to carry on with the wiring. Working from a number of different diagrams, manuals etc as historically megasquirt ecu's are a DIY kit that you solder together yourself which have evolved over time. You can now buy them readily assembled by a small number of company's set up by boff who have developed the product in their own direction, hence so many variations on the same theme with a considerable choice of configurations and associated schools of thought s to the preferred route. That said, the megasquirt option is the most developed ecu of choice for the Rover V8.

In a nutshell a right Royal pita to do but she gonna purr like a kitten and roar like a tiger when done, if not I'll probably turn the whole lot into one of those beacon things with a splash of unleaded.. Lol

Finally managed to order an aeroscreen today albeit a second as the company are having problems making carbon versions, with some delamination and pull on the weave, it'll do for now.

I'll grab some more images of more wires tomorrow.

Edited 20 June, 20169 yr by B33fy

Good luck... Sound like you'll need it!

Pretty much there, except a few power connections and installation of a couple of relays. Will have to run a number of checks before attempting to fire it up. I'll need to check the ECU configuration as well. I've commandeered an old laptop and installed the tuning software and data logging programs. The images below show the more or less completed new top end and reconnected water hoses etc. The new loom wires have been left unwrapped in case of any problems once running I'll cover with loom tape or plastic tubing. The throttle cable isn't done yet, it needs a need cable mount fabricated. It can run without for now. I've powered up the fuel pumps and pressurised the fuel rail no obvious leaks noticed. Probably need another day on it before it can be fired.

 

LInk to image below as the forum won't let me post a JPG file for some odd reason

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/buckmoreboy/27820751302/in/dateposted-public/

Looking pretty tidy (under the bonnet at least - not sure about inside...)

Looking pretty tidy (under the bonnet at least - not sure about inside...)

The bloke with the white stick said it looked good..

TBH its not quite as bad as Robs Quattro... Rob, if you're listening, rip it out and start again, Sierra looms are good..., I've done it twice now in 5 poxy miles, more the fool me.. Lol

Just to add thanks for all the likes everyone and particularly Sharkrider who's just found the thread and left loads as he trawled through the lot. Won't spoil the ending for you, needless to say it involves donuts power slides, ladies of the night and blue waffle.. Blue wtf??

Ok ok I made the first two up.. Late nights planned tomorrow and Wednesday to get the fooker running as it's pretty close and I'm getting itchy.. Not blue waffle lol.. it was exhaust paste honest...

Edited 27 June, 20169 yr by B33fy

Doughnuts in what manner?

Is it running yet? Getting just as excited to hear it just reading the updates as if I was building it myself lol

I'm getting itchy..

 

That'll be the ladies of the night...   

That'll be the ladies of the night...   

Apparently there's a cream for that

Daily driver fooked, down the stealers trying to separate the water from the electric..

https://flic.kr/p/Jd3qYf

Apologies for the crap photo.

I've been doing that with my Octavia too :(

Daily Driver back to normal service, water ingress into the high voltage cable and charging system. Not an unknown problem according to a few posts on the MB forums.

Viento wiring is all done, unfortunately I left my laptop at the MB garage in the daily driver so couldn't do any pre start checks and system backups etc now it's back with the daily driver, an attempted engine start is on the cards for tomorrow morning.

No noises today sadly.. the ecu and the laptop are talking to each other, unfortunately in different languages. Taking my dongle with me tomorrow to see if the worldly wise web can decipher for me.

Sadly this is getting to the point of I've had enough for now, so basically if I don't make real progress tomorrow the car will be shoved in storage somewhere for a bit of a break and a rethink. At the end of the day I've got a life outside this car and it's keeping me from it.

Got the ecu and laptop talking to each other, next hurdle is getting the revs to synch on cranking, which isn't happening. Looks like it's a crank sensor issue with the ecu not picking up the crank signal. Checked the gap and wiring, seemed OK, got a few more things to try, apparently alignment and gapping is really critical in these so it needs a closer look.

boo hiss...

Got a few bangs and pops today, thats about it.. Any megasquirt experts in the south east??...

Just read this start to finish, awesome project