kws

Did some preliminary work for the stereo tonight. Cut the plugs off the standard radio Soldered them to the new radio harness Note the two speakers connected to the harness. Fronts only here, the rears are powered by the same output via the factory fader control in the console. Also tested the stereo bracket in the standard garnish. Looks mint, almost like it was made for it.

What thermal imaging toy did you go with, out of curiosity?

Oh, completely forgot about that. I did actually order braided sleeve, lol. Ill be following the layout of the standard loom as much as possible, but ill take note and care to keep sensors away from noise. TPS has shielded wire, and there will be zero solder joins if i can help it.

The wire for my Speeduino/SD1 loom arrived today, so i can start the proper planning now. Anyone got any tips that i should know for designing and making the loom? Itll be wrapped in self amalgamating tape, new weatherproof connectors, and new connectors for sensors/injectors. Will not reuse anything if i can help it. Going to design it similar to how the standard loom runs, with the sensor wires running down each bank with the injectors, depending on which side of the engine they are on.

More progress. Old radio is out, and I investigated the non-functioning rear window. http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/11/13/rover-sd1-radio-removal-window-investigation/

http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/11/11/rover-sd1-binning-the-pod/ Got rid of the ugly pod filter and reinstalled the original airbox. ​​​​​​​

As i have mentioned here and there, one of the big draw cards for having the EFI model isnt just the awesomeness, but the fact that i can convert the car to run a Speeduino custom ECU. I build the Speeduino ages ago, well before i got the car, and have been waiting to get the project moving again. With the car now in my possession, the Speeduino project is back on the boil and parts have been ordered. I will be removing the standard engine loom and making a custom loom with all new wire and plugs. I also intend to run a pair of Subaru coil packs and igniters in a wasted spark configuration. I havent quite worked out where i will mount them. I have completed the initial wiring diagram sketch, And will be building off that with a V2 sketch outlining all the connectors and where it will run in the engine bay. I also need to fuse the main power feed to the Speeduino. I picked the enclosure for the Speeduino today. Has enough space for the boards, wiring and even the Bluetooth adaptor. Being plastic it should help with reception for Bluetooth too, although i may look at mounting that module outside the box. The wiring will come out the end of the box, once i decided which connector to use. I have the new wiring for the harness on the way, along with all the weather proof connectors i could ever need. I just need to weld the WB02 sensor bung into the exhaust, buy and fit the trigger wheel/sensor, and make up a new intake pipe to bypass the AFM (and weld the bung for the IAT into that).

From what i have seen (and the others actually in the UK will be able to clarify), tidy examples go for a lot of money and sell quickly. The prices seem to be on the up; i guess thats what happens when availability goes down.

Another day, another attempt at fixing things in the Rover. Well, first off, I’ll say it. The car is parked up for the near future whilst it waits on some rather important parts. I did some work to the car today, as ill explain below, but whilst checking my work with the engine running I discovered a very serious fuel leak from the return line off the pressure regulator. Its dripping at a rate of a drop every couple of seconds, and there was a growing puddle at the back of the engine. I did note a slight fuel smell, and the puddle of liquid (which I checked with the engine off, and couldn’t tell if it was oil or not) when I test drove the car, but I decided to overlook it as I couldn’t see any injector hoses leaking. Just this morning I ordered some new injector seals so I could take the injectors out and replace the perished fuel hoses. It appears that the fuel lines have all been replaced in the past, but it’s either with low quality hose, or just so long ago its perished again. I can tell this because of the clamps on the injectors, instead of the usual metal ferrule. This is the condition of the fuel hoses and why I wanted to change them. The fuel filter also looks old as, so I have a replacement for that ready to go. Anyway, the plan today was to go out and condition all the leather in a desperate attempt to get some much-needed moisture into the leather. I went over every seat with a thick layer of my good conditioner, and it seems to have made the leather a bit softer. I’ll need to do another couple of coats, and then I’ll give them a good clean. The leather was so neglected that it was hard and starting to crack. Thankfully other than cosmetic cracks it’s actually in really good shape, no rips/tears or anything. No photos, because nothing to see here. Once that was done I moved into the engine bay to check the throttle pot reading, and make sure it was set correctly. When I removed it I just reinstalled it back where it came from, I didn’t check it. The initial reading had me thinking something was dead, as I got a solid 0.00V with closed throttle, when it should read 0.32V +/-. Opening the throttle showed that it was reading the voltage correctly, but it was well out of adjustment. what was at only 2.83V, when it should be close to 4.7V. I tweaked the position by loosening off the two screws and rotating the pot until I got the reading I wanted with the throttle closed. Unfortunately what was still low, only 3.17V. I’m not sure if this is because the sensor is just stuffed, or because of what I did when I moved the wiper on the tracks. Either way, it should be a lot better down low now, but may still fall a little flat at what. This isn’t an issue, ill replace the pot when I install Speeduino. In the meantime it now starts easily, and idles better. Havent managed to drive it though due to the fuel leak. Whilst under the bonnet I decided that I should fix the most important thing in the car…. the under bonnet lights. Should the inevitable happen and I break down at night, these little babies will help me pretend i’m a mechanic and get it going again. The standard lights were in bad shape, with no light being emitted, and the housing full of crud. Obviously they aren’t sealed all too well and have had 30 years of water ingress to deal with. In the interests of slightly and subtly modernising the car, I installed a pair of LED bulbs I had kicking around. They use less power, but the light output will be a billion times better than the old bulbs (if they even went, mind you). I cleaned all the contacts in the socket, but there is a lot of rust on the terminals on the back. I also used some dielectric grease to lubricate and seal the central contact, and insides of the socket. The housing got a good cleaning with some Simple Green, and they came up well. All screws were in bad shape visually due to rust, but appeared to be solid with good threads. I smothered them in some copper grease to help keep the rust at bay, and help stop them seizing in if I need to remove them in the future. And at night! Great success. So now I have a great blue whale stuck in my driveway, also blocking in the S401. I can move it if I HAVE to, but will try not to run it if possible. As soon as the injector seals arrive, i’ll get some new hose and proper fuel line safe clamps (unlike what’s on there, which is likely half the issue), pull the plenum off and replace all the fuel lines. The previous owner is lucky him and his family didn’t die in a fireball whilst driving this thing The box of bits from the previous owner arrived, so out goes the pod, in goes the original filter. Back in the NP70 days I had some issues with the original air box having the incorrect filter fitted, and strangling the engine. A quick fix was to chuck a fully sick red pod filter on the AFM…. and boy did it make a huge difference. The engine could breathe again. It also made lots of loud noises, such as an annoying whistle. I sold the car with the pod on there (and the original box in the boot) because it wasn’t worth my money or effort replacing the standard filter. Fast forward many years, and I'm back in an SD1, and sure enough, it too has a pod filter installed. Its ugly, looks out-of-place, is sucking hot engine bay air, and it whistles like crazy. Certainly wouldn’t be my choice to install these days. Thankfully, the previous owner still had the original air box and filter, and it was a condition of the sale that he sends them my way. Today I received the package, and went to work installing the original air box. It was dirty and looks like it’s had some touch-ups in the past, but its complete and in good condition. The filter inside wasnt dirty either, so ill reuse that. It even still has the original Unipart sticker I gave both the whole air box and the area on the car where it will sit a good clean and degrease. And removed the pod filter. Just the one clamp to remove it. With some wiggling and jiggling I got the air box, its trumpet and the rubber hose all fitted up, with some new hose clamps. I then gave the whole lot a quick splash of 303 to make it look nice (and to condition the rubber hose). Over all, much much happier. It looks the part, and will hopefully make the engine sound a bit less silly. I obviously haven’t driven it yet though due to it curse word fuel out everywhere, but that’ll be fixed soon. Whilst under the bonnet I took a few seconds to just tweak a few things and make it look tidier. I cleaned up the ignition leads, and tucked away the vacuum hose on the top of the plenum. Looks a bit better than it did. Its the small things Speaking of fuel leaks, the hose arrived today, so not long until I can fix it. This is proper SAE R9 high pressure, ethanol safe fuel hose, in the CORRECT ID of 7.6mm. Just waiting on parts from Rimmers, and the hose clamps, then it’s all go.

I made some progress today, but then had a major fail. http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/11/05/rover-sd1-two-steps-forward-4-steps-back/

Thanks Unfortunately they tend to fill up with rot here too, but there if youre lucky there are still some out there with minimal rust. This one is fairly solid with only minor rust here and there (Mostly little spots around window trims and things). Ideally in the very distant future i would like to drop a 4.4 or 4.6 engine in for the added punch, but since the 3.5 seems to be in good shape ill stick with that for now. The Speeduino should wake it up a bit.

Like usual, I don’t mess around when I get a new toy, so after work I cracked into the Rover again. The first thing I had to do was put the battery back in the car, because it had spent 24 hours on charge. Unfortunately the “charge indicator” is still showing red, so the previous owner may have nuked the poor thing and it may need replacing (I'm hoping the receipt for it is in the pile that are on their way to me, but I’m not holding my breath). In the meantime it seems to be working OK, as it started the car multiple times without trouble. I can’t trust it though. As mentioned earlier, the battery hold down is missing. I didn’t really want the damn thing flying around in the engine bay, so I channelled my inner MacGyver and ended up with this. Now it won’t slide into the alternator and make bad things happen. I also tested out the front screen wash…. which is lethargic at best, like most things in this car. It appears a previous owner has decided that instead of replacing the failed washer pump, they would just install a secondary, standalone pump on the guard. So now it sucks through the old, dead pump and then sprinkles out onto the windscreen. I’ll try to get a replacement standard pump at some point and do away with the standalone one. I’ll need to see if I can clean the washer jet out too, as the washer bottle was full of gross water and algae (and no doubt the jet is too). This is the color of some of the water in the bottle, and it just got greener and lumpier. There was no washer additive at all, just water and growth. I removed the bottle, gave it a real good shake and rinse. A quick scrub with some Simple Green and its a bit cleaner and no more algae. The bottle is heavily stained though. I refilled with some nice clean water, and a quality additive. I did happen to find one thing that isn’t lethargic on this car (almost everything else is!)…. the headlight washers. They spray with a vigor I have never seen, it’s a shame it just ends up covering the front of the car in water and additive. Oh, and in this instance, my face too, oops With the battery back in the car, and the car actually running and driving again I decided to shoot down and get some gas. The fuel gauge had been wavering between below “E”, and 1/4 of a tank since I got it, and the light kept coming on and off randomly. 54L went in the 66L tank, so obviously there was still some in there. It’s good to know how inaccurate the gauge actually is, and how much I can rely on it. Not much, is the answer. EDIT: Upon reading the owners manual, the light switches on at 12L left in the tank, so in this instance, the gauge is woefully inaccurate, but the light is spot on. The idle was a bit low though, has been since I got the car, so I took to putting the car in neutral at intersections to keep the revs up. It also stalled a couple of times when navigating my driveway, due to the load from the power steering pump. I tweaked this when I got home and now have a solid idle at around 800rpm, where it should be, instead of under 500rpm. It does dip down when in gear, like all autos do, but it doesn’t try to stall anymore. I can also conclude that the work I did on the throttle pot has completely cured the surging at cruise, it now settles in a nice smooth cruise and drives like a champ. Nothing like idling along, arm out the window in the sun, listening to the burble of the exhaust Winning. A great end to an otherwise unpleasant work day.

Its freakin lush to drive, despite its age it holds the road well and the steering is as direct as it can be. Be interesting when i get the pile of receipts it apparently has, to see whats actually been done in the past.

The work started quickly. I don't mess around. The car had a really bad surge when i got it, especially at cruise, so i took a look into it. Since getting the car, it had a really bad surge at cruise. Internet wisdom pointed towards the throttle potentiometer/position sensor. It’s an easy part to get to, and apparently they can be fixed. So following Ramon’s great guide, I got stuck in. First step is to mark the location of the pot, so you can put it back where it came from, as it is adjustable. I didn’t have any paint pens, so just used a vivid marker. There’s meant to be three screws holding it in, but mine only had two. Remove those, disconnect the plug and pull it out. Once on the bench, there are three really small screws holding the whole thing together. Take them out, and it all comes apart, and the issue becomes obvious. The metal wiper had just straight up worn right through the carbon track, meaning the readings being sent back to the ECU at that throttle position would be all over the place. As per Ramon’s guide, the trick is to move the wiper over slightly, so that it contacts a fresh part of the track and gets a clear reading again. To do this I cut the plastic tabs off with a knife, moved the wiper slightly down, and then used superglue to hold it back in place. Hopefully it holds OK, but i’ll probably look at changing to a more modern, reliable unit when I fit the Speeduino anyway. I reassembled the unit and refit to the car, making sure to give everything a good clean down, including the electrical connector. A quick test drive showed that the surging is gone straight away, it pulls smoothly and even idles better now. I wont tell if its gone 100% until I get on the open road again, but with a battery that was flat, a jump pack that also needed a charge, and anywhere between “E” and 1/4 in the gas tank, I couldn’t risk going far at the moment. It’s a success so far though.

It was a great idea at the time.... how bad can it be?

Banter here, //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54510-kelvins-1985-rover-sd1-banter/ Hi everyone. Long time reader, first time poster. I have this thread posted on a couple of others, and thought it might be of interest to some members here. This thread will begin at the start, way back in.... November, last year and end at current day. So, about 10 years ago I had an SD1, an 85 Vanden Plas EFI in Cashmere Gold. Sadly i sold it because i couldnt afford to run it as my daily back then, and have regretted selling it since. Anyway, yesterday i picked the new toy up. Its a 1985 Rover SD1 Vanden Plas EFI (again), but in Zircon Blue. It needs some love, but its got good bones. It runs and drives, and actually drives really well. The powerhouse So the plan is to give it a really good tidy up, get it in as good condition as i can, but also build a new engine wiring harness and install my Speeduino ECU. Early next year i intend to use the car as my wedding car, so the clock is ticking! Theres more info on the car on my website too. http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/cars/rover-sd1-two/

Thats a cool little car, certainly not many around now! Had a hearty lol at the exhaust, what were they thinking? Ugh.

Also, DO NOT sniff the fumes, itll make you insta-barf. Lol. Colleague found out the hard way.

Can the general public buy concentrated hydrochloric acid? that shit is boss for stripping rust, used it when i was an electroplater.

And all my spares are now gone. Look forward to seeing others progressing with Speeduino too.

Speaking of Speeduino, i did some more work.... http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/08/27/speeduino-v0-4-1-assembly/

about $150 or so at a guess, with all the components from digikey. i did buy in bulk. Can probably get the components cheaper elsewhere, but digikey is easy. I also went a bit overkill, adding bluetooth, and a VR conditioner (wanted to cover all my bases). Also keep in mind that for best result you will need to buy registered versions of tuner studio and mega log viewer. Itll work on the free ones, but missing some key features (like auto tune).

Anyone want to buy a Speeduino 0.3.3 board or two? I ordered spares, and have a couple left. Will let them go for what they cost me, $25 including postage. Does not include components or Mega, just the board. Pm me. http://speeduino.com/wiki/index.php/V0.3.2

Get some carbon vinyl for some bling, or just spray on a really thick layer of plasti-dip. The proper 3M paint protection film seems to work really well, but its not cheap.

Still wish i didnt sell mine so early, it'd be worth a good few grand more than i sold it for now. Love the S50 engines, such linear power.