kws

More work on the SD1. Put the door back together with new gaskets and trim. Much better.

http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/12/rover-sd1-putting-it-together-handle-gaskets-waist-trim/

Speaking of temperature, I'm after an unobtrusive aftermarket water temp gauge for the Starion that I can tuck out of the way but still be immediately visible when required, and a digital LED readout with small footprint seems like a more elegant solution than a round 52mm gauge.

 

Something like this, but ouch at the price:

 

https://www.dynotunenitrous.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=221

 

I guess if there's no other decent option available I could go ahead and purchase that, but has anyone come across a similar product that they would recommend?

 

Aliexpress seems to return a lot of hits for bulky round gauges, and a surprising number of fishtank ones, lol. That could work perhaps?

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=25-Temperature-Controller-and-Display&A=112617

Finally did some more work on the Rover. Decided to clean up the window switch, and picked up the last piece of the puzzle to fix the fuel leak.

http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/12/07/rover-sd1-window-switch-cleaning/

Speeduino. The lead dev has advised that i can change the trigger angle so doesnt really matter. Just wasnt too sure as all the land/range rover guys can use the holes at 90deg.

also just found out i can tell the ECU what angle the sensor is at too. Should work.

heater is disconnected to reasons unknown.

I think its becoming less and less of an unknown reason.

Third rule of old car ownership,

- Make sure the majority of receipts were paid for by someone else 

I also had a lol when reading the hand written receipts.... the first owner in NZ was a "Mr Barry".

Im having withdrawls from working on the Rover (due to recovery from my injury), so did some "boring" stuff. Put all the receipts i have into a spreadsheet, its a bit of a read.

Almost $15,000 in receipts, and thats from 41,000 miles back in 1989 to the current 77,700 miles. Thats not taking into account inflation, and im missing the first 20,000 miles of receipts in NZ. In that time its had two rear shocks, lots of spark plugs, couple of trans services, 3 power steering racks, two radiators, oh, and two complete engine rebuilds (cam, followers, pistons, rings, bearings, valves, seats etc). The first rebuild was 48,071M, the second was at 61,816M. The second one was was due to incorrect parts being used in the first one, like Holden cam followers instead of Rover ones.

If its the one im thinking of, its just had a full ground up restoration using lots of NOS parts. I learnt one thing when helping source parts for that car.... a scary amount of Starion parts are now NLA out of Japan.

This is awesome. Love it when engine swaps go against the norm like this. Bet it twists some undies of the "purists".

Looks like the same one that was parked outside Resene near work the other day. Cute little car and in decent shape visually.

Thanks for the replies guys. The Y-Pipe isnt too far away and will cool the sensor down or anything?

Reading about your experiences made me plan my wiring differently, Roman. I will be wiring the O2 sensor so that it only has power when the fuel pump does. This will mean it gets a small pulse when the pump primes initially, but wont be powered unless the ECU turns the pump on.

Who knows about proper O2 sensor placement? Once my leg is working again, and i have fixed the fuel leak on the Rover ill be getting the bung for the wideband welded in.

My plan was to install the bung just after the Y-Pipe, so it reads both banks, but due to the design of the exhaust the Y-Pipe is damn near half way down the car. Is it still a go to install it there, or is it too far away? If i cant install it there, what are the implications of tuning the engine using only one bank of O2 data? Ill have the engine running as well as possible, so hopefully no/minimal differences between the two banks.

This is the layout of the exhaust (albeit not my car, mine is no where near as tidy lol)

What a day.

A speaker is in, and a trip to the hospital was on the cards.

http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/11/20/rover-sd1-a-trip-to-the-hospital/

More work, yay.

Got the headunit in, and replaced the failed window regulator. Finally have all four windows working and completely closing now.

Deets - http://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2016/11/19/rover-sd1-headunit-install-window-reg-replacement/

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.

Wow, i did not realize that the Midget was a two seater in Auto, thought they were only ever single seater. Mean.

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.
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