~Slideways~

Also, holy shit the turbo intake noise is obnoxious with the 4" intake and no restriction. What do the Aussies call it? Dose? It does that lots haha.

Got this started using a start up map from the Link support forum, it'll probably be over fueling heaps with the 1000cc injectors. But it started first try, fucking stoked.... Pretty happy with that since I'm a total wiring novice and I changed so much other stuff and it just works. Fck yeah etc. Still have to figure out a problem with the idle speed stepper motor seemingly continuously resetting itself on shut down. But it starts! Tune will be based on what the current clutch can handle, will go for more power later... I want to finish at least 2 other project cars before going further with this one. At a guess it should handle maybe 260-280 rwkw and lots of good torque. This setup should be able to do 300kw with the standard cams but I doubt the clutch will do that. Even with limiting to that sort of power it'll be awesome fun.

Well the stuff in the old Honda dirt bike smells pretty varnishy, I better not put the 8 month old fuel in the 200sx to get it started with new fuel system. I just need to empty out at least one 20L container so I can go get some new 98, maybe I'll just mix it into the wifes modern car.

I did google it and got wildly varying answers. I have about 50L of BP 98 which is about 8 months old, was drained from a tank and put in fuel containers. Some google results says its too old, others say it will last years. I also have some which is probably about 6 years old in an old Honda dirt bike. Will just drain that and use for cleaning. Does anyone have any knowledge of fuel in NZ, does it have any additives for shelf life?

Semi on topic question, does anyone know if Bosch plug lead part numbers refer to the length? Like B106SI and B40SI? Trying to see if I can get essential parts to make up a set. Then again, maybe the lock down will allow some shops to open next week and I can get a set cheaper.

At this stage I don't think I'll use it, so its probably more use to you. Unless the computer is hidden under the dash or something silly so I can have a play with it, otherwise you can have it for free. Yep it had a ball bearing inside, cool design. Never seen anything like it before.

Oh man... making dinner and just saw I missed the auction. What are the chances of that turning up?? I don't really think I would have used it.

Oldschool delivers! What a cool thing, I wonder if maybe one of those was mounted inside and removed at some stage? At least I know I don’t need it.

Excuse me, but what the fuck is this? It’s Inline with the fuel hose before the carb. I thought it was some kind of flow restrictor or flow sensor? Was not expecting to find a bulb inside.

+ Ahhh... this makes sense of it! Maybe it would have actually started if it stayed engaged a bit longer. I thought about a tow as well, bit hard to justify tow starting on the way to the supermarket for some essentials haha.

Bit more testing today, tried blasting carb cleaner through all the passages but didn't seem like any where blocked and didn't make a difference. Took out a spark plug to test for spark, nothing. Tested the lead and getting spark when held close to the engine. Tried connecting the lead without the old lead-ends jammed on (was just to hold the stripped lead core onto the spark plug) and used electrical tape to hold it onto the spark plug. Again this is just to see if there is any life in it. I'm not normally this cheap lol. Now I can see a spark on the spark plug itself. Maybe the old plug lead ends were causing resistance or something? Did this to all 4 and tried again. Still not firing. Took plugs out again, broke one spark plug....taped it back together lol... and squirted a little fuel into each cylinder. Tried again and now it almost fired again. I think that is convincing enough for me to spend a bit of money on some leads and maybe a new coil and distributor. Maybe an electronic ignition conversion? I then did a compression test since it seems to be turning over pretty well now. Remember this thing was basically seized and I had to use a power bar to get it to turn! My compression tester has always read pretty low but I was amazed to see decent compression numbers and it is obviously dead cold. Three cylinders are 120psi and one is 140psi, not ideal but bloody amazing considering its history. I reckon if I can get it started and hot it will improve, probably not a huge amount but getting some heat cycles through it wouldn't hurt.

Man, a bunch of months have gone by. Lock down time now, so had a play with this. Cleaned up the points, rotor and cap. Turned over engine to see if the points open, which they do. Connected a battery directly to the coil and starter. Turns over but no spark. Tested leads and it turns out none of them have any continuity at all. I guess they have been unused for 35 years and probably over 40 years old. The Cap to Coil lead would have a connection if I bent it at the right angle. So because shops were closed I cut up some spare extension lead, not that dodgy considering the LUCAS leads just have a bent metal cap shoved into the core and jammed on. So I reused those end pieces. The spark plug ends are literally screwed into the core. I tried reusing these but there was still no continuity. It turned out all of the spark plug connector bits were the problem. So I then made it properly dodgy by stripping the rubber and wrapping the wire around each plug and jammed the old ends on. I know, pure class. But I just wanted to see if there was any life in it before spending any money on the engine. IT HAS SPARK! On what is probably 40 year old bits! Poured some fuel into the carb. Tried to start it, no life. Sprayed some carb cleaner in the throats, because that all I had and its flammable. And it almost fired!! I don't think it's getting any fuel from the carb, its probably just trying to run on the carb cleaner fumes. Once it tries to fire, the starter disengages and free spins. Not sure why since I am bypassing the ignition switch altogether. Just using a battery on the driveway and jumper leads. All the while my 2 year old girl is saying ''gen gen'' (again again) from the deck above me and my 5 year old boy is running around excited. Raising them right haha This is encouraging.

Haha there it is again. I saw a recent post on facebook of the engine running. I wonder in what state? The guy I knew that had owned it for ages until recently, said the cooling system was so rusty it was like washing out sand but did get it running. The brake seized and he left it for a long time. I still have mine, hasn't moved. Haven't heard anything from the original guy who built the 7 NZ originals in the 70's. Think I need to give up on him finding any paper work. I have heaps of things to keep me busy in the lock down but maybe I should have another look at getting the engine started.

Also bought a label maker:

Extended intake pipe and new bigger K&N

OK think I've got it sorted now. Kept the main relay having constant power on both sides, changed one relay to switched power and added a diode to the radiator fan relay. Now the Digital Input registers the key is off (backfeed previously made it think it was still on). ECU Hold Power is confirmed to be working with the timer setting. Rad fans work as they should. No backfeed through the MAC solenoid. Fuel pump primes with ECU on. Fuel pump starts with cranking. Only tested for a second since the tank is dry. I only have some old fuel, I guess it'd be OK. Or I could go on an essential fuel run? I've set up the basic engine configuration info and triggers etc. Now I need to test the coil on plug set up and the new injectors.

Thanks guys, made some progress but still trying to make sense of it. The Link diagram for ECU Hold Power has constant power going to both sides of the main relay. If I do this it back feeds. I've tried having switched power to the main relay (being the hold power relay) coil but it looks like it just shuts down straight away with the ign switch, without hold power functioning. I've tried having another relay altogether which has the ECU hold power output controlling its coil (just like above) but now it is controlling a completely separate ground wire which is then the ground for the main relay coil (basically what the ecu was grounding before but putting in an extra relay). Thought maybe this would help isolate any back feed through the ground wire. But still shuts down straight away.

Crudely yes lol, will do it properly when finished. Maybe a diode would work then.

Alrighty: - new tank is in and also painted - installed a new Deatsch Werks DW400 E85 pump - have moved the hard lines away from the exhaust - fitted e-85 safe braided hose everywhere except one last non-e85 bit on the inlet of fuel rail (just future proofing for e85 later) - wrapped exhaust and fitted more heat shielding near gbox because it was soaking up a lot of heat - engine loom is done and wired into rad fans, fuel pump, etc etc - also extended the turbos 4" inlet pipe with some pie cut jobbies so I can fit a 4" inlet K&N (previously I had a reducer to fit to the old MAF, and a 3.something" inlet air filter) Testing Link wiring and have a couple of issues to sort out before I know if the rest works. 1. I appear to be getting power back feeding through the Boost control solenoid (MAC jobby). Meaning the ECU Hold Power never turns off if the solenoid is plugged in. I don't really understand why though because it is getting 12v ign switched and ground is via the Link's 8th injector output set to 'Boost Solenoid'. This seems to be a common problem but I haven't figured it out yet. It shares the power line with the VVti solenoid but it doesn't make a difference if it is plugged in or not. 2. I get the same issue with the radiator fan relays back feeding power. If I test the relays with the G4+ software it triggers the fans fine. The Ecu hold power function looks to work fine, the Ignition Switch triggers the Digital Input as it should and shows hold power as active, turn of ign and the ecu stays on for a bit then I can hear the Main Relay click and it turns off. But as soon as I plug in one of the above, the power doesn't turn off. I can leave everything else plugged in and I get no issues. So it must be power back feeding through the earth of the aux wires on both, but they are both wired to switched power so there must be something wrong with the wiring of the relays maybe?. A diode wouldn't work in a ground wire would it?

FUUUCK... Was not rusty like this when I put the pump in a few years ago. Maybe it just wasn’t visible and it washed of with a full tank? Have a ‘new’ good tank to go in.

Phwoar thats compact! It'd probably fit with an adapter to the VW transaxle, wouldn't be room to have it mid engine like that one though. Also, that's fckn cool.

Not sure how I missed this, very cool. Quite surprised how big it looks in there though! Maybe its just the huge intake manifold design? I wonder if he HAD to cut that much of the fibreglass away or fit its just for easy access? I better call Stephen again, seemly less likely it'll happen. Have been busy not finishing the 200sx wiring, N360 rust and buying an aw11 because, I don't really know... reasons.

Oh yeah, pacman:

Spent some time on the IBM 5155 ‘pc portable’, if almost 14kg is portable lol. The 2nd floppy drive seems to be shorting the power supply now, hoping it’s just another capacitor like the motherboard was. Unplugged the power from the FDD and it starts up again. I’ll order some and try replace any I find, can’t hurt since they are 35 years old. But the HDD wouldn’t read again... so took it apart and found the head stuck again. This time I put a tiny bit of crc on the sliding part. It’s been reading fine since. I wanted to try put some other games on it but neither FDD works, they are supposed to be 360kb ones and I only have 1.2mb ones that work. Tried an few plugged in sitting loose on the top but it won’t recognise them at all. There is no bios just jumpers and I don’t think it was ever meant to work with 1.2mb drives. So I took the HDD out which sits on its own ISA card, the short 8bit type. Tried fitting it into the 386 which just has the long 16bit ISA slots. It fouls on the frame of the card but it does JUST make contact on the pins. And it works on the 386 board! But no matter what I do with the bios it won’t read the original HDD. So I resorted to writing to Floppy disks to transfer a few games from the 486 to the 386 to the IBM HDD. This bios menu is amazing, someone thought this colour scheme was the perfect combination: Testing FDD drives: SOPWITH 2 on a amber monochrome tiny 9"monitor running on 1984's best 4.7mhz cpu: Hard to get a close up photo it looks much more crisp than this but the photo looks washed out and too bright: Turned the monitor brightness down to try but it makes it look wrong too: It runs well until you blow up a building then it slows down a bit... 4.7mhz mtherfkcer. Also put PACMAN on, surprisingly it works well even though it meant to be a vga game. The 5155 outputs Monochrome and CGA at the same time, I don't have a cable to try the CGA output. Would be cool to try Space Quest on this with CGA output. I did put SQ1 on the HDD but it says 256kb ram is not enough. There is an memory expansion card but its also shorting the power, so maybe I'll buy bulk capacitors and try my luck fixing the memory expansion and both FDD's. Tantalum Capacitors seem to be the main failure on these old IBM's.

Yep the first one, it stands up well as a platformer there are other ones from the time which are really clunky and bad controls etc. It was from id software so I guess they knew what they were doing.