Sunday, March 22, 2009

Build Days 182-184.....Wiring and Scuttle

I haven't posted for a little while, as I've just been doing further wiring. Anyway, I'm as forward with it now as I can be without the lights and the dashboard.
So with a view to doing the dash, I first need to make the scuttle. Originally, I'd planned to buy a fibreglass scuttle, but due to the height of my engine, these off-the-shelf suttles were not tall enough. So, instead, I'm going to make my own, but out of Aluminium.
I've made a start by cutting out templates of the firewall and dash support out of cardboard. Once I'm happy they fit (they seem to be OK), I will re-make them in 3mm aluminium. These, with the addition of some connecting struts, will form the main structure of the scuttle. It will then be wrapped in the same thin aluminium sheet as the side panels. I plan to use 'lumiweld' or similar to bond the seperate parts together.
You can see the cardboard templates in situ in the pic below:

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Build Days 180 & 181.....Overheating and Yet More Wiring

So, since I last posted, I've bought a new pump controller, and this one works fine. However, when running the engine, the cooling fan was not coming on, and eventually the car would boil over.
The strange thing was that the pump controller was only reading around 85-90 degs when the boiling over occurred, which seemed strange.
A lot of investigation later, I decided to plumb in a proper temp gauge. This showed that the pump controller is reading a lower temp than the water actually is - probably due to the position of the temp sensor (quite low down in the system). Not a major issue as I've just set the controller to come on at a lower temp.
I've also bought a separate, adjustable temp switch for the fan to allow it to come on at a lower temp than the ECU was trying the turn the fan on at.
With this all in place, the car will run up to a nice 90degs without any boil over issues and the fan will come on and keep the temp in check.

I've also done a lot more wiring. I also couldn't resist driving the car up and down the drive a few times :)