Nearly Ready to Start it....

Well progress has slowed a little with the bad weather and cold temperatures in the garage, plus the missus taking issue with me having any heating on!

Anyhow, I have managed to progress to the stage where I'm nearly ready for the first start.

The main tasks have been fitting the header tank and hoses then making up temporary wiring to ensure all the basic engine functions are covered.


Header Tank

As per my last post, I decided to go off-piste with this item and not use the expensive (but beautiful) AK Stainless item. I might decide to change to this later on but at this stage I need to keep costs down.
Lots of research and I decided on an alloy item from OBP. Their standard unit had the outlets in the wrong place but they do a bespoke service and modified one to suit for around £80 all in.

I made a couple of mounting brackets out of aluminium square section I had lying around and used a modular adapter from CBS for the junction between the top hose and the header pipe.















 This fitting has the temperature sensor for the cooling fan and I drilled and tapped the side of the fitting to accept a CBS hose outlet. So all in all its cost around £120 for all the parts, over £300 for the 'proper' one.

After this the next job was filling with antifreeze. Lots of different opinions on the web over what sort of antifreeze to use. When I was a lad it was Bluecol or nothing! So now I know all about OAT, Silicates, Pink, Blue and goodness knows what else - oh , don't forget water-less coolant!  In the end I settled for Halfords Blue ready mixed which looks a good compromise for mixed alloy/iron engines.

What you forget is how big these engines are and how much coolant they take. Not far off 15 litres is the answer. I had one or two minor leaks from the hoses and from the temperature sender on the head that I hadn't tightened properly but all sorted now.
I raised the front of the car as high as I dared using the engine crane during the fill up to help getting the air out of the system. - Hope it worked!


Electrics

I decided to lash up my own temporary starter loom just for the engine test.
I made up a drawing with the basic plot, identifying all the connections needed and cable capacities. This enabled me to tick off each leg as I went.
I made a small mounting panel to house the various switches and gauges during the test run and a small stand for mounting the electric fuel pump. Some folks fit these to the inner chassis rail in front of the diff, however the carter unit I have is the wrong shape to easily fit there. Mine is going on the bulkhead wall around the transmission tunnel, nearside as have a few other builders.

I realised I would need:

• Ignition Key Switch
• Starter Button
• Electric Fan, temperature switch and relay.
• Fuel Pump
• Starter relay
• Oil pressure warning light.
• Ignition warning light
• Battery - 072
• Battery cables
• Power to Distributor and fuel pump.
• Power feed from Alternator to battery
• Rev Counter
• Oil Pressure gauge
• Water Temperature gauge

List of connections:

300 AMP Red Battery cable to from Battery +ve to Starter Motor Main terminal.
300 AMP Black Battery cable from battery -ve to Chassis ( via a battery isolator switch)
100 AMP Red cable from Alternator Output to Starter Motor Main terminal.
8 Amp cable with 5Amp fuse from Alternator Output to Alternator Input.

Rev Counter output cable to rev Counter ( Set rev counter to V8 pulse pattern)

Keyed Ignition Switch:
27 Amp cable from Battery +ve to Battery input terminal on key switch
Created a switched live feed (27A) from the auxiliary connection on Keyed Ignition Switch.
Use this feed for any services that operate with Ignition ON.
8 Amp cable to Fuel Pump +ve
8 Amp cable from Fuel Pump -ve to chassis.
8 Amp cable to Distributor input.
30 Amp relay ( for cooling fan) 17 AMP cable from Battery +ve to load input on relay.
17 Amp cable from Relay load output to Fan input.
17 Amp cable from Fan output to chassis.
8 Amp cable from switched live to fan thermostat input.
8 Amp cable from fan thermostat output to relay switch input.
8 amp cable from relay switch output to chassis.
8 Amp cable from Alternator Charge light terminal to a red Indicator lamp.
8 Amp cable from Indicator lamp to switched live.

Starter Button
8 Amp cable from switched live to Starter Button input.
8 Amp cable from Starter Button output to 50 AMP Starter Relay switched input.
8 Amp cable from 50 Amp Starter Relay switched output to chassis.
27 Amp cable from Battery +ve to 50 Amp relav load input.
27 Amp cable from 50 Amp relay load output to Starter Solenoid.

Instruments
Rev Counter - live feed connected to switched live.
Rev Counter  - earth wire to chassis
Water Temperature gauge - link cable to temperature sender.
Water Temperature gauge - live feed to switched live, earth wire to chassis.
Oil pressure  - link cable to pressure sender
Oil pressure - live feed to switched live, earth wire to chassis.
Oil pressure warning light - 8 Amp cable from pressure switch to warning light.
8 Amp cable from warning light to switched live.

A bit messy  - taken prior to fitting cable ties - but it all works!

Temporary starter panel

So after all that Its off to get some fuel!