General chii; 3 weeks in.

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General chii; 3 weeks in.

arc

this is where i stand
Joined
Oct 8, 2003
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Location
Manchester
As to be expected, there have been a few teething problems.. thought you might wanna know whats what.

Cold starting.. man, that IS a problem. It has never ever not started when i wanted it to, but it takes some serious persuading when its cold out. This is down to the cold start mapping not being correct, and the complete lack of any sort of ECU air control. I'm going to fit a PWM idle valve from another car for now to give the ECU at least some level of control. The cold start mapping is just going to take time, and i knew this would take a while!

Huge battery. This is fantastic and very forgiving of the cold start problem! My starter turns the engine at around 400rpm.. that be quick, a good 150rpm on a lot of other cars. This might be partial due to me uprating all the cabling to the starter motor and altenator etc.

Brakes. Taking some getting used to. Good pedal feel now, can happily brake progressivly but if i jab the pedal can lock the wheels in any conditions. I've played with braking on corners just to see how the car would react, and it is nice and stable with no twitchy back end.

Mouse. There is a mouse in the engine bay, he's not there often - and doesnt say much, but ive heard a squeak at idle a few times. Will investigate.

Gauges. they look lovely, but they're not much use in the sun.. convex frotnts means glare! also, the wire on the sender of the oil pressure gauge is loose.. meaning it reads 7bar all the time. Its a pain in the bottom to reconnect the wire but i'll get to it.

Cooling system. Small issue with this one. The second lambda hole in the SS exhaust manifold exits near the main waterpipe junction, i had to pack it with exhaust wrap and leave the EGT probe touching the water pipes. This has half pulled the pipe off the main waterpump pipe off the block, and the jubliee clip has split the pipe. It mostly holds pressure, but vents steam when hot. I've got the cooling pipes of a Seicento MPI now. I will rejig the cooling system, maybe tomorrow. Re-routing the pipe to the expansion tank too.

Exhaust. I knew this would be a problem. I had a standard centre section, and my decat pipe was sat on my ARB. dampened slightly by some exhaust wrap, but still not right. Took it to unique exhausts in stafford (seriously recomend this guy to anyone in the area) and got a straight through centre section made up and fitted. Exhaust is now bob on.

That's all for now. I'm loving driving her again, and i tell you what - new suspension bushes make one hell of a difference to the handling.
 
Mouse. There is a mouse in the engine bay, he's not there often - and doesnt say much, but ive heard a squeak at idle a few times. Will investigate.

does it like cheese lol?:D

and when are you getting your arse down here? :D :devil:
 
i've not found 'im yet. there are a lot of cats about me new house so i'm hoping one of them will take care of it for me :D

and, soon! timetable is all over the show atm, so can't make any plans till it settles. :(

reet, got some work done on the car today

here is my new exhaust.

exhaust4.jpg


this is the damage to the cooling hose

split.jpg


quick trip the scrappy and £5 later..

sei_v_cinq.jpg


its a slightly different shape, so took some jiggery pokery but its on now. i ran out of jubliee clips though (and top gear was starting soon). Will finish it off tomorrow.

whilst the coolant was empty, i took the rad etc off and tidied up some wires there and reconnected the oil pressure sender, and put plenty of thread lock on it this time.
 
cooling system is now sorted, but ive not re routed that pipe yet.

looking at fixing the idle and cold start issues, i've got my an idle control valve

just been shopping..

icv1.jpg

icv_close.jpg


Bosch PWM idle valve off a caviler, should do the job.

this is because MS can control a fast idle valve (opens to allow fast idle) or a PWM idle contol valve with a simple mod.. or with a complex mod it can control a stepper motor valve like the type we have on our cars. I don't want to do that kinda modification to the ECU yet.. so i'll fit the PWM valve for now.
 
With my Omex set up I didn't fit any idle control at all. Its a bit lumpy when cold, but only for about a minute, and I always warm the car up more than that before driving off. The lack of torque means I have to use revs to get out the end of our road, and I won't do that without a bit of warmth in the car.

Even on these cold mornings it will not stall, but with the lumpy cam and shortage of flywheel, its is very lumpy.

Cheers

D
 
mine idles at around 750rpm when warm, i think thats why mine will stall when cold. it is fine after a few mins. i could increase the revs at idle a bit and not fit the ICV - but for what it cost me, i may as well fit it.
 
i'm not sure, i didnt really pay much attention to it. i just spotted what i wanted and got it. but yeah its a 2 pin jobby.

not sure how i want to connect it yet. ive gone off the idea of using the brake servo take off as i dont want to comprise any servo assistance.
 
thats what i was going to do to begin with. then i changed my mind. i might just fit and see what it does. worst case, i loose the servo totally on a test.. but its not like it *really* needs it anyway.
 
hehe. it might be overkill.. might pop back to the scrappy and hunt out a smaller one. there was a ford one that *might* fit in the OE posisition. i'm not sure. ive stripped down my spare injection system to have a look.

not sure when i'll have time to have a play, am busy for the next week or so - but might have time this weekend to have a play.
 
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