Engine Start!

Well she started, of course while I was away on business! The problems lay in simple areas of the wiring that were difficult to trace because of the mixing of Mazda and Ford looms. The connections we made last week were fine. Alistair also kept reminding me that all earths need grounding on the engine loom and Neville Powell eventually found one hanging down loose under the car and attached it. He was able to hot wire the fuel pump relay to prove it worked, then with this earth connected the pump ticked into life on the key and he got a spark. Then a bit of unleaded. I had installed the fuel pump to suck not blow (in fairness to myself there was no instruction enclosed) so he reversed that. There was a slight leak at the fuel pipe to fuel rail connection I had made last spring but after that it was a matter of putting a finger over an air inlet on the fuel rail (I'm pretty sure it's from the charcoal interceptor I am not using so I'll plug it) and she started on the third turn of the key. With chipped insulation on the coil pack and with the original plugs and HT leads after goodness knows how long in a Sunbury scrapyard, mated via eBay alone to a manual box from another wreck, with an old loom from a third car, and an ECU and air flow unit from a fourth! Then mated to a Premier loom for a Sierra based kit.

Nev said she was a bit tappety at first as the oil flowed round (inevitable) and phoned me in Italy to let me listen. I went down today to have a look. It was so good to see it and hear it for myself, and the sealants burning off from inside and around the exhaust showed heat building as it should. It's a nice exhaust note, not seemingly too loud but "roary" under power.

She won't tick over yet but that may just be lack of a throttle cable to hold it at the right point on the quadrant. I'll go to the bike shop and get a cable with a suitable lug on the end.