Fuel rail came in, started putting it together to see if the intake fits. It doesn't, but it won't be hard to fit, the fuel rail is just barely touching the bottom of the manifold in one spot. Plenty of meat to clearance there.
Got most of the wiring done. Need to wire up the TPS and idle control, drill/tap for the idle air temp sender, and mount the alternator to include that wiring. Coming along nicely.
Working out what I need for the exhaust, went ahead and ordered a custom spark plug kit today, as well as a few of the exhaust components. Need 90 degree angle boots on the plug side for the GT40P heads and the BBK shorty unequal length headers, but need LS boots on the coil side. Wound up ordering a Mallory Sidewinder kit and some Taylor LS boots. Should be here by Friday, so I'll be able to build them on Saturday, maybe start it by Sunday.
Last edited by AdamBath; 08-01-2018 at 10:59 AM.
Eventful day, till I had to leave for a friends get together.
Started the morning at the junkyard, grabbed a Fox body gas pedal and throttle cable, as well as the bolts I need to install the upper intake manifold.
Then wrestled with the fuel rail, got it mounted lower which gave the intake plenty of clearance. The rail kit I bought didn't come with everything I needed, should have bought one with a regulator, but I was able to find the parts to make the regulator I have work, so the fuel rail is complete. Tomorrow I'll start by mounting the pressure regulator, then finish up the wiring work.
And just worked out the LS coil wiring, so I can wire those up easily tomorrow.
So yesterday I decided to bring all my wiring in the house and work on it on my electronics bench. Got about 90% of it done, but by the time I'd already put 8 hours into it my brain was mush, so I stopped. Didn't get to start the engine this weekend, but I should have the harness finished in short order, all I have left is to add some fuses for the injectors and coils, wire up the C101, and wire up the Innovate LC-1 wideband.
Last night I pulled out my old Innovate LC-1 and open-air calibrated it. This morning I ordered another oil pan, going to give that another go now that I see how it fits in the car.
Where are the images?!!!
Guess this is one of the sites that IMGUR doesn't work on... Will try to get them on my host this weekend.
edit: Here's the most recent picture...
I've got the wiring harness more fleshed out than this, and should have it done this weekend. Tonight I wired up the main, fuel, and O2 sensor relays.
Last edited by AdamBath; 08-10-2018 at 11:32 PM.
Wrapped up the engine harness today. I salvaged the O2/Fuel/Main relay another E30 harness, those are working properly, and I have the minimum wiring from the C101 working currently. I kept the rest of the wires in the C101 for now, I want to see how much I can get to actually work properly.
The Megasquirt powers up, the fuel pump relay seems to be functioning properly, and I checked anything else I could check. I was tripped up by the TPS for a moment. It wasn't working at all, so I did some investigating. I accidentally wired the 5v reference wire to the pin next to it. Fixed that and got 5v from the reference to ground, but not to sensor ground. Once I connected sensor ground to ground I was able to figure out the TPS wiring (had the wires mismatched) and get that working perfectly. I still need to give power to the injectors, then the harness is 100% done, at least for now. I may get the wires where I want and shorten some portions of it, right now it's comically long.
Go figure I get it working on a rainy day.
No start today, but got a LOT done after the rain cleared up. Made custom spark plug wires for the LS coils with 90 degree ends at the spark plug. Got all the wires run, intake installed, and got the starter wired up, or so I thought... Couldn't get it to turn over, it got dark so I wrapped up. Came in and realized the E30V8 guide isn't great for a Megasquirt setup. I'll hopefully have the starter up and running tomorrow after work.
Got the starter to kick over, only to realize I have the wrong starter. Mistakenly thought the Explorer was 157 tooth. Going to grab a starter on the way home.
The things you learn when you actually do research... I have the wrong bellhousing... Or I have the wrong clutch/flywheel, but finding the correct bellhousing is a bit easier/cheaper than replacing the clutch/flywheel.
There are 2 302 T-5 bellhousings for sale now in my area, for $50 and $65, so I at least have options... Minor setback I guess.
Wife picked up the $50 bell housing for me tonight, was way up north near where she works. It's the right part, fits the starter locating plate I bought a while back and thought was the wrong part. Will try to swap everything out this weekend.
Today was... an adventure...
So the new bell housing doesn't fit the transmission I have, totally different bolt pattern. Apparently that's a thing that happens. I called the other guy with the bell housing and checked it out, same exact bell housing, same problem, wrong bolt pattern. So I'm stuck with the 3.8 bell housing, because it matches my transmission.
Because of that, I've ordered a 167 tooth flywheel, I'm going to see if my clutch setup will fit on it. If not, I'll order a clutch too. Going to try to sell off the clutch/flywheel I currently have if that's the case...
Also, while checking the fuel system for leaks, I found that injector 1 is stuck open. You can see that in the intake runner in the picture, full of fuel.
Pics:
Pardon the rat's nest wiring. I had to pull my tape job on the harness apart to troubleshoot. I'm ultimately going to wire up my own main relay, fuel injector relay, and O2 sensor relay. To unbolt the transmission, I had to drop the whole front subframe. Gonna be crazy getting it back up, but I did get an engine lift plate from the guy with the $65 bell housing that didn't work, so that will help get it back in. I needed to drop the subframe anyways, I have spacer plates that will put the engine lower in the bay.
Clutch/flywheel is sorted. O'reilly had the parts in stock, using a pickup clutch/flywheel, and got a military discount. Just finished bolting the subframe back on, I'm beat. Still have some things to button up in the morning but I ran out of daylight an hour ago. Subframe spacers brought the engine down a smidgen, which is helpful.
Oh, and I figured out where my transmission was binding on the trans tunnel... The shifter is aftermarket and doesn't come close to fitting through the hole, so it was just pushing up on the tunnel. Cut a bigger hole for that.
Last edited by AdamBath; 08-18-2018 at 10:37 PM.
Everything is bolted back on. I also took the time to swap in the correct E36 M3 control arm on the drivers side. Still haven't 5 lug swapped the passenger side. The wheel sits a lot more centered now. I'm going to start looking for another #1 injector. Probably not going to work on anything till next weekend.
Minor stuff today, even though it took all day. Wired in a new main relay, then figured out a few things, one being an issue with my wiring that was popping a fuse, the other was the starter wiring. The autos have an extra relay, and for whatever reason my jumper at the auto shifter plug wasn't working anymore, so I deleted the starter relay and traced all the wires, connected everything together properly, and got to hear the sweet sweet sound of 302 turning over. Even without firing, could hear the exhaust pulses, they sounded good. Excited to get more done.
Tomorrow I'm going to start early (after I mow the lawn), replace the fuel injectors with the new set I ordered. Then I'm going to check that the fuel pump relay is operating properly, as well as the O2 sensor relay. After that I'll work on getting the Megasquirt working properly, and maybe even attempt a first start.
Went for the first attempted start today, but the battery is dead so only got a couple of cranks. Charging that right now, might try again later.
Not getting an RPM signal from the crank sensor, so need to figure that out, might just be a dead sensor.
In the meantime, I have a 22 x 19 x 3" all aluminum Summit radiator on the way, will fit in the core support. Link:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-381324/overview/
LKQ Labor Day sale is this weekend, so I went and grabbed another WC T5 from a 3.8 Mustang. The donor car only had 75k miles on it, and paid $114 after tax for it.
First start!
Won't idle currently but got some revs out of it off camera. Don't want to run it too much without a cooling system.
Since l was able to get it running , I decided to move on to the remote brake booster.
This part was pretty fun to install.
Here is a longer video of the motor running.
Worked more on the brakes today. Cut the brake pedal up at the pivot, moved it over about 12-15mm, then welded the attachment point for the brake booster to the other side of the pedal. Almost worked that way, but I mounted the booster slightly too close to the firewall, so I've been working on the clevis' to shorten it there. I don't want to have to cut/weld the 300mm.de rod, but I might have to. Also seam sealed the 300mm.de plate at the wheel well.
Was going to work more, but it started raining, so that's where I'm leaving off for the day. Very close to having a functional brake system!
I'm running this cam kit:
http://www.compcams.com/Company/CC/c...csid=1058&sb=2
I'm running it with 1.6 Comp Cams roller rockers on 3/8" studs, using the stock GT40P heads.
I don't remember which position I put the cam timing at, just kind of picked one and figured I can change it later.
I'm also not concerned with how well it's running right now, just that it runs. I've got so much more work to do, I just wanted to get the engine running bit out of the way since this is my first ever engine swap with an aftermarket ECU.
The Garagistic treehouse lollipops are on the way, got a 20% off coupon from them yesterday so figured what better time to order. Will allow me to work on my exhaust and finish up the front suspension, hopefully this weekend as long as it's not raining too bad.
Need to measure for the driveshaft as well.
Last edited by AdamBath; 09-05-2018 at 09:40 AM.
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