14 MarIt’s Alive!!

After a few weeks of failing to get a solid cranking signal (and therefore start)… its alive!!!  

Past few days I rerouted the grounds to the engine block instead of the battery (shame on me for not doing this from the start), separated the heater and signal grounds on the LC-1 (the signal joined the MS3 signal grounds and the heater went to a nearby lug), and got a better +12v for the MS3.

The ECU was taking a 12v feed from ignition on, as was the fuel pump, injectors and coilpack. I realised this is expecting far too much of the old Triumph wiring and will have been severely limiting the amount of current each could draw. Cue a relay with some thick brown thinwall cable straight from the battery, and now instead of having mismatched voltages, readings taken at the MS3 mirrored exactly what the battery read.

After doing all this I was still expecting work but the thing just straight away got running, as you can see in the video! Had to pull the plugs to shut if off at first, learned from Tim’s experience and didn’t unhook the battery.

As rough as you can see it now, I kid you not, within three or four minutes of running VE Analyse Live on the software (TunerStudio) and adjusting the throttle stop, the car was idling nicely, smoother in fact than it ever did on carbs, and was giving a lovely throttle response. It’s such a wierd change when touching the throttle now, it’s like the car no longer feels like it’s using loads of energy to spin up – it just revs up so lightly. Very much like yours Tim actually, and mine has the heavy as sin standard flywheel. Wideband readings are a little erratic (ie they swing back and forth between a range like 16 to 18, or whatever value they are on) but I expect that will change when it gets some sort of tune on it tomorrow afternoon.

Need to sort out the PWM idle tonight and tomorrow, I still haven’t wired up the connector for it as I don’t know what polarity it is. Haven’t found any info so will just try any method, hopefully I don’t fry it. Also went to Farnell in Leeds today to pick up a gear tooth sensor for the cam sensor to do full sequential, this thing is almost the perfect dimensions. Literally all I think I’ll need to attach it to the dizzy is a few packing washers, as the bolt hole lines up with an existing hole, and points at just the right height to pick up the keyway for the rotor arm. Chuffing brilliant. Want to have batch running at least a week before I try sequential though.

First start:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zLtiZpMMlU

Turn your speakers up loud for this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ0R2dZsU8w&feature=youtu.be

it’s worth setting it high quality as the sound reproduction is better, sounded so deep and powerful in person.

It was idling high as I’d left the idle valve plumbed but it had no power – the thing is when it’s turned off, the passage is still open. It’s only forced shut when connected to the ECU. In the second vid I’d plugged the hose with the end of a screwdriver so I could set the throttle stop.