It's Alive!!!!

[Aussie Mike]

I decided a while ago I would only post progress updates when I had done something significant on the car. Kind of as a way of getting me focused on finishing the car.

I hit a fairly significant mile stone today when I finally fired up the engine and drove the car out of the shed under it's own power. I'm pretty excited about this as you will probably read by incoherent ramblings.

I've been working steadily on the wiring loom and getting all of the engine electrics and lighting etc working. I made a bit of a rod for my own back when I decided to relocate the ignition coils to inside the foot boxes. There's a fair bit of wiring work to do if you attempt this. Check and double check as there are a lot of wires to the coils. Each of the 8 coils on the LS1 has it's own driver built into it. This takes the demand for current away from the ECU and provides some protection for it to. I could have thrown the wiring loom together and got it going but I wanted to wire it up right first time.

I pressure tested the fuel system a week or two back and found a bad leak on the output of the Bosch 044 Pump. I had done my own flares for nearly all the fittings but decided to use an Earls AN#8 compression fitting for the 1/2" hard line connecting to the pump. I didn't trust my own work with the flaring tool and thought this fitting would be a safer option. The compression fitting has a brass olive (ring) inside it that bites into the outside of the soft aluminium tube as the compression fitting is tightened. The olive provides a surface for the fitting to seal against. Ironically this was the only joint in the whole system that leaked and it was the hardest to get too. I finally got it sealed up tight the other night and the fuel system pressurised with no leaks.

A few more late nights got most of the wiring finished and the dash in. My guages are mechanical and have lines connected directly to the motor for oil temp, water temp and oil pressure. These all needed to be in before I could put oil and coolant in the engine.

Sunday morning saw me heading down to the auto parts shop to buy 5 litres of Mobil-1 and 5 litres of genuine Holden coolant. I filled every thing up and then with the coils disconnected and the fuel pumps turned off I cranked the engine until the oil pressure guage registered pressure. I reconnected the coils and plugged in the fuel pump relay and with fingers crossed turned the key. The pumps let out an angry whine and were obviously keen for action. Turned the key another notch and the starter motor growled into life and a few cranks later the engine spluttered into life. After 20 or 30 seconds the idle settled into a steady 900RPM burble that was music to my ears.

A big thank you to Plumbs and it's a testament to his tuning skills coming up with a MAFless tune that runs nice straight out of the box. Thanks to everyone else for your patience and support getting to this point.

Here's video of the beastie running:



Cheers