ERA 753 - Final Assembly in Progress

[fkemmerer]

Just an update on my electrical journey. I've completed all of the wiring harness work (power circuits, grounds, relays, fuses, etc) that I can do off the car. The attached is a picture of the FAST XFI computer and ignition box assembly. As you can see, I still have a few wires left to connect .



All of this remaining wiring goes to two basic places: 1) to the sensors in the transmission tunnel for the driveshaft speed sensor for electronic traction control and fuel pressure monitoring and 2) to the engine for all of the fuel injection associated sensors and controls. I've completed all of the terminations and connection for the driveshaft sensor and fuel pressure monitoring. Here's a picture of that part of the project:



The button on the shift control the 2-step rev. limiter on my MSD box.

All that is left is to make the connections to the engine. To give those who might consider trying to build their own EFI harness a feel for what's involved in this, the engine connections include:

1) CAM and Crank trigger connections to the distributor
2) MAP Sensor connections (measures manifold vacumn)
3) Air Temperature Sensor
4) Coolant Temperature Sensor
5) Throttle Position Sensor
6) Idle Air Control Motor
7) Wide Band O2 Sensor (in the passenger's sidepipe)
8) Fuel Injectors (there are 8, one in each intake port)

Obviously, most folks would opt to use an off the shelf harness which would not require all of this work. The advantage of building a custom harness is that everything fits perfectly with no excess wire to hide.

I think one more weekend will do it ....

[fkemmerer]

More progress this week. We got our rear wheels from ERA! I had the Goodyear Gumball tires installed on the rims and balanced. After installing the wheels on the car, I set the ride height to ERA specs. The car's stance looks great. Here are a few pictures with the wheels and tires on the car:





I had to set the rear shocks at almost the lowest setting possible to get the car to the high side of ERA's recommended ride height. With the adjusters cranked almost to the bottom of the shock, the car is at 5 3/4" from the ground to the frame rail in the back. At this point, the rear coilovers are about 1 1/2" out of the spring pockets with the car jacked up in the rear. The car is only missing the seats and the tunnel at this point, has all fluids in the engine, and has 1/2 tank of gas so I think that I must be near final weight. The issues that I'm seeing may be because of the all aluminum FE that I'm using has less weight than a cast iron big block? It may also be that the car needs a little more time to settle now that its on its wheels. Bob, what do you think about his? Do I need to consider springs which are less stiff for my coilovers?

- Fred

[Chaplin]

Fred-
Once you drive it, the fronts will settle down a little more. I just swapped out an iron block 428 for an all aluminum FE and I did have to drop the front springs a little bit- maybe 1/4" inch or so- to compensate for the difference in weight between the 2 motors. But the stock ERA springs are fine for an aluminum FE. And the car looks great by the way.

Can you do me a favor? Can you measure the height from the the floor to the middle of the fender lip on both your front and rear fenders- I'm still screwing around with my ride height trying to get it where I want it and yours looks pretty good.

[fkemmerer]

Originally Posted by Chaplin

Fred-
Once you drive it, the fronts will settle down a little more. I just swapped out an iron block 428 for an all aluminum FE and I did have to drop the front springs a little bit- maybe 1/4" inch or so- to compensate for the difference in weight between the 2 motors. But the stock ERA springs are fine for an aluminum FE. And the car looks great by the way.

Can you do me a favor? Can you measure the height from the the floor to the middle of the fender lip on both your front and rear fenders- I'm still screwing around with my ride height trying to get it where I want it and yours looks pretty good.

Unfortunately, I am away traveling so I won't be able to make the measurements for a week or so. To give you a reference, the distance from the bottom of the frame rail at the rear to the ground is 5 3/4". The distance from the front of the frame rail to the ground is 5 1/4".

[Roger Cormier]

Hi Fred,
your car with those Rear Billboards mounted (finally) will make Sal G.cry
I'm sure that all that polishing alone sets your car apart from others, but what you've incorporated with the FAST system definately puts it on a higher level.

[fkemmerer]

Originally Posted by Roger Cormier

Hi Fred,
your car with those Rear Billboards mounted (finally) will make Sal G.cry
I'm sure that all that polishing alone sets your car apart from others, but what you've incorporated with the FAST system definately puts it on a higher level.

Thanks Roger. I'm getting pretty close to the end at this point. Just decided to add a accelerometer to the FAST computer setup. This will involve a little extra work but I will be able to record acceleration, braking, and cornering G's with the FAST computer. This should be a helpful tuning aid. Especially when I get to the stage for setting up the electronic traction control. Only downside to this - more wiring....

[RedBarchetta]

Originally Posted by Chaplin

And the car looks great by the way.

X2...no doubt. Can't wait to read about performance/handling with all the electronics on this car. Definitely one of the better (and certainly far more sophisticated) builds on this forum for any replica. Nice work!

-Dean

[Metal-morphous]

Fred,
It looks fantastic!!! You just made up my mind on what the next set of tires are going to be for my ERA

Ron

[fkemmerer]

Originally Posted by Metal-morphous

Fred,
It looks fantastic!!! You just made up my mind on what the next set of tires are going to be for my ERA

Ron

Hi Ron,

Thanks! I'm going to try to get stencils made as you suggested to help me to paint the white letters on the tires. Are you still thinking about EFI?

- Fred

[fkemmerer]

We installed an accelerometer in our Cobra today. This device allows the FAST XFI computer in the car to record G forces for acceleration/braking, lateral G's, and vertical G's while the car is in operation. The accelerometer should be useful in tuning the Electronic Traction Control and other suspension elements of our Cobra.

The G-force measuring sensor is a small device which is mounted directly to the frame near the center of the car (its the small red device in the lower part of the following picture).



We also upgraded our FAST XFI to add the cabling for the Controller Area Network (CAN) which FAST supports. The CAN is a sort of network that allows all sorts of additional controllers and intelligent sensors and output devices to be added to the FAST system. The accelerometer uses the CAN to communicate with our FAST XFI computer.

Now its on to the electrical connections between the computer and the engine.

- Fred

[fkemmerer]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

X2...no doubt. Can't wait to read about performance/handling with all the electronics on this car. Definitely one of the better (and certainly far more sophisticated) builds on this forum for any replica. Nice work!

-Dean

Thanks Dean. I will post information on how the final car performs when I get it on the road. I appreciate the nice comments.