The 90 project

[Sheldon McIntosh]

You do have the 2.5 injectors right?

Have you checked for air leaks on the accordion section, and all hoses attached to it?  The accordion section is notorious for cracking, and you can't see them unless you take it off and stretch it out a bit.  And if you're re-using the old hoses, some of them may have split when they were removed and replaced.  Just a guess, but that would be my first place to look.

[Mat Francis]

Thanks Sheldon.

Yes using the 2.5 injectors (and everything else for that matter).

I did inspect the accordion section of hose when it was off the car a few months ago, it looked good to me. I don't think (and have been reliably informed) that this would cause such an issue if it was bad anyway. Poor running and idle maybe, but it shouldn't kill the car the way it is at the moment. Having said that if it needs to come off the car again i'll shoo goo the crap out of it anyway.

All the other hoses have been replaced with greg gordon's silicone kit, shouldn't be any issues with air leaks.

Cheers

[Mat Francis]

Well I got it back from the exhaust shop tonight, and I am quietly very happy. It started without too much of a fight, and whilst it didn't run well, it ran well enough for me to drive it onto the trailer (a huge relief as it was pouring and I really didn't feel like winching it).

Continued to run pretty rough for about 30 seconds before I turned it off. Didn't stall once.

Got it home, and again, ran pretty rough (4 or 5 cylinders most of the time), but well enough to get it off the trailer and about 50m down the road and into the garage.

Went back out to pack up the trailer and all, then came back to it about 10 minutes later. Again, started pretty easily, and ran rough for about 30 seconds.

At this point it seemed to clean itself out, and decided it was going to do a very convincing impression of a well oiled sewing machine 

Let it run up to temperature, fan worked ok, still sounded very healthy. Turned it off, started it again (CSI did not fire, it ran off normal injectors, another little win for me).

Anyway here is a little clip, you can't see much but you get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBvA2Ts4_sg&feature=plcp

I think I will still go through and replace all the fuel lines on the weekend anyway, but I'm hoping it was just that it really didn't like not having an exhaust and the injectors are still a bit dirty.

[Mat Francis]

Well after it's first outing, I'm extremely happy 

Last Wednesday I pulled the injectors out of it again and had them cleaned, and by the time I re assembled it all and did the last of the preparation it was Saturday arvo before it was all finished.

Made it to Broadford and survived the practice run in the wet (quite interesting on old tyres and a HUGE step up in power for me), but took it easy and it seemed to love it.

It had dried out by the time I got on the track again, and in a straight line it's an absolute rocket! Hard to tell exactly, but it was pulling close to 6k in 4th gear by the end of the straights. I'm going to swap the star wars dash with the super one I have in the shed this week.

Brakes were perfectly (as you would hope with fresh racing fluid and reds front and rear).

Cornering obviously left a lot to be desired, but that was no surprise. For now it will do whilst I learn how to drive.

Went to line up for my second run, and while sitting in line got a very strong fuel smell. Turned it off and found that one of the new hoses I put in between the fuel rail and the injectors was leaking quite badly. Decided not to push my luck and put it back on the trailer.

Pulled the fuel rail off as soon as I got home, went and got a whole lot of FI hose clamps today, re assembled and it runs well again with no leaks

So I've now got a week to pull the long upper ball joints out of the alfetta and swap them in before Winton on the 5th. Don't think it will make a huge difference given how soft the bars are, but I can't see it doing any harm as the roll centre is definitely underground at the moment.

All in all very happy 

[shiny_car]

Nice work Mat. Great that you've finally got it up and running nicely, and can continue to 'evolve' it with mods here and there.