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Mike K's '79 242 Barn Car Revival

I'll have a "real" update soon, but for now I couldn't miss this special day...

1/6/13 I bought this 1979 242dl in Hadley Mass. The original plan was to just get it up and running with a b230ft, but it has turned into a bit more of a project since then.
Day 1 shot:
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Two years in the driveway, New Years was one year since first drive.

I did take the car out of the greenhouse this weekend, and went for a ride with Mike Sr. since he hasn't been in it since I put in the boost controller. 18psi, dry tires and 30deg temps makes for easy wheel spin in 1-3rd. Dad said "pull over, I want to see you really light the tires up"... this can only lead to good things. I obliged in 1st and let it rip off the limiter (hey... junk motor). It sounded wicked and was awfully fun until SMOKE! At least we thought it was smoke, until I smelled the coolant. Turns out the useless ScanTech heater control valve didn't appreciate the 6900rpm workout and failed in a spectacular fashion.

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Just a garbage part. The "waiting on road for tools" shot, happy anniversary baby. Not pictured: that feeling when you have a breakdown 100 yards from the houses you just did a big noisy burnout in front of.

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Here's a picture of my dog, which is relevant to some plans for this year

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Was happy to have the seats settled on. I was shopping around like crazy and was getting discouraged - really hammered seats were going for big money, and nice ones were a lot harder to find then I expected. I had figured I'd end up getting the VW Recaro's, but even those all had smushed bolsters, ugly patterns, and were overpriced. These are Recaro SRD's that are in really good shape, one just has a 2" cut in the bolster. I had to take a 5 hour round trip drive to get them, but they were a great deal and well worth it. Will clean up good with a shampoo, and feel great sitting on the floor making engine noises.

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After taking a few months off because of getting the puppy I posted earlier, I'm finally starting to work on the car again. I put in power door locks which should be nice to have, and started thinking about the interior again now that I have the seats. With the locks done I want to finish the doors so I got into doing something with the door panels I have. I have two sets: the brown ones that came in the car, and a black set I grabbed from a tbricker. Obviously I'm going for black, but the cardboard panels were really suffering. The original brown set had one that was completely shot, and one that was the best of the four. After picking at the really junky ones a bit I decided I'd peel the brown off the best panel, and transfer over the black upholstery from the worst of that set.

This is the best panel after skinning. I wish I had two like this. I noticed this one panel was completely made of cardboard, where the other 3 had a pressed metal piece for the upper shape. I guess they must have done it for strength, but it was weird that the '79 had one of each kind originally.

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This left me with the other black panel, which was in pretty sad shape.

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My Dad and I had been thinking about what to do to rehab it, and decided that fiberglass would be a good shot. For this panel I just peeled back 2/3 of it, where the cardboard needed attention. The good panel I just did the bottom 1/3 to give it some strength. Prepped:

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Resin

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On the full cardboard one the piece around the door lock broke off so I had to glass it back together.

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This one got a big sheet of glass on each side.

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That panel was all warped and wavy, so we needed to get it pressed flat while the resin cured. We cut pieces of 1/2" ply to fit the shape of the panel and used every battery in the garage to squeeze the hell out of it. This got it nice and flat and also helped squeeze the resin into the punky cardboard.

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A few days stinking up the basement later, out of the press.

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It cured really nicely, has flex but is pretty flat and a lot stronger than it ever was before. Few bubbles from shifting the batteries around but it looks good. Trimmed it up and used a dremel to cut out the holes. The key holes for the clips turned into nice hard resin pockets so it took a while of shaping, trying to fit the clip, shaping a little more, until it grabbed the clip right.

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The better panel all cleaned up, came out awesome very happy with this.

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The old panels ended up in the woodstove

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I'm going to bring everything down to an upholstery shop and see if he can do the glue for me. If he can get the vinyl stuck down decently again I'll call this experiment a success. Once these are done I'll probably start taking a look at adapting the seats. Then it's aux gauges/center console, steering wheel, shift boot and I'm pretty much there inside the car. Oh I still have the brown back seat, I think I'm just going to bomb it with black SEM dye and call it a day.

Then I'll need to do something with that motor...
 
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So I haven't been working on the car a lot but I have been doing a lot of reading and trying to get plans together for what I want to do this year. I had decided in the Fall that I wanted to upgrade the megasquirt setup I'm running and replace my messy adapted lh2.4 harness with a nice clean custom one. I also wanted to upgrade the ignition and get rid of the distributor. Thought about it a while and the new Microsquirt was an inexpensive, clean and simple option. It's a nice little package, and has a nice ampseal connector which solves my issue with the comparatively crappy ms2 db37 connector. Also Kenny told me that the microsquirt has a much better VR input circuit then the ms2, which is good because I'm planning on continuing to use the stock flywheel sensor.

So, I've got a microsquirt V3, 8 foot harness, d514a coils, and a growing pile of connectors to build the harness. I'm a little intimidated by it, but should be a rewarding project. I need to sit down and draw my wiring diagram, get the last few items together, and start thinking about mocking stuff up.

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The plan is to set all of this stuff up on the engine that's in the car so I can work out the bugs and get everything running smoothly. That way it's a proven system when I want to put in the good motor that needs to be broken in.

With the built bottom end I started thinking about finishing off the whole 8 valve setup, and decided to do a head for it. I had started down the road with the 531 from the Penta motor, but had shelved it when I realized it was going to need welding around the chambers and repair on the #4 exhaust. I started planning on using a 530 and doing port work and having 46/38mm valves put in. After I took a closer look at the 531 next to a 530 I decided that the advantages on the 531 were worth working a little harder for, so I gave it to a friend who said he would take a shot at doing the welding for me.

The welding around the chambers came out great.

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He was not successful with the #4. Whatever repair work that had been done here in the past had a bunch of garbage in it that was preventing him from getting a good weld on it.

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The main problem is that the port is all corroded, and as a result the face is .050" lower then the rest. Since I wasn't going to be able to build it up with weld, we talked to a machinist and decided to cut the port back flat and make a spacer to get a flush face for the exhaust manifold. It was a good solution for making the free head usable, even if it wasn't an ideal case. But... as I started to really get going on the build, I started realizing how much it was going to cost to set it up. Had to buy valves and springs, deck the weld on the head back, machine the port, get the valve job done for the big valves in stock seats. That was going to cost real money, and that was before I even got into paying someone to shape ports for me. I started to get hung up on investing that much money into this core.

Funny, the top of the page has me in October saying and RSI stage 2 head is more then I need, and here we are in January.

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After hemming and hawing over the 531 I decided to just tell Paul who I got the block from that I wanted his RSI head. Turns out I had just missed it. I was kicking myself when this one came up in For Sale so I jumped on it. Brand new, with a stage 3 cam, shim under bucket, 48/40 valves, really nice port and chamber work. Pretty impressive, a lot more then I would have gotten from the 531.

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So on the same day the head showed up, I also got a box I was looking forward to from Nathan. Way better then Christmas.

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I'm in love with this thing, I can't wait to see it in the engine bay. It's a really nice piece of craftsmanship, weld work is really nice.

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With this and the head I'm really excited about what the car is going to be capable of. I'm not sure where I'm headed power wise, but I know it's going to be really fun. Pretty soon I'm going to mock the intake up for IC piping, wire harnessing, and I'll need to get a long throttle cable made. Lots to do! Going to be a good year :nod:
 
Been spending time getting things together for the microsquirt/wiring project. I've got all of the connectors now, and bought a nice set of ratcheting crimpers. In order to get going on the harness, I needed to get the new intake in to mock things up. I was excited to drop it in, I think it looks killer in the engine bay. Helps balance the big turbo.

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I had been preparing myself for the possibility I'd have power steering pump problems. I've never seen one of these in a car in person, and every post I read people said you needed a remote reservoir pump to fit. Happy to find it's a perfect fit with the new style pump and a non-AC bracket.

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The cold side piping won't be too complicated, though it's a shame the nice piece I made last year isn't going to serve a purpose anymore. I ordered two aluminum 45's, I may try to have a straight coupler off the throttle body and do an s-bend with the pipe, might look nicer than having the silicone 45 off the intake. A 3" coupler doesn't really fit the 960 throttle bodies (too big). Is everyone just using 3" silicone and cramming it on with a clamp like I was doing last year? Would be nice if it was a tighter fit.

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What should I do with the intake finish? Leave it as is? Get it ceramic coated to match the header/turbo/downpipe? I think polishing would be too much shine... though it'd be pretty.

Going to start running wire tomorrow. Pretty good idea of what we're doing, so time to just get in there and start figuring it out.
 
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Looks great--I vote to leave the manifold finish as-is. For the 960 throttle body, I have a 3" coupler on mine and it seems to fit fine (although my TB isn't as easily accessible so perhaps I just didn't notice).

Have fun with the wiring! That part is so gratifying to clean up.
 
Looks great--I vote to leave the manifold finish as-is. For the 960 throttle body, I have a 3" coupler on mine and it seems to fit fine (although my TB isn't as easily accessible so perhaps I just didn't notice).

Have fun with the wiring! That part is so gratifying to clean up.

I like the sanded finish on it now too, wonder if there's a way to protect it without changing it. The 3" does fit, it's just a on the loose side (compared to my 3" piping that needs silicone spray to slide in and out easily). I had a fat t-clamp on it before and it worked so I just wont' worry about it.

I was hoping to make more progress with the microsquirt Sunday, but ended up being kind of a lost day. Since my parents are gracious enough to tolerate the car and it's associated junk taking up their space, I try to make sure that it's not hogging up one of the garage bays. With the intake on, I'd have to swap everything off to run it - so I spent a bunch time dicking around with the stock fuel rail trying to cobble things together so I could have the intake in place while I work, but still be able to chug it across the property to the greenhouse (can't push a car across ice and snow). By the end of the afternoon, I had a safety wire throttle cable, hose clamps trying to hold the rail down, hose clamp holding the FPR in... and it just wasn't going to work. In the process, I destroyed the fuel rail :rofl:

SO, going to sidetrack a little and do the fuel system I guess. I have a sending unit with an A340 pump and a -6 on the pressure side. So project this week is to figure out what I need for lines and fittings so I can put the new pump in and plumb the upgraded fuel system. It's on the list anyways, and this will allow me to move the car around while I work on all of the intercooler piping, throttle cable, and wiring. Going to try and get my fuse/relay panel setup nailed down as well, that way I can wire the new pump properly when it goes in.

February already? I'm starting to feel the pressure for Spring.
 
That aluminum intake WILL oxidize and look like crap after a while. Probably quicker than you think in our awesome climate. Is clear, or matte clear, powdercoating it an option? It's an impressive piece in it's raw form and painting it may be a sin.
 
Get er done!!!!

Working on it! I'll definitely be ready to swap that engine in when the snow melts.

That aluminum intake WILL oxidize and look like crap after a while. Probably quicker than you think in our awesome climate. Is clear, or matte clear, powdercoating it an option? It's an impressive piece in it's raw form and painting it may be a sin.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I remember what my raw aluminum valve covers used to end up looking like. It looks great as is, maybe a matte clear would preserve that - have to look into it. I know I blasted and gloss cleared a cast intake and hated it. I like the finish from the ceramic coating on the exhaust stuff, so I'm probably going to look into that when it's back off the car for the engine swap. I still think of you when I wonder about getting around to that inspection sticker! :lol:

We had this great thought that I'd build my new engine harness in parallel with the old one. Didn't take long to realize that wasn't realistic, so I finally stopped farting around and got into it. Pulled the stock harness out and cut it open to keep a few things, then yanked the rest out. Engine bay looks better already and it was satisfying to get rid of the clutter.

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I'm hoping to get most of the wiring done this week. I took out a running system so hopefully I don't regret this!

I bought a coil bracket from Roger Dee, using it with the d514a coils. The coil mounting tabs are offset, and the closer side measured out right for the spacers and bolts he provided. I bought it without thinking more about it, but when I tried to mount them it was pretty obvious it wouldn't work. With the coils mounted that way the connector is to the left, that's a no go with the firewall, not even close. Bracket is really nice though.

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So, I've got to flip them, which means the spacers and bolts aren't long enough. Luckily Roger is going to hook me up and I should have it all squared away soon. On the plus side the location for plug wires is better with them flipped over, I'll have to buy one of the cut-to-fit kits.

Got a pile of hose and fittings to do the fuel system. Also need to setup a throttle cable, clean the throttle body and build the intercooler pipe but I'll worry about the harness first.
 
I heard you had company coming and couldn't work on your car tomorrow!
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
oh, wait a minute, that's my heated garage spot your car is in - damn!
 
Well, in keeping with tradition the EMS swap has taken about 6x longer than I anticipated and cost about 2x as much (mostly from buying tools to build a harness properly). But I'm happy with how it's going, I feel like we're doing things the right way, and I'm learning a TON about this stuff. This is the first install like this I've done, since the ms2 was really just swapping the system from the gold wagon, so every piece of it is an education. That's really bogged me down at certain points, but it's been pretty enjoyable. I think I spent a lot of time up front trying to plan every single turn of wire and crimp out in my head, when I should have just gotten into it and let things figure themselves out. It's actually less intimidating to deal with it hands on then it is to sit on the computer at work and read about it (work's been slow).

I had decided in the beginning I wanted to build the new harness with all new, unterminated connectors. Having done a few now I can say this was definitely the way to go, but it did increase the costs because I didn't have the tools to do it right. With that said, everytime I make a connection I say "man this thing was worth the money" http://www.amazon.com/Tool-Aid-1892...4&sr=8-3&keywords=tool+aid+ratcheting+crimper
It takes most of the guess work out of it (once you're confident in the dies and how to place things). But it makes perfect crimps, and things turn out a lot cleaner. Here's some Bosch pins made with the crimper, they came out as good as the ones I took apart and this was the first connector I made.

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It was also helpful to free myself from the expectation to make some perfect weatherproof heat shrunk glue booted aircraft quality wiring harness. I'm still trying to do it neat, clean, and professionally, but I'm trying to be a little more realistic about the fact that I'm building a 35-year-old Volvo to drive on the weekends, not a GT3 car. Had a few people ask me why I'm not using some big mil-spec bulkhead connector, and I wanted to at first, but in the end it was just going to be unneeded cost and complication. When the engine's out I'm going to hang the harness in the car anyways, so why introduce all the complexity and failure points? I work in aerospace and I see a lot of removal reports for bent connector pins, not so much for rubber grommets. KISS in that case.

The 12v side of the harness is done, using the GTO fuse/relay panel left over from my Dad's ls1 v90 project. We've got a main relay for the micro, then cube relays for fuel pump, coils, injectors and accessories (idle valve, wideband etc.). I wanted to get rid of the mess on the driver's side fender so I'm going to move/hide the headlight stuff a bit, and I ditched the stock 12v distribution thing for a busbar tucked down behind the battery. One circuit breaker is dedicated for the fuel pump, the other is on the line that feeds the rest of the microsquirt stuff. I'm also going to add a battery shutoff switch when I make new battery cables.

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In the interest of re-looming things more neatly I've got all the harnesses cut open and am moving/trimming/eliminating where appropriate to neaten things up. This is my anti-wire tuck photo.

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Looks crazy now, but I can already see how much cleaner it's going to look when it's loomed. Left to do now is: make up connectors for the injectors, coils, wideband, and MAP sensor, new wiring for the big fuel pump, mount the fuse panel/micro/map sensor in the car. Getting really close to powering things up. I at least expect to hook the micro up to the laptop this weekend and calibrate sensors... that's the goal at least.

Roger Dee got me set up to mount the coils properly, after my issue with spacers and clearance in the last post. This is relevant to anyone trying to use Roger's ls2 coil bracket with d514a coils: you'll need spacers that are ~.850" and bolts that are around 1.75". This allowed me to flip the coils over, which puts the connectors towards the nose, so they actually fit in the car. Big thanks to Roger for sending the hardware gratis, even though it was my miss on things fitting. Forgot to take a pic on the engine but they look really slick.

difference in hardware from the "old style" (square body) ls2 to the d514.

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Pretty obvious where you'd have a problem if you flipped them over with the connectors to the left.

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Need to buy some spark plug wire kit, and hope that I can clear my downpipe without having to move the coils up the bracket towards the intake (it is a wee bit tight).

Sunday I got started on the fuel system, and making use of this expensive pile of aluminum and hose.

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I was a little miffed when the local speedshop substituted the Russell fittings over the Aeroquip I asked for since it's what he had available. Now that I've made up a few hose ends I'm over it, they seem to play nice with the AQP hose I've grown to love.

I got the modified fuel sending unit swapped in with the Aeromotive A340 pump. I had no idea how easy 240 guys had it with this job. Ever done one on a 7/9? Huge pain in the ass in comparison. So it'll be the A340 in tank, -6 on the feed, stock filter with adapter fittings, -6 to rail, to FPR, then the stock return line back to the tank.

Here's the filter setup for -6. Fittings are m12x1.5 and m14x1.5.

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One side track I got on the past few weeks was how to handle the FPR with the -6 hose and fittings. I have been using a Cosmo adjustable regulator that I carried over from the gold wagon, which was nestled in a kludgey loop of fuel lines running every which way. I like the regulator though because it's a: free, b: has a gauge. So, I had to figure out what fitting I could use to put a -6 on the pressure side. 1/8" NPT was just a bit big, would only start half a thread or so before binding. I called Cosmo and they actually couldn't tell me what the threads were, guy on the phone said "I think we use metric threads"... less than helpful. In lieu of that info I'd need to tap it out to 1/8" NPT, so I asked about the gasket to seal the two halves... NLA. So I had the option of tapping it out assembled and hoping I didn't bugger it up with chips, or take it apart and hope I could reassmble without leaks. The gasket was a plasticky piece that was still flexible so I took it apart.

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Everything came apart cleanly and was robust, so don't expect any issues. The existing threads were too big to "drill out" so I just ran the NPT tap through them, which worked out fine. Fitting installed on the pressure side:

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Played around a bit with placement ideas for it, I wanted it off the engine and somewhere I wouldn't have fuel lines criss crossing stuff. I found a good spot in the back of the driver's side strut tower, tucked away into the corner near the hood hinge. Here it is reassembled on a bracket to fit the new location. This will let me feed the front of the rail, then I can send a fuel line from the back, across the firewall, into the FPR, then snake the return right down under the booster. Hoses will be nearly invisible and should be pretty slick once I get around to finishing them.

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Getting there! Going to be a big celebration when this thing runs again.
 
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I like the butterflies and flowers on your shop towels!
Is that a Volvo muffler bracket you modified for your fuel pressure regulator?

I have to commend you on the work that you're doing with the wiring. You really dug in, and are doing it right. When you look at the whole thing it is overwhelming, if you deal with it one wire at a time, it is doable. You're learning a ton about the car, the engine management system, and breaking big jobs into small ones.

Here's to no smoke when you power it up!:cheers:
 
Wiring wiring wiring. Lots of playing with wires. Since this is my first real wiring project and first real MS install it took me a while to get a rhythm. Had to run wire and crimp connectors for all of the coils, injectors, and sensors. Lot of work but I'm happy with how it came out. Everything is terminated and working now, so I'm going to go back and do all of my tidying/wrapping/looming.

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I needed a place to mount the fuse and relay panel, microsquirt, and MAP sensor inside the car. I already have the big ABS brain up on the firewall so it's a bit tight. There was just about enough space up to the left so we made a mounting surface. We decided to use a rigid nonconductive composite material aka a plastic cutting board found in the basement. It ended up being just the ticket. The upper left bolts are through the firewall panel, picking up the existing holes that hold the bottom of my AC delete plate. Bottom bolt picks up a tab off of the bracket holding the ABS brain. Nice and solid, like it.

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Just enough space. Again, I'll wrap up and support the wires. This gets everything nice and tight up behind the dash.

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Now I really wanted to start the car so I had to finish the fuel system. I swapped sending units to the one with the A340 pump and ran new 10awg power wire to feed it. Swapping it in was easy, WAY easier then doing it on a 7/9! I ended up just mounting the stock filter right to the underside of the car, and ran Aeroquip -6 pressure hose alongside the stock return line. Went together well.

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Runs up the firewall and feeds the front side of the rail. I'm going to put a small stud on the bottom of the intake so I can get a clamp there to hold the line up underneath it.

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Then out the back of the rail, up along the firewall behind the brake booster and over to the FPR in it's new location in the corner (I also stuck the headlight flipper relay over there). Return is out the bottom and snakes down to pick up the stock steel return line, which I had to cut ~6" off to accommodate the new location. This is waaay cleaner than what I had before!

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We were really happy when everything powered up and fuel lines pressurized with no leaks. It may have taken a while, but it's worth it when things are right. I powered up the Microsquirt, loaded some firmware and verified my basic sensors were reading. I tried to load a modified version of my old ms2 tune that Kenny sent which returned some firmware mismatch errors. I loaded it anyways, jammed the stock plug wires into the ls2 coils and tried to start it. I had an rpm signal coming in which was a good start. Coils were firing, and smelled like fuel so was hoping to get it going. I ran through the little Odyssey battery and hooked up a spare Optima which also proved a little flat. Couldn't get it going so quit on it and sent some logs to Kenny for input. He saw some sync loss under cranking, and said try again with a fresh battery. Also pointed me to the CORRECT firmware which made loading the tune much smoother :lol:. I like the megasquirt stuff but finding up-to-date documentation SUCKS.

SO, came back a day or two later with a charged battery and stuff to make proper plug wires since the spark coming from the stock wires jammed in didn't look very hot. I bought some wrong parts and it was a bit of a pain, so here's what I used in case anyone else is curious what works.

- 6' MSD 8.5mm superconductor wire (6' is the smallest roll they sell): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000COUMBG/ref=od_aui_detailpages04?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- 90* MSD coil boots for an LT1 (others may fit, this is what I found that works): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RES96G/ref=gno_cart_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
- Straight MSD spark plug boots (these are cool because they are made to bend to any angle after assembly): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029JK8M/ref=od_aui_detailpages03?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- I bought a set of plug wire dies for my crimper and still ended up using this - for $10 this is an awesome little tool. Has guides for stripping the wire, and then you just squeeze the crimp in a vice. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029JKAK/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Once I figured out the crimps that part went pretty smooth. getting the terminals and wires into the boots was a bitch. I lubed things up with dielectric grease and it was a fight to push the wire through the boots. But don't worry it seems to be much easier to push them back the other way, so it's easy to just push the terminal down the boot when you're trying to make your connections :grrr:. Wasn't fun but they fit well and make good *click* connections on both ends. The coils are tight to the downpipe, so things are just going to be close no matter where they go. I'll use the fiberglass boots and hope for the best.

Super short wires

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With the wires done and the battery charged we tried again to start it. Cranked and cranked and cranked and wasn't getting anything. Was getting ready to quit on it and it came to life. Ran a little rough at first but smoothed out and was fine! Came up to temperature, idled down to 950 like before, inputs working. This was a big celebration moment! Really happy and satisfied to see the car start after all of that work. From others' experience, it seems like I may end up needing a resistor across the VR signal to the microsquirt, in order to play nice with the stock CPS. I'll have to find out later, for now it's a bit stubborn to start cold but runs smooth and revved as high as 4100rpm just sitting in the garage.

Now I just need to build the new cold side IC pipe and work out the throttle cable in order to be ready to take the car on some short shakedown runs. Eager to see what things are like with the new ignition and new intake manifold! I bought a Lokar throttle cable that I can cut to length, but I need to take it to a bike shop or something to see how to get barrel connector on the end of the cable to work with the throttle spool.

Spent time this weekend on the IC pipe. There was an easy way out of this, which was a silicone 45* off the TB, then one piece of 45* pipe in between. After some thinking we decided that it would end up nicer and more "finished" looking to do all of those bends in pipe. This meant making the piece was a lot more involved. I had bought two 45* bends, and they're not cheap - like $25 a piece - so we were working with that. It ended up being one 45 cut down to pretty much minimal length then with a pie cut out of the inside to tighten the radius, which made it so the other piece of 45 lined up with the mouth. Took a fair bit of cutting and fitting but it came together great in the end. There will be two ports up on the underside by the throttle; one for the IAT, and one for adding an idle valve down the road. The BOV will be down by where the hose clamp is, clocked down on the pipe so it will be mostly hidden out of the way.

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Very happy with how it came out. Will drop off with the welder this week, so looking forward to getting it back as one piece and taking the car for a ride! The whole wiring/ecu swap is pretty much there now (battery cables left to do), so time to wrap things up and do some tuning. I am going to revise my air intake, considering buying a cylindrical airbox that can sit where the intake pipe is now, then plumb down for fresh air in the lower inner fender area. I can also now turn my attention back to the interior, getting the Recaro's in (yay!), door panels on, center console put back together, steering wheel swap etc.

There is a car show at www.eeuroparts.com on 4/26 which is a half a mile from my office and also my favorite parts vendor. I'm looking forward to bringing the car, so I'm going to use it as a goal to get as much of the above-mentioned done as possible. SPRING FEVER.
 
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Thanks! I appreciate it. I have had a certain picture of the car in my head for a while now, so it's cool to see the bigger pieces of that getting into place.

Senior sent me these pics this morning and had to put them up. Dropped the pipes off with our welder-friend yesterday, he had the thing ready for us this morning. How awesome is that! Not to mention the work is really beautiful, I love finely welded alooominum. Small piece in the grand scheme, but I'm excited about it. It's a good match to the intake and shows some attention to detail/quality.

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mmm purrrtyyy. Almost a shame the work around the bungs will be out of sight on the underside!

I'll test it in the car tonight to see if it's all set (may need to trim one leg back just a bit). Then I can bring it down to a local shop that has a bead roller.
 
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