As requested, and possibly to my embarrassment, here is the thread for my 90. Should make a pretty nice road car in the coming months, and be a whole lot more drivable than the alfetta.
Paid virtually nothing for it, with the intention of taking the mechanicals for another project. Unfortunately, the body has no rust, and the interior has all been re done recently, and i can't bring myself to wreck it.
Parts I will be looking to acquire in the next few months will include an exhaust system (excluding headers), a starter motor and the trip computer thing.
To try and get some sort of reliability, I will be pulling the engine and rebuilding it as one of the first jobs to complete.
Other planned changes will be a bigger alternator from something more common, hopefully a more modern air compressor, and the most important modification will be the headlights. Not sure exactly which ones I'm going to use yet, but thinking something from a BMW. After running the HID's in the alfetta, there is no way I'm gonna be happy with standard lights. (especially when they are worth twice as much as I paid for the car). Will take a bit of cutting and welding, but that should all be a bit of fun. Will it look stupid with 4 round headlights? Dunno, and to be honest not really that concerned.
Let the criticism begin!
Where are the headlights? I hear they are really hard to find now. Might be your first hurdle
Read above.
I've got a trip computer for you.
Matt l have some more free stuff for you including sterring wheel cover. good to see her getting fixed up.
Jason
this is a nice 90
Hey Mat,
That looks half decent inside & out, nice colour and its got 75 Potenziata rims and a cloverleaf on the dash!
Looks like it would make a nice daily driver and your right way too good to wreck.
Good luck and keep us posted on the updates
Cheers
Pep
ive got the starter motor, with the headlights, i the white light globes and they work fine you can get a hid conversion for these now to, now for the engine, how does it run, does it leak oil or any thing if it runs ok try putting new plugs in and oil and some good fuel with a bit of injector cleaner chuck a permit on it and go for a 50 km drive and then see how it goes from my experience with 90's and i have lots of it if the car goes do not touch it and a bigger alternator dont know why you need to,
I like this one.
Nice one Sheldon. Great contribution to this thread about Matt's 90 project. I didn't see the title saying "post pictures of your favourite 90".
Thank you Evan. Just trying to give Mat some ideas for his project. Would you like me to remove my post Mat?
i believe sheldon was helping with a colour choice and rims and shedding weight by removing the bonnet ;)
Cheers Jason. Give me a week or two to get rid of at least one car and make some more room, then I'll give you a ring to do a swap of some stuff.
Whilst they do look awesome, i'm bloody sick of not having enough ground clearance to drive over a coke can (lying on it's side). It's an absolute joke. This one is going to stay standard height.
I'm told the engine burns oil, which is enough reason for me to rebuild it. I would rather do it all now while I'm not relying on the car to get to work, than have to do a half arse rush job in 6 months time. Plus it'll be good to learn a bit more about it all.
Headlights: I could HID standard ones, but it's pretty illegal, and still wont give me the same result as a 4 headlight conversion. After the lights in the 75, I can't see the 90 ones being much better. Appreciate the offers guys, but using standard lights is completely out of the question. Not going to happen.
They are potenziata wheels, but unfortunately they are not mine. On loan so i can move the car around. I will be putting the 16" multispokes on it when i get some suitable tyres.
Oh, and the alternator. Using the 75 one, which i know is good because we rebuilt it, I cannot drive around at night with the headlights, wipers, heater fan and radio going. The car stalls at idle. Battery is also good. I'm going on the assumption that the 90 alternator isn't going to be any better than the 75 one, and again, it's a pretty easy job to do now in order to save a lot of grief down the track.
And i don't mind the pictures :)
Hello Matt
Sounds great, keep us updated with photos, do not worry about crticism Matt, just learn from it, some people like keeping things stock factory standard and that is great where as others like making a excellent vehicle better, i will love to see your quad headlight conversion in the end, i am sure it will light up the road better, but if it suits the 90 and looks good i will get the details off you and do the conversion on one of my 90s, i would prefer to see a 90 with a bit of modification rather than parted out for the scrapper, from the photos it looks like a excellent restoration to be used as a daily, looking forward to your work.
Thankyou VeeSix. ;)
Have you had any time Mat to get to her yet? Any work started?
Yeah, nothing to get excited about though. So far I've pulled the spark plugs out and wasted about an hour screwing around with the starter motor. Other than that, I know the electric seats work, all the windows work (except the rear passenger one, which goes down, but not up >:(), the fuel pump works and there is power to the starter motor when you turn the key. So yeah, no progress. I will be asking questions in regards to compression test results, when I get the new starter in!
Eventually swapped the starter motor and did a compression test. Results;
1: 150
2: 150
3: 150
4: 75
5: 150
6: 100
Not exactly what i wanted to see. When we filled 4 and 6 with oil, compression was up to 150 for number 4 and 175 for 6.
Normally, I would now run the thing for a few minutes and try again, given that the car has not been started for about 6 years.
Enter the new dilemma, as so far it's not looking good. I'd guess there is going to be about 15 hours work for me to change the cam belt and re assemble everything to get it to run. I'm not sure if this is going to be worth my time, given the above results? I don't really want to do all the work in order to say yep its definitely as stuffed as i suspected, pull it all apart again. I'm tempted to start pulling the engine out and rebuild it.
Thoughts anyone? Another thing to consider, I'm thinking about buying another complete car for parts for this one and another project (anyone got a smashed 75 sitting around in their backyard?). Maybe I'd be better off getting a known good engine and swapping it in?
Decisions decisions.
So went ahead and pulled the engine. Much easier than I thought it was going to be.
Unfortunately, also found some pretty nasty rust while i was at it. Didn't even bother checking the car for rust when i bought it, as i only ever intended to wreck it. At first thought it looked pretty terminal, but after a fair bit of stabbing with a screwdriver and close inspection from the inside with the torch, the firewall is still solid, it has only rusted through the scuttle panel and made a bigger drain for itself.
Also, mocked up the headlight brackets as you can see. They still need to sit about 2 inches further in (will need to cut the standard brackets away for this, no big deal), but as far as width and height goes, almost perfect! Bit of paint on the grill, some indicators in the fog light holes, and (at the risk of being vilified) I reckon it will look pretty good!
Have you checked that indicators can be that low? Just a thought, as they wouldn't be very visible down there, may be some ADR rules or something.
The thought did cross my mind, but I'm not overly concerned about it at this stage. I'll see if I get away with it, and if not, I'll just hack appropriate sized holes in the bumper higher up. It's only a 90.
Quote from: Mat Francis on March 04, 2011, 02:29:18 PM
The thought did cross my mind, but I'm not overly concerned about it at this stage. I'll see if I get away with it, and if not, I'll just hack appropriate sized holes in the bumper higher up. It's only a 90.
How rude >:( it will be the ride of ur life matt ;D
Quote from: dehne on March 04, 2011, 11:57:13 PM
it will be the ride of ur life matt ;D
Given what I have in store for it next week, I'd almost believe that ;)
heading to melb tomorrow for the day do you need anything brought down or a hand with doing some work i have about 4 hrs to kill from about 1.30 till 6ish send me a text if you want something as i may not check this page before then
So not huge progress here, but a bit.
It's not solved yet, but the fix for the engine is well and truly in the works. See attached.
I will also be getting a company car on Monday, so the mentality has rapidly changed from "comfortable road car" to something a bit more fun...
Any more progress Matt??? 8)
So did you get the motor back in the car yet??
how are the twin headlights fitting going?
Hi all, after an eternity i have some form of update on this.
Looking for a bit of help. The car wasn't running when I got it, and this is my first fiddle with any sort of FI, so play nice :)
Engine is all in and everything as far as I'm aware is connected, just can't get it to run. Here's what I've checked;
Ignition system:
Good spark when a plug is removed and held to the plenum, static timing is good (confirmed with timing light).
When the car is manually and continually fed "start ya bastard," the car will run. As such I believe the ignition system is fine.
Here is what I have checked in regards to fuel delivery, starting with the always questionable double relay.
85 – Combo-relay ground
86 – supply to Thermo Time Switch and Cold Start Injector
86a – 12v from ignition switch on "start" (supplies TTS & fuel pump relay)
86b – to AFM terminal 36 (fuel pump switch)
86c – 12v from ignition switch on "run"
88a – to AFM terminal 39 (fuel pump switch)
88b – 12v to ecu and fuel injectors bank #1
88c – 12v to auxiliary air valve heater
88d – 12v supply to fuel pump
88e – 12v to fuel injector bank # 2
88y – 12v from ignition "run" to fuel pump relay
88z – 12v from starter/solenoid.connector
All of the above conditions apply, and when a fuel line is removed and the engine cranked over fuel is being supplied (tested with the relay in and operating, and also by opening the AFM flap). I do not suspect the relay is at fault, and it came out of a running car previously.
Needless to say I have gone through all the earths I can find and cleaned and re connected these. I have also tested these have good connectivity from the pins to the computer. As per my wiring diagram, pins 1,5,16,17,34 and 35 of the connector to the computer are all earthed.
Both the cold start injector and injector number 4 (pulled the lead on this one as it is easy to get to), have 12v. The CSI does not work when removed from the plenum and the engine cranked. When connected directly to 12v and manually earthed, the solenoid inside it clicks, so I don't think it is mechanically broken. However, neither the CSI or main injector is earthed at any stage during the start process. I believe that this is my problem?
From my reading of the l-jet wiring diagram, I assume that the injectors are earthed by the computer? Or is my frustration at this point tunneling my vision into thinking that I have a stuffed computer?
I'm sure I've tested more than what I've written here, but can't think of it off the top of my head, so please if you have any suggestions I'm very grateful for anything you can think of!
hi matt
good to see some profression on the 90, so what i gather from your info is,
Their is fuel getting to the rails,
There is spark
If you spray start you piece of euro awesomeness (shit) it sort of runs.
To me this only means one thing and that the injectors are blocked, I dont know if you can clean them i would say you can. the reason I suggest this is I did and engine swap in a car, the engine was running before I took it out and when I finally got it back in and took it for a run this was the problem.
Hope this helps
Thanks guys, seems logical as they've been sitting for years.
Next question, how do I fix this? I'm guessing it's going to involve removing the plenum again and taking them to a FI specialist?
Matt I think you could clean them as you can buy injector cleaner, the other thing is I would assume the injector from the 2.5 would fit as they are sort of the same engine someone else may be able to confirm this or not.
I've only read the last few posts in this thread, but I'd suspect a ECU/wiriing instead of blocked injectors.
The injectors are supplied with a constant 12v to one side of their solenoids, and the ECU fires the injectors by grounding the other side for a few milliseconds.
You've confirmed that there's 12v to the injectors - but you mentioned that at no point are they grounded. That is a problem ;)
Does the fuel pump run while you're cranking the engine?
I imagine it primes for a second or two when ignition is switched on, then stops - but does it start again when the engine is turning over?
If not, the ECU might not be getting the rpm signal.
Otherwise if the pump does run, check continuity between the ECU's injector output pin and the injector plug terminal to see if it's a wiring issue, and check if the ECU's injector pin is being grounded while cranking.
You could connect a parker globe to the terminals on one of the injector plugs and see if it flashes while cranking the engine.
If it doesn't, then even sparkling-clean injectors won't help you ;)
Thanks Festy :)
All of what you have said there is basically in line with my thinking, so fingers crossed the ecu I acquired in my travels this morning will sort it out. Oh and the fuel pump runs while the engine is cranking
Cheers Dehne, I'm using The 2.5 injectors ready. The injector cleaning might be useful, but as Festy points out, I need to get them working before it is any use.
will report back tonight!
I would be almost certain its blocked injectors, I have some 2nd hand ones if needed, would almost lay money on it
IT RUNS!
Finally got it working after a few more hours dicking around.
As much as I hate to say it, I think in the end it came down to stuck injectors. Tried the new computer first up with no difference at all, and nothing I had was sensitive enough to register injector pulse (don't have a noid light, and the bulb and analogue multi meter didn't work).
Next thing I did was apply 12v directly from the battery to the number 4 injector, to see if it was physically going to work or not. Nothing at first, but then after i touched it a few times it eventually clicked open.
Reconnected the computer, and this time got a brief splutter, as opposed to the absolute nothing I had got everytime before. Took me about an hour and a half to do the same for 4 more injectors (couldn't really be bothered taking the plenum off to get to number 3 to just test a theory I had), but same thing for the rest of them. Nothing at first, but after a few stabs they would eventually open. Gave them a good 30 or so cycles each.
Wired it all back up, and it ran perfectly straight away. Notice how my fuel catch container sits nice and steady :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbKJyXtexOQ&context=C45ef2c2ADvjVQa1PpcFMcg2a1wwVpWk5F80JrVCtEvIyP3vmzMrg=
I'm guessing the computer's signal to the injectors simply wasn't strong enough to force them open after they had been sitting for who knows how many years filled with all sorts of crap? If nothing else at least I now have a good understanding of it all and what appears to be a healthy injection system.
Now over the weekend I can tidy up the engine bay, put in all the cooling system and start working on the back end of the car.
Thank you all again for your invaluable input!
Where are we Mat, any time for progress recently? ???
To the outside world it wouldn't appear that I have really done anything, but yes, I've been at it quite a bit and it is all coming along really well!
As I write this, the gearbox is in the hands of the guru, having a few little tweaks performed on it ;)
While I have been waiting for this, I have put in the torsion bars, brakes and konis out of the wrecked 75 I got rid of a couple of weeks ago. Still waiting on the new steering rack boots and tie rod ends, but once they are done that is the front end sorted. Took me 3 infuriating tries to get the height right, but I reckon it's looking good.
Looking good Mat, in that Alfa 90 rugged-and-handsome-but-definitely-not-pretty kind of way.
Again not much visually for this as yet, but more progress. I have entered this car in the Broadford sprint in one months time, so no excuses, it is going to be done!
The latest is that I'm halfway through building the back end. As you can see I've put poly bushes all through it- I know there is debate about whether or not this is the way to go, but I'm keen to give it a go and see what I think for myself. New boots on the driveshafts and re packed with grease obviously. I will have the gearbox next week, so I want to be able to drive the thing by the end of next weekend ;D
In the mean time, I have a question that I think came up a few weeks ago, but can't for the life of me remember the answer or find the thread.
I have two pairs of gearbox mounts, both iso, one from the 90 and one from the 75. The 75 ones have plates welded onto the bottom of them, the 90 ones don't. I assume this is due to the 90 de dion having the spacer block thing welded on, whereas the 75 de dion has removable blocks? Please see attached picture of 90 de dion with the plate from the 75 sitting on it as well.
My best guess is that as I'm using the 75 de dion, I will need to use the 75 gearbox mounts (the ones with the extra plate) on the clutch housing? (or alternatively un pick and re weld the plates onto the 90 mounts). Could someone please explain the relationship between the bits I have here?
Back to it for now to keep going on those pesky little jobs!
Try again with pictures
With time rapidly running out, this weekend saw some solid progress.
Finally got my gearbox Friday afternoon, and with a little more assembly saturday morning this was all sorted. Pictures attached. Can anyone playing at home spot anything different about it? ;)
Also managed a record time rear pad swap with the poor broken alfetta, so it now has a set of 12 lap old ebc reds in the back. Should do the trick.
I then assembled the de dion on the ground, without a hoist I have found this to be the easiest way to do things in the past, and wasn't going to experiment with anything new this time round. The old man was a big help yesterday afternoon, with two people on it this took no time at all.
A few frothies last night saw a later start than I would of liked today, however I'm still pretty happy with where it is at considering. Further down you can see my delicate balancing act of putting the whole lot in on my own. Not sure if I was just lucky or I'm getting the hang of it, but it hardly wrestled me, and everything lined up nicely.
Once everything was in position, but before it was all done up, i dropped the car down onto the ground, and once again my luck seemed to continue! Ride height was perfect, which I was absolutely stoked with.
Hooked everything up except the gear linkage, couldn't quite get the roll pin hole lined up, and i was too tired and frustrated to fight it by this stage. During the week I'll finish that and a few other little bits and pieces, and with any luck I should be able to drive it up the street for it's first self powered voyage in over a decade!
Well Done!
You've obviously done it too many times now. Nice balancing act with the correct blocks of wood. You could probably do it with one hand tied behind your back.
Quote from: Mat Francis on June 24, 2012, 09:01:32 PM
Can anyone playing at home spot anything different about it? ;)
Its been a few years I've played with those gearboxs, and it 'appears' right, but looks are often deceptive...so is it something to do with number of teeth? ;)
Nice work Matt!
Is the weirdness the gear for a cable drive speedo instead of the electronic?
Quote from: scott.venables on June 25, 2012, 12:25:09 AM
Is the weirdness the gear for a cable drive speedo instead of the electronic?
Quote from: Frank Musco on June 24, 2012, 09:52:48 PM
Its been a few years I've played with those gearboxs, and it 'appears' right, but looks are often deceptive...so is it something to do with number of teeth? ;)
Aha! Can't get anything past you blokes. Well spotted. It started life as a 3L 75 gearbox, but it now has a 4.3 crownwheel and pinion in it, hence the older style speedo drive. Also had the LSD shimmed up while it was out, not that there's any way of spotting that. Should get up and move nicely ;D
In regards to the roll pin, good tip, thank you. I actually couldn't get the holes lined up yet though, so off it comes and i'll lightly emery paper the lot then try again.
what is the 4.3 crown and pinion out of?
I believe a very late alfetta gearbox? It was in the gearbox that was in my '83 model when we got it, however don't think this was original. Pretty rare I believe.
Got the rest of the rear end sorted tonight. The emery paper on the iso linkage did the trick, and also made a suitable taper on the roll pin :)
Bled the brakes, no issues, as expected.
The clutch, as seems to be the case for others at the moment as well, did prove a bit of a struggle. In the end the trick that worked for us was for me to be on the bleed nipple, a brick on the clutch pedal to keep the system open, and dad pressurizing the reservoir with the air compressor, by use of a special made cap for such occasions. A fine line between the right amount and over pressurizing the reservoir, but a very handy trick. This got the worst of the air out, and when fluid started to flow semi consistently, we went back to the traditional pump, hold, open etc. Little bit of fiddling around but all is well in the end.
Before I tightened everything up, checked I had all gears, no issues, and ran the car up to 4k without any vibrations (which would have been very obvious while it's balancing on stands). Another one of my big fears has likely been overcome!
Dropped it back onto the ground and tightened up all the suspension, so it's now getting very close to drivable ;D
Hey Mat,
Nice progress and like how you re fitted the assembled A frame, ahh the joys of being young and having time to muck around in
the garage.
The 4.3 ratio was in Aus spec Alfetta GCLs as opposed to the taller diff ran with the injected motor in other markets. Late 2 litre GTV
and Guilietta had this ratio as well as Im led to believe.
Can't wait to see this thing going
Nice work
Cheers
Pep
Cheers Pep, good info to have.
IT HAS BEEN DRIVEN ;D ;D ;D
Just a quick "inconspicuous" lap round the block, it's a bit loud with nothing but headers on it :P I'll be booking it in to have an exhaust made up for it next week at some stage, which will be a whole lot better.
The good news is that there is no unsavory clunks, bangs or vibrations.
The bad, but not really unexpected, is that the clutch could do with a bit more bleeding, and that it has a huge miss and no doubt related hesitation. First suspect is number 3 injector, which I didn't repeatedly zap with the battery like the others. I will also get my hands on some injector cleaner. I mixed about 500ml of metho in with the 20L of petrol I put in it, so hopefully the combination of all that will sort it out.
Finally, here's some crappy photos of it emerging from hibernation!
hey mat
i have a wynns on car injector cleaner you can borrow for a weekend
just need to mix 400 ml of petrol and 400 ml of injector cleaner
works excellently on the v6 alfa
just disconeect the fuel line and coneect
need to run with compressor
Thank you very much, I may have to take you up on that offer! Compressor won't be an issue, the biggest thing is my limited time frame. I'll see how I go sorting it out over this weekend then be in contact :)
Quote from: Mat Francis on June 27, 2012, 07:42:39 PM
Finally, here's some crappy photos of it emerging from hibernation!
That's a nice looking shed! (not the car)
Ha, yes, thanks Evan. It's a good thing when their isn't an eyesore parked in there, leaving fluids all over the floor!
This weekend I managed to motivate myself to finally tackle my biggest concern and hurdle for this car- the headlights. After a bit of measuring and stuffing around, I decided that the best way to go about it was a set of 75 lights I already had. Whilst quad round lights would have been much better, I decided it was just going to be too much work to justify at this stage, time is too limited.
So, after about 20 hours of fitting, cutting, welding, swearing and bending, I present to you the alfa 82.5! (not quite a 75, not quite a 90).
Not the prettiest thing ever, but I personally don't think its too much worse than standard. If I wanted a pretty car I wouldn't be tooling around with a 90, this is all about cheap thrills!
If there is interest I have quite a few photos of the process and will explain them.
You'll have to have a badge made up 82.5. You can tell people that it was a special model made in Central America.
If I'd known you were going to do that I could have done you a very good price on some 90 headlights Mat. Jeesh.
Ah well, at least it will be unique.
Quote from: Evan Bottcher on July 02, 2012, 11:01:14 PM
You'll have to have a badge made up 82.5. You can tell people that it was a special model made in Central America.
Could also be a good excuse
when if it proves itself unreliable. hmmmm.
It's all reversible with about an hours work Sheldon. The only part of the car I touched was the central headlight mounts. Used my spare set of 90 guards and a set of spare 75 guards for the donor brackets. All the bits I used were spares. I'll keep that in mind if I ever crash it though! Cheers
I am just about ready to torch this thing.
The short version. Booked it in to have an exhaust made last Thursday. Drove it onto the trailer Wednesday night no issue at all. Always starts without issue.
Got it to Croydon Thursday morning, and as you would expect, it just would not start. Battery died after a few tries, had to borrow a battery from friendly local auto store. Finally got it started, left it running, returned battery, backed it off trailer. Total time running is about 3 minutes up to this point. Gets just off the end of the trailer and stalls. Will not start again, battery dies soon after. Called the old man, who left work and brought down a full toolkit. After much jump starting and stuffing around, car will run for 3 seconds then die. Classic start then stall syndrome. Not a CSI problem, as I disconnected this very early on in the symptom, car clearly running off normal injectors.
Exhaust man needs to be able to move car around on his own, so I manage to get the car back onto the trailer within the 3 seconds of running and take it home for trouble shooting.
Once car is at home, exactly the same. Start, stall. Repeat.
More stuffing around, and im out of ideas. I go and visit Hugh and the boys at Monza, who are kind enough to lend me a spare one of everything that could possibly be causing this. (a HUGE shout out for all their support, definitely wouldn't of made it this far without them!)
When I get home, the car won't start at all - no fuel pump. I have two good known relays, tried both, they are not the issue. Absolutely drowned the AFM in contact cleaner, open the flap, bingo. Fuel pump. Start car, runs perfectly. Keeps running up to temperature, revs cleanly to near enough to redline, all seems spot on again. (This is Sunday afternoon by now).
Ran the car multiple times since then, again no issues, does not stall etc.
Re-booked the exhaust for tomorrow. Back the car out of the garage and down the driveway, car stalls again. Starts, dies. Does not seem to like any sort of load on the engine (out of the garage and down the driveway is all down hill, very little load at all on the engine, but obviously more than just sitting there revving). If left for a few minutes it will start again for a brief period of time, measured in seconds that could be counted on fingers. Smells strongly of unburnt fuel - all of the above would to me indicate it is flooding.
Any ideas as to what I'm missing here? I'm really getting fed up with this. One way or another it's getting an exhaust made up tomorrow (I've only got the cast iron manifolds on it at the moment). The neighbors are getting stroppy at me, I've melted the lino in the garage and I'm fed up with suffocating in fumes!
I've tried/checked a lot more than I've written here, but will add that if needed.
Any thoughts?
I'm guessing you've tried swapping over the combo relay? and an AFM? Or maybe a bad fuel pump?
I had an ignition module fail a while back. How it happened was the car died while under light load on the road. It was not far from home and it was late so Dad and I managed to push it home. Left it in the street and in the morning it started up perfectly but died again around 20 mins later(while on the road). It happened a few more times and the time it would last before dying decreased until it wouldn't start at all. I was glad because it's hard to troubleshoot an intermittent problem and tracked it down to the module after I swapped around some spares I had.
Not sure that's of much help but it might support the fuel smell you've got.
If you want to try some bits I've got let me know
Thanks Scott, some good food for thought. I've tried a different relay and afm, but not a fuel pump yet. Managed to get it off the trailer to get the exhaust done, so at least it will be easier when I'm not going deaf and choking.
I should have a spare ignition module (the 6ish pin block that sits below the coil yes?) , so I'll swap that tonight. I've also got another known good fuel pump, but I'll try the easier things first.
thanks again!
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.
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
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.
Well after it's first outing, I'm extremely happy ;D
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 ;D
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.
:)