Seats are out.

I had the whole evening to myself, and I needed to do something on the car.

First, I stained a very small piece of the Red Oak veneer. I used some "Bombay Mahogany" stain and polyurethane mix. I don't think I like the result. The grain in the Red Oak is very pronounced, and it becomes the focus. There have been several different recommendations to what woods to use, so I just need to find one that meets my expectations.

Second, I tackled the seats. I needed to get at least the passenger seat out, since behind it is where the Megasquirt is going to be mounted. I would never have been able to get the wiring done in the tiny gap behind the seat without taking it out. I took the drivers side out to get everything cleaned up, and so that I could reach another bolt. There is a frame brace that runs tranversely from each seat belt mechanism (in the engine compartment), and I need to cut some bracket off of it for engine clearance.

Last, I ordered the switches from Holden. The exchange rate between America and England is killing me! But once I have these switches, I can get the dash board assembled. I still need to refinish it, but at least I won't be held back by materials. Now I think I have everything I need: the vinyl, some backing material, and the switches. I am sure there are things I am missing, but I am closer to getting it done.

Entire fuel system is purchased! (I hope...)

Yesterday I journeyed to Summit Racing. It is like the XXXmart of performance parts. Over the last few weeks, I've been putting together a wish list on their website and double checking everything in preparation. Then we get down there, and find that pretty much everything I had picked out was wrong.

No matter, most of the the sales guys there are very helpful and don't mind helping you pick out exactly what you need.

First, I had picked out a fuel pump that was cheap, and what I thought would meet my needs. When I looked at it, it turned out the fittings for the inlet and outlet were simply hose barb fittings. I was attempting to keep everything to AN type fittings. That gave my mentor and I a pause. After some discussion between us and the sales guys, it turns out that the fuel pump would not generate enough pressure for the injectors anyway. Check my parts list for the fuel pump I picked out in the end.

This also forced me to change the inlet fittings to -8 AN fittings. When compared to -6, these look huge. So, I had to change all in the inlet hoses too. A few more changes, and we had everything I think I need.

So, now I have an -8 AN hose running from each fuel tank to a tee fitting. Then another -8 AN hose up to the fuel pump. A few fittings, and the fuel filter is screwed directly to the pump. From there, its -6 AN up to the fuel rail. There are a few more fittings up at that end too.

Fuel rail is almost done

The last few days have been spent working on the new fuel rail and throttle bodies. I fabricated a new bracket to bolt the 4 throttle bodies together, and made up the linkages to synchronize the butterflies. The last thing needed was a plate to bolt the fuel rail to the throttle bodies. All of this took some raw material, and some accurate measurements to make everything line up. It only took a few hours to fabricate everything, but I think the result is fairly good.

I still need to finish the fuel rail. For each fuel injector, I drilled 4 holes to hold the fuel rail down to the throttle bodies. For each of these holes, I need to drill and bottom tap each hole. This is the last thing, and the whole thing can get bolted together.

Then, once I scrape some money together, I can buy up all the little fittings and hoses to get everything hooked up. I do want to use some of these connectors I found to make the connection to the intake manifold. They are of very good quality, and promise to be waterproof.

Final thing, once everything is hooked up, everything thing gets the polish, and onto the engine! Truthfully, I don't think I have much work to do on the intake manifold. It could be a matter of hours.

TPS adapter

I spent the last couple of days working on the adapter plate and the post adapter to make the Ford TPS fit onto the Suzuki throttle bodies. After all that, I think I am going to hack the end of the Suzuki connector up, and solder some leads to the pins.

The plate worked well, it was simply a plate to adapt the 2 screw holes on the throttle bodies to the 2 holes on the TPS. The post adapter was really what was causing me the biggest issue. I started off with a 1/2" bolt cut to length. Then I tried to file the diameter down to fit into Ford TPS, and cut 2 slots along the length.

Not having a lathe, the diameter reduction didn't work out the straightest. And the slots were not the absolute right size. The steel bolt was extremely difficult to work with with simple hand tools. To make it easier, I switched to Delrin. If you have never worked with Delrin, you need to. It is a highly machinable plastic, with very nice characteristics in mechanical applications.

I was able to throw a post adapter together pretty quickly. It still wasn't right though. The slot was just slightly off of center. This caused the throttle to bind when opened anymore then 25%. It would open fine, but then it wouldn't return to closed. This worried me enough to think that I should probably use the original Suzuki TPS to avoid any possible problems.

The solution that I have come up with is to solder some wires to the end of the leads, shrink tube them, and fill the whole thing with epoxy. This should be easy enough to replicate if I were to ever need to replace it, and it should yield a professional look, and sturdy product. It's just going to need some fine craftsmanship to pull off the professional appearance. I think I can handle it.