Resurrecting Jalpa #359

Fuel system is coming along.

 

Nah, no way man. Something like this will only continue to be improved and worked on.

 

Injector banks all wired up. Weather proof connectors used for harness. 1500F resistant sheating on all wiring.

This looks so nice.

This looks so nice.

 

Except my messy work table, and the end linkage which needs to be sandblasted lol.

I don't want you to finish this car, it will mean the end of this thread

 

"Finish"..... He is a Jalpa owner and "finished" is not a concept typically applied to our cars.

 

Kerplop hasn't even been able to drive his car in order to find all of the things that are in store for him after the motor runs.

 

Rest assured we will have plenty of reading for ages to come.

Alright, so, the distributor would rotate but the advance wouldn't work. After delicately taking it apart, I found out why, and it's apparent that it's dirty as hell and has sat and sat and sat and probably never been rebuilt or cleaned.

 

So. Let's begin.

 

Step 1 was taking the thing apart. And digging into it already I could tell, "It's time to refresh it." Since it had sat, and since moisture had been there, and since it hadn't moved, there was some rust and buildup in there.

 

"Well that doesn't look too bad.... let's dig deeper...."

 

"Oh shit."

 

"Oh that looks lovely."

 

"Oh god."

 

After using extremely fine sand paper, steel wool, and some penetrating oil for lubrication, as well as a dremel to take a very small amount of material off, I cleaned things up a little bit.

 

This is just the first round, I'll take more pics as it progresses. It is so important to keep things flat and smooth because the last thing you want is a weight sticking or hanging. I left the plastic alone, and just barely touched things up. Not seen in this pic, is the after of using sandpaper and steel wool with some lubricant until I could feel the surface be smooth.

 

Cigar break time. Some smashing pumpkins, a cigar...

 

Finally, with some gun oil, an attempt to see if the weights and center will move smoothly with NO binding. If not, back to more cleaning certain areas.

 

Eureka!

 

After some help cross referencing, ordered the 928 pickup coil which apparently on certain years is an exact fit.

 

Will clean up the cosmetic stuff this weekend, pull the weights off, clean everything else up, get all of the crap out of the distributor and fully go through the rest of it. But now it is working, happily, freely, no binding, smooth as butter. But I can't sit and watch ugly stuff like that move knowing it's in there, so I'll have to clean it up since it's going back in the car. I don't feel like half assing it. It'll bug the hell out of me knowing it's in there still ugly as sin.

 

Sadly, I can find no weights, springs, etc, as replacements. So I am forced to use what's in there and deal with it for now.

 

It won't matter too long after dyno day, since after that, I'll move over to a coil on plug setup and have the ignition controlled by the ECU. This is just to get me by for now, for dyno day.

Dude... talk about the details.

I think about the trouble I have at work diagnosing issues and I have full access to our drawings, design docs and SMEs. You are doing it all on the fly. Always impressive!

watching this is so satisfying

Well guys... I headed to my home town to visit my cpa and get my taxes done. On the way there I stopped by the machinist. He's moving in 3 weeks, and dyno day will be before that. So, by the end of the week, we should have a full rotating assembly that's nearly complete. I gotta get crackin' on my fuel system and finish the megasquirt.

 

Sadly, this means that the fancy wiring i wanted to do and then put it in the car isn't going to really work, so I'm going to end up wirin a dyno day "box" that'll house the relays and wiring and fuse box for dyno day to get it working. Then will transplant that from the box to the car once dyno day is over.

 

Skid looks gorgeous, motor is dead sexy, shit is nearly done. Tonight I'll work on the wiring. It'll be interesting.

I consider myself a somewhat patient person, but you take this to a whole new level that I would never deal with Awesome work man, keep it up!

I consider myself a somewhat patient person, but you take this to a whole new level that I would never deal with Awesome work man, keep it up!

 

Well, sometimes the best things take time. It's all gravy. I feel honored to be able to even own a lambo, let alone restore and work on one. I've wanted to do this since I was a kid. So delays on something like this are nothing more than a first world problem. Not worth getting upset over, and the journey in itself is huge, and I love it. So I'll just sit along for the ride.

Bearings cut and fit, assembled, and bottom end is going together. I somehow misplaced 2 of the grade 8 nuts to put the case together, found a place in town with some and are picking them up after work and will drop them off at the machinist. Things sound ON PAR to have engine assembled by end of week.

 

Shit is going good.

I dont think you realize just how excited i am for you, I wouldnt be surprised if I'm as excited as you are.

Momentous days are approaching

Same. Very exited for you, D.

Velocity stacks finally flattened and fit and put on. Started on the fusebox and injectors and a few things tonight. Barely any motivation, very tired. Tomorrow is friday, can spend the weekend doing it. Keep in mind this is JUST the wiring for dyno day, and is not in any way going to reflect the final wiring. Since my machinist moves in 3 weeks, this is "get it fcuking done" wiring lol.

 

 

we need video!!

we need video!!

 

Of me powering on the megasquirt? That's not all too exciting lol. I'm just running it through the tests and doing initial tuning setup so i can be ready to throw it on the dyno once I get there.

 

Trust me though, once dyno day is here, i'll make a LIVE VIDEO.

 

I did get the megasquirt fired up tonight. Recognized, firmware updated, required fuel set, first fuel map set, injector firing set, and all the basic variables.

 

 

Alright... so... I rebuild the old distributor in hopes of using it for a fuel only signal for the megasquirt. On top of this, what will end up happening is that the MSD box will utilize this signal as well for the spark. So... what we should end up with is a nice, solid signal to the megasquirt and MSD 6AL for ignition and fuel.

 

I was concerned that maybe it wouldn't work as I planned.

 

At first, above 100 rpm, it'd error out and then go "RPM Not synchronized" in megasquirt. I found out that on the new megasquirt 3 systems (I'm so used to megasquirt 2) that instead of just firing off signals to it, it properly looks for missing teeth and what have you. So it was waiting for inputs from a preset ignition pickup, and a 36-1 signal. So it'd hit 100pm, drop off, and say not synced because of no missing tool.

 

So.... I sent it over to fuel only, dicked around with the settings, set the signal type to rising end and BOOM, I can turn the distributor by hand and get RPMs. The ECU is ready for dyno day.

 

What I basically did was take the old signal cable for the distributor and took the ends out of the connector, put new ends in, ran new wire, and then tossed it over with some pigtails and wired it up to the shielded twisted pair on the megasquirt. While the distributor is ugly, it works like new, and provides the megasquirt with a perfect rising end signal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of me powering on the megasquirt? That's not all too exciting lol. I'm just running it through the tests and doing initial tuning setup so i can be ready to throw it on the dyno once I get there.

 

Trust me though, once dyno day is here, i'll make a LIVE VIDEO.

 

I did get the megasquirt fired up tonight. Recognized, firmware updated, required fuel set, first fuel map set, injector firing set, and all the basic variables.

 

When you start the engine for the first time

Took some pics, phone dead. But the megasquirt is prepped.

MSD6AL tested and working tonight, all hooked up and ready to go, will cut the wires when I get to the machinist. At this point the megasquirt and ignition are ready to go, he has made a mounting plate for the ignition and ECU. So once he's done with the engine.... we're ready for dyno day!

 

Let's cross our fingers that no other weird issues come up.

Fingers crossed for you!

fingers crossed