My 1973 TVR 2500M : Renew and Restomod

In reply to TVR Scott :

I was in a pretty great mood after my second Pfizer shot. I think you've been thorough enough that letting a little optimism carry you isn't a terrible plan... Very exciting!

Good luck with the shot.  My wife had the second Moderna shot on Friday and started feeling feverish yesterday afternoon after a hike.  All's well now.

Light that candle (or start that engine in case you haven't seen "The Right Stuff").

Not much work done today.  Pretty wiped out.

In reply to TVR Scott :

I'm up for my 2nd shot Friday morning.  Hoping it's not as bad as yours.

Zero after effects from first or second Pfizer- I've never been more optimistic than I have been the past few weeks since the shot. Things are looking up!

Teh E36 M3 said:

Zero after effects from first or second Pfizer- I've never been more optimistic than I have been the past few weeks since the shot. Things are looking up!

Yes sir, they are. Good stuff.

In reply to TVR Scott :

The shot itself was less than a mosquito bite. But right after I got it I had to drive the bus.  My arm was sore for a day and a twinge the day after.  But my second shot without all the driving was nothing!   I got Pfizer shots. 

I'm up and at it already, and I feel fine.  Today will be a good day, I think.

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

On to the engine harness.  As far as I can tell, this is a ground connection:

Unwrapped, it's a big bundle of solid green wires - says ground to me.  What's weird is that it doesn't ring out as a ground.  Could it be switched???

Could this be a sensor ground? Sensor grounds are often lumped together and grounded to a special place...I seem to recall that sensor grounds should go straight to the engine block...it was related to mitigating noise in signals. 

In reply to Mezzanine :

I'm going to do a bit more digging, but best I can tell it is indeed a ground lug for the engine harness.  I found a thread on some ST message board about bad grounds, and it looks like this one gets grounded to the chassis underneath the factory airbox.

More progress this afternoon/evening.

First up was attaching the fuel filler hose and getting some clamps on:

Next up was getting the fuel pump connected.  The power wire comes from the control pack harness and I ran a ground wire straight to the battery.  Probably will add a chassis ground in that fuel-tank area.  There's a lot of electrical back there.

Here's my "key emulator box":

These wires connect in with the same harness as the fuel pump.

Then I pulled out my 12 vdc bench-test power supply to do a quick verify on the electrical:

Then I flipped the ON switch.

Then the fuel pump kicked on.

Then the check engine light came on - it should on start-up.

Then the engine started making clicky, whirry, wake-up noises.

Then I shat my pants.

Aaaaaaaand, shut the power back off.

There are a few things I need to do before hitting the START button:

• The manifold has an outlet that needs plugging.  This will eventually be for the boost gauge.
• Figure out something to do with the fuel tank vent.  Right now it's just open to the air.
• Fill the tank.  One of the sources of the above pants-E36 M3ting was that I knew the tank was dry and I didn't want to nuke the pump.
• Open the garage door, move the truck, have a buddy with a fire extinguisher handy.

Then, WE GO!

Oh my!!!

Im on the edge of my seat for start up.

Fuel tank vent: atmosphere is where the miata and duster go, as well as my el camino went. Just a long looping hard line. A charcoal canister to catch the fumes is nice though. 

Oh man, you're soooo close!  I'm vicariously excited to see/hear it run.  I feel so far behind you, but my motor should be done within the next week or so.  My next big hurdle.  But then there's carbs, exhaust, electrical, fuel tank, gauges, glass, bodywork, interior, etc.  Still, if I can get the engine in and the driveline hooked up,  I could be rewarded with a start-up,  Like you, I think I need that kind of boost to morale right now.  Make us proud, Scott!

Thanks Albemarle Crew!

Michael, do you find those open vents stink up your garage with gas fumes?  Can you snap a quick picture of what you've done?

I'm looking at charcoal canisters for yard-equipment - they seem to be simple flow-thru units, but do the job of denaturing the fumes.

I haven't noticed any fumes, but i smoked three packs a day for almost 20 years. So, not the best judge there.....

However, my wife never said anything and the garage is underneath our bedroom in the basement. So im sure she would have said something by now.

Miata picture would just be the end of a hose from underneath.  Ill snap a picture of the duster. 

Edit: the 3/16 tube from the top of the filler neck goes vertically, loops around a time or teo under the package tray area, then back down and exits through the rubber boot in the floor. The exterior end is just an open hole to atmosphere. Line from the highest point, to the highest point possible, with some loops to prevent siphon, down to somewhere handy to go outside of the car. 

Excited for the first start up!

I'll just add my two cents RE: fuel tank vent. My RX7 lasted approximately one year with the tank vented to the air. Our garage is attached to the house and any time the interior door was opened I'd get a lingering smell of gasoline in the house. It was especially bad in the Summer since the heat increased pressure in the tank. SWMBO complained enough that I rigged a charcoal canister back into the system. It's MUCH better now although I do still get fumes from the braided steel fuel lines. Also be aware that simply venting to the canister will work for a limited period of time. It's possible to saturate the activated charcoal to the point where is won't absorb any more fumes. You solve this by routing the fumes back into the intake where flow is controlled. Older vehicles use mechanical valves but most modern engines use a solenoid controlled by the ECU.

In reply to infernosg :

Thanks for the knowledge.  Did you just put the factory system back in, or did you do something else?

The Ford Racing control pack specifically deletes all the egr and vapor related systems, but then they don't really make any suggestions on what to do instead.

Ive thought about a normally closed solenoid plumbed between the charcoal canister and intake before. Tat way, key on solenoid opens and sucks charcoal canister clean with engine vacuum. Key off, fumes collected by canister not garage. 

However, that was my idea. Never tried or researched. 

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

Ive thought about a normally closed solenoid plumbed between the charcoal canister and intake before. Tat way, key on solenoid opens and sucks charcoal canister clean with engine vacuum. Key off, fumes collected by canister not garage. 

However, that was my idea. Never tried or researched. 

That's basically what I've done on two TR6s now.  Works well with no fuel odor.  Purge solenoid valves are fairly cheap.  The purge valve opens when the engine is running (via Megasquirt) but could also be simply key on.

In reply to TVR Scott :

I'm using the OEM canister but because of the way my intake is now setup I had to get a bit creative. I'm using a purge control solenoid from a later RX7 that's controlled by my ECU. The stock setup uses a mechanical purge control valve that relies on differential vacuum pre and post throttle body. It's remarkably simple but because I now have an IDA-style throttle body my pre-throttle body vacuum is pretty much always zero so that system doesn't work.

In reply to infernosg :

Thanks.  Good info.

Here's my quick and dirty mock-up for the afternoon.  Hose run up high with a couple loops:

The perspective makes that look really weird.

Right now the garage reaks of gas, but I spilled some on the floor when I filled the tank.  I blew a bunch of fresh air in with my box fan, and I think I'll see how it smells tomorrow.

Still gotta sort out the boost fitting.  I'm 3/4 of the way to having it blocked off, but didn't have a 1/4 npt plug handy.

Had a special guest at the shop yesterday - JoeTR6 came up to lend a hand firing the engine!  Great to see you again, Joe!

Alas, it didn't quite go as planned.  I have no glorious noisy revving engine video to share.

What we did find is that there seems to be some mechanical clashing going on.  I think my brilliant discovery that a Focus ST clutch would work with a NC Miata 6 speed was maybe not so brilliant after all.

So that transmission will need to come out again.  Not the end of the world, though I need to decide whether I want to pull off the body now or try to pull the trans from underneath.  I was planning to pull the body off again anyway, so maybe that's what I do now.

On the bright side, the controls powered up just fine, and cranked exactly as expected.  That alone is a pretty big relief for me, so I won't call this a failure.  Just a bit of a side adventure.

You know, could be way worse! Could've gone boom! Or let the magic smoke out. Or....

So, Noise is from bellhousing area?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Absolutely could have been worse!

Yeah, just a bit of a clunk from the bellhousing area.  Wouldn't crank by hand, even with the plugs out.  We cranked it backwards just a touch, and it would then crank forward to the same spot as before.