I spent Thursday fighting the car all day (6+ hours!) in 100 degree heat trying to get it to run, with invaluable "Support Desk" help from KrisR. The major issue was we couldn't get his test light to work on my car for love nor money, despite it working on both his cars!
The problem we were trying to fix was the car was firing at the wrong point, coughing and farting, and this was due to having the wrong Top Dead Centre offset (TDC offset). Basically, with the EFI on my car I have a toothed wheel bolted to the balancer, with 58 teeth and 2 missing teeth. A sensor pointed at that wheel reads the missing teeth and gives the Haltech ECU a point to read for TDC on cylinder #1.
However, the missing teeth don't line up perfectly with the TDC mark on the balancer so you need to measure the offset (in degrees) between TDC and the missing teeth (which is where the ECU gets a ping that the engine is TDC). The wrong number in that TDC Offset cell on the ESP software the engine means the engine won't be firing at the right point, which is what my car was doing.
Normally you'd put a timing light on the car and it'd be resolved in 10 minutes. Unfortunately - and for reasons we still don't know - the timing light just would not light up on my car, even when I pulled a boot off the ignition lead on #1 and clipped the light to that!
It got to a point where another mate who knows Haltech ECUs suggested I lock the timing at 10deg after TDC, and then reset the TDC offset to 0, increasing it in 30 degree increments. Way earlier in the day Kris had suggested a TDC Offset angle of 306 degrees, and as it turned out the magic number was 320!
Then, at 430pm on Thursday I finally heard this thing roar into life 4.5 years after the motor was rebuilt!
It didn't last long as the Haltech ESP software warned me the battery was copping 18-volts and it was seriously loud idling at 2500rpm due to some huge vacuum leaks.
I shut it down and took the "brand new" Powermaster alternator down to a local auto sparky who confirmed the regulator is toast. He has ordered one and should be all fixed next week.
I also plugged some vacuum leaks, fixed some binding issues with my throttle linkage, plugged a few water leaks (looks like I still need to pull the radiator and get it rebuilt), but the wiring is really the biggest challenge as I'm going to have to put a whole new body loom in the car as the loom I paid a mate's shop to put in is an absolute disaster - incorrectly wired, messy, and poorly labelled.
I have to give a massive, massive shout-out to KrisR who has given me nothing but awesome help and support (and parts
) over the last 4.5 years, but particularly in the last week. I couldn't have done it without you, mate!
Anyways, t is Saturday down under and our national day (like our 4th of July), so Happy Australia Day, legends