Better day today

Electrical

Had Paul Brown look at the wiring today. He sorted out the remaining electrical issues. Most issues seemed to be bad earths.

So the following are now sorted:

• Indicators
• Headlight flasher
• All gauge back lights
• Courtesy lights (they had no live supply)
• Starter motor

All appears to be working well now, including the other items. Relief!

Oil

So it turns over now and there does appear to be a little too much oil in the engine. Will let it settle overnight, then dip it again. If it is still too full, I will let a drop out, then check for adequate oil pressure.

Sorry, no photos today.

Tomorrow's jobs

I need to check the oil level, connect the ECU and re-fit the plugs. Tidy up the wiring with tie wraps, then fit the dash, under trays and steering wheel. Once that is done, I think it is ready to fire up, with a bit of luck!

Coolant, clutch, IVA, ECU etc

Coolant

The coolant system took around 16 ltrs, 70% water to 30% antifreeze. This was added to the stainless steel expansion tank at the front of the engine compartment.

Coolant header tank

It was poured in gradually to reduce the risk of air locks. All pipes were checked for leaks at this stage. There was a leak in the thermostat housing - mutter, mutter. As this had a rubber O-ring I had not used any sealant. I should have - another lesson! So that's a drain down tomorrow. Not difficult, but a job I could do without.

If you are doing yours, remember that I have a Chevy LS6 engine. The amounts may differ on other engine types.

Clutch fluid

The reservoir was filled with DOT4 fluid. An auto bleed system was used, so that I could do it on my own. Air pressure from one of the tyres was used.

Clutch reservoir. Bleed nipple is on right of two pipes - not easy to get at

Oh, and I noticed that a wire had broken to the knock sensor, so I had to repair this.

ECU

The ECU was fitted to the centre under dash tray using button head bolts in to rivnuts. I made sure that there would be clearance for the gauges and that the connector would fit the ECU in that position.

ECU bolted to centre tray

The remote button for the speedo was fitted to the central tray too. It is concealed, but can be operated from the driver's seat. There is a gap between the underside of the tray and the transmission tunnel top.

NOTE: Fit a PC flylead to the ECU to make access to the ECU easier. See IVA and Post IVA category in the Build Process.

Tachometer

The dip switches on the back were checked to make sure that the settings were correct. For the ETB tacho the first 3 switches are set to 1 (on) and the remainder are set to 0 (off) for the LSV8.

The speedo will need setting too, but for the first calculation I had used the 3.23 diff and the later chassis (including mine) have a 3.07 diff. So I need to re-check the setting with ETB.

The faulty switch for the rear fog light was replaced whilst I played with the dashboard.

Starter heat shield

I had left this off for some reason. So it was added. Needed to remove the dip stick first.

IVA items

A dummy number plate is needed for the IVA and was made from MDF, sprayed black and fixed to the bar at the front in the nose using two 19mm P-clips.

The rear number plate lamp had the bolt changed for a button head to comply with the 5mm radius rule.

Hexagonal bolt swapped for button head

Engine sensors fitted

So the instruments have arrived. Now I needed to fit the engine sensors.

First was the oil pressure sensor. Not straight forward! I had to loosen the plenum first so that the sensor would fit. Without this being removed the sensor was too wide at the base. The sensor is fitted in to the M16 to 1/8" NPT adapter. I had to tighten the adapter to the sensor first, before I used grips to gently tighten the sensor in the hole. The wire to the loom was then attached.

Oil pressure sensor in place. Spare terminal is for an oil warning light.

Next came the water temperature sensor. This is fitted to the back of the off side head and there is little space! The back spark plug connection was removed to give a little more space. The adapter was again fitted to the sensor, before tightening in the head. Finally the loom wire was attached.

Water temperature sensor fitted

Finally the oil temperature sensor was fitted. For a change this was easy. Accessing the oil filter housing from under the car, the adapter - pre-fitted to the sensor, was screwed in place then tightened and the loom wire attached. NOTE: Do make sure that the sensors are tightened - I hadn't!

Oil temperature sensor fitted

Now, whilst in the engine compartment I did a couple of small jobs. First, I am embarrassed to say, was to swap the rocker covers around. I had re-fitted them on the wrong sides. D'oh! Not that it matters that much, but I had decided that it would be easier to fill with oil if the filler was on the off-side. This required the coils and plug lead assembly to be removed from the covers and re-fitted to the correct cover. The fitting of the vacuum pipe had to be modified slightly too.

Rocker covers right way round. Note filler on left of photo.

Next came the washer bottle connection. The water tube was fed through the lower hole in the bulkhead (after fitting a grommet) and connected to the outlet on the washer pump. The two wires were also fed through the hole and connected to the pump.

Water tube and wiring

Just to fill in the time I set up the dash with the steering wheel to check if I could see all the warning lights and gauges - I couldn't, so have moved a few things round. So here is how it looks at present. The GRP panel will need some fettling to avoid the hinges binding and to closely follow the scuttle contour, whilst allowing for the leather trim.

Revised dash layout after loosely fitting the wheel

Battery and fuel lines

Battery

The battery installation is fairly straight forward. There are three major components - the battery tray (which is stainless steel), the battery itself and the restraining bracket (which is a triangular fabrication in stainless steel), plus a few nuts and bolts to hold them in place.

The parts

The battery tray was installed in the nearside compartment and fixed to the floor. Some thin rubber strip was fitted in the tray to physically isolate the battery from the tray.

The tray in place without the rubber strip

The compartment opening had to be cut out a couple of millimeters each side to allow the battery to be put in to the compartment and tray.

The restraining bracket was bolted to the bulkhead (in front of the passenger footwell) above the centre of the battery to secure it in place. To do this I marked and drilled two holes through the bulkhead. Each bolt was passed from the passenger compartment, through a penny washer and into the compartment behind the front wheel arch. The bolts were inserted into an alli bar that had been tapped to take the bolts. The tapped holes in the bar had thread lock applied.

Again some rubber was fitted to the underside of the bracket (where it would touch the battery) to isolate it. Finally the bracket was fitted onto the two screw shanks and held in place with nuts.

The cables could now be connected. Mine wasn't, as other electrical work had not been completed, so I only connected the earth leads at this stage.

Battery and bracket installed

Fuel lines

There are two fuel hoses and the electrical connection to get from the pump into the boot.

Three holes were drilled in the boot upstand (the section that the tank goes against). These were drilled at the nearside, near the wheel arch, the top and bottom holes were level with the two unions on the tank. The top hose was a tad short, so the hole had to be re-drilled closer to the tank so that it would connect. The third hole, for the wires, was drilled in the middle of the other holes.

Holes marked

Each hole had the GRP thinned to allow a grommet to be fitted. The grommets were eased over the hoses and wires. A little Vaseline here helped! The 90 degree ends of the two fuel hoses had been removed before the grommets were fitted.

Now the hoses were threaded through to the boot from the axle area. The wires were fed through from the boot side to the axle area and the grommets secured in place. The wires were then connected to the pump. The grommets were siliconed in place and the unions re-fitted to the hoses.

Hoses and electrical cable from boot

Hoses and electrical cable from underside

The fuel tank installation will wait until another day.

Gauges, sensors and switches

I have decided not to replica an old Cobra dashboard look or the standard GD layout. For example, I do not want the counterclockwise speedo and the usual GD pyramid style layout of gauges is not to my liking. So I have gone for a mix of Lucas type switches, modern billet alloy switches, warning lights with silver bezels and gauges that are a mix of traditional and more modern. Sounds dreadful when you write it down!

Switches and warning lights

What I have bought is:

Push button start - momentary
Push button hazard - latching
Flick switch for fog light - on/off
Flick switch for heater - on/on/off
Flick switch for lights - on/on/off

Indicator light warning - left
Indicator light warning - right
Brake warning
Battery warning
Fog light warning
Main beam warning

Gauges

What I do want is to have kph shown alongside mph on the dial, in case I drive abroad. I also want black background gauges, with red pointers and IVA compliant bezels. Originally I was going to go with white backgrounds, but Carol (my wife) thought that they didn't look as good as black ones.

The ETB speedo with mph and kph

I have decided on ETB gauges, as they can be configured as I want, are a good price and delivery timescales are relatively short.

I will have the following gauges a speedo, rev counter, oil temperature, oil pressure, water temperature, voltmeter and a fuel gauge.

Sensors

I need some specific sensors and adaptors, so I had to identify where these went and the thread sizes before I could place the order! John Gare at ETB was a great help here (see link on right), as was Dave Hampshire at Canems. LS1tech.com is usually very good at helping sort out these things, but this time the posts were just confusing - everyone seemed to have a different view of where the sensors were located and what the thread size was.

What I eventually concluded for my LS6, was that two adaptors were required for the temperature sensors (water and oil). These are  M12 x 1.5 threads to take 1/8" NPT sensors, one located at the rear of the offside head (water) and the other above the oil filter on the nearside. This tied up with what John Gare at ETB had said. The existing water temperature sensor is still used as well.

Existing water temperature sensor

New water temperature sensor position at rear offside

Old oil temperature sensor

My next challenge was to work out where the oil pressure sensor went. This turned out to be at the back of the engine on the nearside and the near the valley (it was blocked off with a big grub type screw) and needs a M16 x 1.5 threaded adaptor, to take a 1/8" NPT sensor. Again the size of the thread tied up with what John at ETB had said.

Where the oil pressure sensor will go

The fuel sensor will be a dip tube (this will match the gauge electrically), rather than the float arm type. This is a VDO product and works by having a float that moves up and down inside the dip tube. This is apparently more accurate, but a little more expensive. The dip tube needs to be the depth of the tank, less about 4 mm and also allow for the reserve fuel! So I decided on a 260mm dip tube after a lot of calculating.

Fuel sensor dip tubes 

Order placed

So I have ordered the following gauges:

• Speedometer
• Tachometer (rev counter)
• Fuel gauge (compatible with a dip tube)
• Oil temperature
• Oil pressure
• Water temperature
• Voltmeter

And the following sensors with adapters:

• Oil temperature
• Oil pressure
• Water temperature (additional) 
• Fuel sensor (dip tube) 260mm long

Engine loom part 2

Final bit of engine loom sorted today. If you are building a GD427, then do connect up the loom before you put the body on. Or at least connect up the loom to the gearbox and starter motor. It is so much easier to do it at that stage.

Reverse lights

The reverse light switch on the gearbox had two wires. These were now tucked away alongside the gearbox and within the chassis. So after jacking the car well up at the front and crawling under it, hands shredded, I finally managed to connect the bullet connectors together. Not the easiest or most pleasant of jobs.

Lacerations

Speed sensor

The speed sensor was in theory simple too. The car was jacked up well at the side. After crawling under the car, I managed to get my hand into the transmission tunnel at the back of the gearbox and remove the sensor, which was held in by one bolt and a locating plate.

The two wires were attached to the sensor using two thin connectors out of a waterproof Delphi double connector! The waterproof seals and some silicone were used to make sure that the connectors stayed in place and kept dry.

Speed sensor with wires siliconed in place

The installation was a reverse of the previous process. Don't lower the car until you have tightened the bolt :) Just don't expect this to be easy to get at!

Starter motor

Another nightmare to get at! The starter motor is tucked up behind the exhaust headers, with the solenoid on top.

Starter motor wires in place

The thick red wire from the battery and the red wire from the loom marked 'starter' are connected to the lower thick terminal. The other wire, slate and red, is connected to the thinner stud on the solenoid. The small wire terminal will not go on the wrong stud.

Bulkhead 'grommet'

A very rewarding job. Nice finisher!

An aluminium two piece bulkhead grommet had been machined by Keith Akerman for his car and I managed to get one from him, a real work of art!

Components of bulkhead grommet

GD don't do a part for this. It was easily fitted around the loom and pushed through the bulkhead. The bulkhead hole needed a bit of filing to open it out, before fixing the 'grommet' with four buttonhead bolts. A very neat solution and much better than having to fabricate one myself.

Neat!

Fuel pump

The short wire on the loom marked 'Pump' was connected to the white/purple wire of the body loom. This went to the fuse box, so needed cutting from the fuse box. The body loom is designed for a non-LS engine car, which has a different pump arrangement. A male connector was added to the cut wire and then connected to the wire on the relay block. See photo below where the cut wire can just be seen coming out of the fuse box and is taped up in black.

Fuel pump wires sorted

The relay block will be attached to one of the underdash trays later.

So now I just have the sensors to connect up on the engine - oil pressure, oil temperature and water temperature for the gauge, when I get them. All easy to get at. Well relatively .....

Thermostat

Luckily I realised that there was no thermostat in the housing, thanks for telling me Kyle, so I bought one from Monkfish. Great service and very prompt delivery. Whilst I was at it, I replaced the seal.

New thermostat and seal

It was simply a case of undoing two bolts on the housing, replacing the seal and inserting the thermostat, then putting the bolts back in place.

Where the thermostat goes

Header tank hose

A new piece of hose was attached between the block and the header tank (because I had originally used vacuum tube - not a good idea!).

Correct hose!

Handbrake

The handbrake was attached to the bracket to allow me to locate the position of the fixing holes. The end of the handbrake (the end with the button) was positioned in line with the front of the door opening. The holes in the mounting plate were marked through onto the floor and drilled. Bolts went through the bracket and through the holes in the floor. The bolts were secured with nuts and shakeproof washers on the underside of the car, using large washers to spread the load.

Handbrake in place

At this stage the handbrake could not be adjusted as it is a hydraulic/mechanical handbrake, so the brake fluid needs adding and bleeding first. However, the handbrake cable could be secured to the chassis with tie wraps, to keep it away from moving parts.

The carpet will be cut later, once the gaiter is received and fitted.

Gear lever

This was simply a case of attaching the lever with two bolts into the threaded gear lever stub on the 'box and then securing with nylocs. Once in place, I opened out the transmission tunnel hole slightly with the Dremel so that it would not foul against the GRP. Now I can select gears!!

Gear lever. Escutcheon is only laid in place.

Engine loom part 1

Engine loom

The loom can either be fed from the cockpit through to the engine bay or the other way round. I chose the latter because it was easier, even though it required the bulkhead hole to be opened up a little by filing sufficient GRP to allow the ECU connector to be passed through. The bulkhead hole will be covered by a grommet at a later date.

With hindsight the loom could have been connected before the body was put on. This would have made access much easier.

First, the relay and electrical block were taken off the loom, before the big ECU connector, pedal connector and the wires for the relay were fed through the bulkhead hole.

Engine loom bulkhead hole from engine bay

Engine loom from cockpit side

The loom was connected to the injectors (odd numbers to nearside) and main connection blocks in between the injectors first. This got 10 of the connections out of the way!

Injectors, main connector between cylinder 4 & 6 and throttle pot connected

Next I connected the engine loom to the front body loom. This was simply pushing the two round connectors together.

Connection to main body loom

The throttle connectors were connected to the throttle body, then the alternator was connected (I added a boot to the live connection post), then the cam and the earth wires were connected, which were followed by the MAP and knock sensors.

Water temperature and cam sensor connected. Alternator to do

Connections from nearside

The air intake sensor wires were too short so had to be extended.

I had to jack up the car and remove the two front wheels to get at the other sensors, such as the crank, lambda and starter. The crank sensor is virtually inaccessible, so I managed to connect this by reaching through the extended foot well!

Crank sensor almost hidden by starter motor!

The gearbox connections are still to make, but most are now done. The full wiring connection is detailed in one of my other posts.

Next I refit the fuses and realised that I needed two others. The fuse ratings of the ones supplied were incorrect for my car. The missing two will be 10 amp and then a 20 amp in the bottom slot. The fuse ratings and position are shown in the GD wiring manual.

Fusebox with two missing fuses.

I then refitted the relay block in the cockpit area.

Under dash trays

There are three panels that go under the dash. One in the centre and one either side.

First I fixed the centre "tray" to the brackets on the two cross braces. Many builders fix these under the brackets and between the braces. I fixed mine above to avoid having to make alterations to the panel and having to elongate the holes. Also it seemed more logical, having tried to do it the other way. The central tray was fixed with button head bolts and nylocs.

Centre tray fitted

The outer trays will have to wait until another day.