Woke up early and went with 2 bottles of Coke to the gas station to get more fuel. Came back with 4 litres of it. Down on the car, started by following advice given by my fellow builder Iain and other people on
locostbuilders forum. So, went around the electric circuit ensuring all earths were correctly connected to the chassis. Connected the rear earth bundle, that was still to be done. Also connected a cable from the battery negative to the chassis. Then, grabbed some tape and went around isolating all terminals that I crimped and don't have a "rubber hood". Also wrote down on my wiring diagram all cables that are connected and those still to be done. Easier to keep track of them this way.
Next, I connected the Digidash to the cables, disconnected the power from the fuel pump and took some time to configure the thing. I had calculated all the needed data during the week, so I just had to feed it. It was easy, although it took a bit. Now I see Km/h.
Since the car has no breaks, jacked the rear of the car up again. This time, left the stands under it, to save me time for next times. Dumped one bottle of gas on the tank, then placed the bottle on the engine bay and placed the exit pipe from the fuel pump inside it. Connected the pump power and turned the key one notch, to get the pump going. No fuel coming out of it... Grabbed the 2nd bottle, dumped a bit of fuel on the tank and then disconnected the in pipe and placed it inside the 2nd bottle. Had to see the fuel move from one bottle to the other. Turned the key again, the fuel wouldn't move. "Shot pump", I thought. With the pump still "clacking" away, started checking the pipes. The exit blew air. The bleed one blew air. The intake didn't seem to suck. When I placed that pipe inside the bottle again, I don't know what happened, but suddenly the fuel started to move from one bottle to the other!
With the excitement, turned the key into "start" instead of off, heard the "clack" from previous weekend and everything went dark. Disconnected and reconnected the battery negative cable, connected both pump pipes to the fuel line and carbs and dumped all the gas on the tank. Sat on the drivers side and rotated by hand the prop, just to be sure it rotated. Then, turned the key one notch, pressed the clutch down, key to start and there goes the starter engine trying to fire up the car!!! But it didn't start.
Out of the car, checked that there was a fuel smell coming out of the carbs. They were leaking to the floor. But everything else looked OK. Disconnected the power from the fuel pump, the coil leads from the sparks and sat on the car again, to make the engine spin a bit and move oil around. After some spinning, topped up the cooling circuit and reconnected the leads. Still with the pump off, tried to start the car. This time, while the starter was trying to fire it, it crossed my mind that I should press the throttle... Did so and the engine fired up! And revved so much I got scared and let it stall. (I need to drill another hole on the peddle to make it less sensitive).
Out of the car, thought "just a bit can't hurt", reconnected the pump's power, sat on the car, turned the engine on, fired it up and kept it running for a bit (probably just one minute). It would start to stall as soon as I lifted the foot from the throttle, but it did run. And it made LOTS of noise! Should connect the pan to the exhaust.
HAPPY!!! Got out of the car, topped up the refrigeration fluid again. Cleaned the leaked fuel and a bit of oil that leaked from where I connected the pickup pipe for the oil pressure sensor (probably didn't tighten it enough). Unplugged the fuel pump again, disconnected the battery and started to clean and pack. Had to call it a day.
The picture bellow shows from where the carbs leaked. Not sure if it was from what seems like nipples or if it was from behind them. Only leaked from carbs 3 and 4. I'm afraid that it's some perished rubber seal and that I'll have to take the carbs apart to replace it all. The section with a different colour/light is where the leak happened. The arrow points to one of the nipples. But as I said before, it might be leaking from behind the nipples. The fuel made a puddle on top of the gearbox and then dribbled to the floor near the prop.
Next? Tomorrow will take the wife to film it. I want some footage, she wants to see it running!
Then, work out the rear firewall, the dash, seats, breaks... I want to be able to drive it, even if just a bit inside the garage! Oh! And maybe figure out what to shortfuse to get the engine starting without the clutch down...
