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Sunday 28 October 2012

Preparing to "fire it up"

Lots of little jobs (sorry no photos).
 - Wired fuel pump
 - Connected fuel tank to fuel pump, disconnected it all and added in a fuel filter
 - Connected fuel pipe in engine bay to carbs remembering the 2nd fuel filter - not really necessary, but can't hurt and since it is clear plastic you can see the fuel is being pumped to the carbs
 - Blanked off the 2nd fuel pipe to the fuel tank (not needed as not using fuel injection)
 - Connected the Sierra ignition switch to the loom and tested fuel pump (tick!):
Red - live
Yellow - key position I
Black/Yellow - key position II
Black/Blue - key position III (starting)
 - Wired the coil to the DLM8 Distributor (actually to the amplifier/ignition module on the side). No where could I find a circuit diagram for this, but finally figured it out Red to Coil +ve, and Blue to coil -ve.
 - Wired coil to ignition switch mkey position II
 - Finally wired the oil pressure sensor.

4 things left to do:
 - Fill with oil and turn over to ensure the oil pressure light goes out (pump may need priming)
 - Bolt on exhausts
 - Put some petrol in the tank
 - Cross all fingers and pray before turning ignition switch

Monday 22 October 2012

Engine finally in

I finally ran out of those "small" jobs and it was time to fit the engine. After a few attempts, and much swearing I managed to get gearbox to mate with the engine. The clutch was aligned, but the spigot bush was obviously a perfect fit, so the gearbox needed to be perfectly level to slide in. Everything else was prepared and ready to go including, new bushes on the gearbox remote new gearbox mounting rubbers, and new clutch release bearing and arm (just hope it's all correct as I really don't want to EVER separate the gearbox and engine EVER again ;-)

We lowered the engine into the engine bay with no trouble at all (thanks Michael), until it became obvious that the engine mounts would not fit. After much measuring and more swearing I realised (OK Michael did), that I had the engine mounts the wrong way around - whoops!
 The gearbox mount and prop shaft were simple tasks to fit as were the new Edelbrock carbs and rover covers you can see below. I also fitted a heat insulator between manifold and carb to prevent any fuel vapourisation from a hot engine.

The fuel lines are fitted, the fuel pump is wired, as is the starter, so it only leaves the ignition and distributor to wire before a starting the engine. Mustn't forget the exhaust manifolds!


The Loom

The hardest part about the loom is working out which wire is which. From experience I have learnt that labelling every wire saves so much time later on. So in front of the fire I laid out the loom front to back and labelled each wire. I also spotted a few mistakes in the wiring diagram and Pilgrim had supplied the wrong type of relay (Type A and Type B are not the same pin-out).

The next tricky bit is feeding all the wires through a hole in the bulkhead (not forgetting the rubber grommet - thanks ebay!). After that the fuse and relay holders need securing to the side (and top in my case) of the drivers side footwell:


The rest of the loom has been "laid" onto the chassis and temporarily cable tied in roughly the right place.
Sadly the Pilgrim loom is generic, so a number of the engine bay wires need to be shorten, e.g. the RoverV8 starter is drivers side. Not a difficult job, but a shame to un-bind the loom to remove wires.

Hydraulic Clutch

As previously posted the Sumo is design to work with a cable operated clutch as this connects to the Sierra pedal box. Problem is that the clutch is designed for hydraulic which makes a cables operated clutch stiff and unreliable. So the pedal box has been modified and fitted with a clutch cylinder. Here you see the pedal box and master cylinder under the dash

 And here's the fluid reservoir and the fluid line down the bulkhead to the slave cylinder
All quite straightforward to fit - thanks Tony for supplying the mod and parts

I now need to bleed the whole system as nothing happens when I press the clutch pedal - really hope it's an airlock...;-)