Hello from Dorking!

Cobber wrote:

Looking at the prices............I'd go for the new head!

.. and so I have, especially as I realised tapets o  the MGF are nothing that complicated  

Meanwhile, while the whole head saga was unravelling, I progressed with another mini project I wasn't planning at first - de-rusting and painting the subframe (I know I'm a gluton for punishment..)

   

 

 

 


it wasn't too bad for a 30 year old car, but I felt it just jwould have been a shame to leave it untouched, given it was already out and most of the big stuff was out of it. After I started cleaning it with a wire brush it suddenly didn't feel like such a bad idea, as in some places, the surface rust would likely start to turn structural if left untreated for a couple of years

That looks great!
A nice outcome amidst the chaos.
Watching you go through all the obstacles and pitfalls I have no doubt of the outcome.
You will have a great and unique car when this is done.

Bonus points for using the kid's swing set as a painting gantry! 👍🏻

Cobber wrote:

Bonus points for using the kid's swing set as a painting gantry! 👍🏻

Haha, I was wondering if/when someone will comment on my creative approach 

It's here!!!
 
 Rimmerbros might not be the cheapest, but you can't fault their service - ordered after 1pm yesterday and all delivered in just over 24h!

Looks nice and shiny and appears to have all of the same mounting holes mine has, meaning I'll be able to install the supercharger kit without the need for any extra machining work. 
I'm one happy bunny this Friday afternoon  (albeit slightly poorer..)

You can only go cheapskating for so long before you fall through the ice & then it’s time to pay the rate for the proper item you skirted around in the first place.
I’ve just finished building a miniature test oscilloscope & ordered a case, once I was satisfied it was working, I bought the cheapest listed, cheaper by a surprising amount & it was broken to the point of pointlessness.
I have been refunded & have retained the duff stuff, now I’ve ordered one which comes in a box, not in a flimsy bag.
There are some things you never seem to learn.
M

Hello All 
Thought it was time to update you on what has been happening with the Cheetah project, and perform a holly thread resurection while  at it 

Complete lack of updates in the lat 4 months is definitely not representative of the amount of work put in and progress achieved during this time - in fact, other than a 1 month break over summer which we spent abroad, almost every single hour I had spare went into the project, often working late into the night.. 

So to bring you all up to speed, here's what's been happening since my last update:

Just before the summer break with th family, I manged to fuly kit out the new N-series head, transferring the Pipercam shafts and hydraulic lifters from the old head
 

I have also managed to replace the front shocks and spheres as I had to send back the old spheres set to get my £250 deposit back!
   

On my return to the UK I might have got a bit carried away with... cleaning and painting every bit of hardware I had uinstalled as I could just not get mysel to install any of it back to the now shiny subframe and cleaned up engine.. With the weather now becoming super patchy, this took way longer than ever planned and  certainly tested my resilience to breaking point at many a time. I might have gone as far as acquiring a compressor and building my own media blasting cabinet - OCD much?! However, the results made up for all of the hard work I think:
                 

Brilliant!
Lot's and lot's of work there but it feels much better fitting clean and protected parts back on the car.
Good luck with the rest of it!

Special attention went to all of the Turbo Technics kit as the old machine grey coating originally used started peeling away and it felt a crime to install it as it was.. while at it it felt I could not leave the valve cover looking sorry for itself so in it went with the Turbo Technics kit... Now, this part was super painful, to achieve the wrinkle finish I was after, each of the parts had to be stripped to absolute bear metal, which with all of the nooks and crannies to address nnd the strength of powder coat bond on aluminium was an absolute nightmare   but I perservered nevertheless! Here's some before during and after pictures - you can judge yourselves if worth it or whether I completely lost my marbles..

               

You aint lost your marbles. That's looking great.
That car couldn't have gone to a better new owner.
Kudos.

 
From there, a whole of activity ensued, finally focused on putting the poor Cheetah together, too much work to even remember, photograph or fully write up, but a few highlights and photos:

• engine fully reassembled: new head and LandRover oil rail, all gaskets, water pump including filling in the highly corroded outflow on engine block. Did not realise that the new N head was aimed for auto belt tensioner and different belt length, so ended up having to order these to replace the belt and tensioner that came in my HGF kit
• engine block and gearbox cleaned externally installed in the frame and mated together
• pollybushes on all rear suspension components installed
• driveshafts derusted, repainted and reinstaled
• new spheres and shocks installed in the rear
• whole loom reattached and protected with new sleeving
• rear brakes completely stripped, rebuilt with new seals and reinstalled together with new EBC discs and yellow pads
• engine compartment cleaned up and protected with JetLaq
• all lines flushed (cooling, brakes, clutch, oil cooler, charge cooler, etc)
• 2nd fan installed on rad
• exhaust manifold wrapped
• injectors replaced with refurbished units
• + having to get a proper "portable garage" after 2 gazebos got torn up in crazy weather 
  

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST... subframe assembly finally reunited with the car!!!!
                

... all of this leads me to the current, somewhat frustrating state: the car is now mostly put back together, all systems connected and refilled as needed, but.. I cannot get it to start for love nor money.
I was able to get it going on easy start, so it clearly has spark and appears to be timed correctly, I can also see fuel is getting through the injector rail ok but most likely injectors are not feeding it to the intake manifold.
I suspect is the issue is with the Emerald ECU, which after being disconnected for several months has likely resetted itself and will require some of the initialising actions done, i.e. throttle pot and IACV setup. Problem is that after 3 different cables and 2 different laptops tried, I have failed miserably to get the Emerald software to see and read the ECU, despite it being powered up and the LED turning green during cranking, meaning the ECU was able to establish engine rotation pattern..  After several attempts of fixing this myself, I have now written to the Emerald guys to get some advice on possible causes of the ECU not being seen and remediation. I am hoping that the issue is with the cabling between the ECU and PC - despite tryiing more than one COM to USB converters, I think it simply won't work without an original cable wired speccifically for the Emerald ECU, so I have ordered now in parallel, while I impatiently await their answer.

In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions or opinions on why I am unable to get the car started and what next diagnostic steps I should, these will be very appreciated!!