Month: January 2013

The temperature has started to go up a little today. Now 4 degrees and the 6 inches of snow that still remains has started to melt. I find it a welcome change to see snow on the ground. It changes the general mood, both of familiar places but also friends and family too. There has been a childish excitement over the last week or so, but I admit its wearing a little thin as times goes by.

But back to the Zero, where I managed a couple of hours before the cold got me again (whimp). I bought the new DRL (daylight running light) headlights from GBS which look great. The only minor issue is that the wiring is slightly different and as with most elements of the build, it doesn’t come with instructions.
The first photo shows the lamp with the H4 halogen lamp installed. You can see the two tails for the LEDs and the 3 tails for the dip and main beam from the H4. All of the cables need to route through the hollow bolt and through a modified IVA nut cover. I had to cut down the hollow bolt to allow the nut cover to sit properly. I decided to lengthen the LED tails to the same length as the headlight leads so they would reach the connector block. 
After threading all of the cables through, I bound them with electrical tape and crimped on the spade connectors (with a bit of solder to be sure). I crimped the ground for the LEDs and the ground for the halogen lamp to the same spade connector. Trial and error with a battery then led me to the following wiring connections:







                                     Headlamp         Harness
Main Beam                   Blue                   White
Dip Beam                     Green                 Yellow
LED / side lights           Red                    Green

Not much time today – and minus 3 this morning, so garage time is limited.
The washer bottle is simple job that I have been meaning to do before the engine bay became too cluttered. Ideally this can be done before the engine goes in and when there is plenty of space to swing a drill. I have mounted it on the passenger bulk head with a couple of rivnuts, slightly elevated from the floor pan to allow the water feed to loop underneath. I have also pinned the water pipe with a couple of P-clips.


I also wired up the heavy duty cables from the starter motor to the alternator and engine ground making sure that the powder coat was removed from the chassis for a good electrical connection. As with the washer bottle, this job is easier to do earlier in the build process as it gets fiddly in a cluttered engine compartment especially the alternator connector which is situated directly under the plenam :-(.

So cold in the garage this afternoon. Only 1 degree C, so I haven’t spent too long with the Zero today. First job was to tidy the wiring loom on the Plenam side of the engine bay now that all the sensors and cables have found a home.

 Next, the fitting of the Inlet Air Control Valve (IACV). I mentioned this a while ago in post Engine – Part 1. I am using a prototype IACV mounting bracket from GBS that I have decided to mount on the coil pack bracket. This seems a convenient place as it is close to the IACV output on the new plenham. I think it fits quite neatly here. As this is yet to be fully integrated into the GBS wiring loom I have also added some cable and connectors which I will run to the ECU.
Finally today (getting really cold now) I completed the high pressure fuel circuit from the fuel pump to the fuel rail inlet and from the fuel regulator back to the swirl pot. For the fuel regulator back to the swirl pot, I choose a route over the plenam and along the chassis rail and cable tied it down. 

My last job for today is the plenam install. On visiting the GBS factory a few weeks ago, Simon@GBS gave me the tip that the powder coated plenam chamber needs a little “black glue” to seal it to the cut down mounting plate. This prevents the plenam drawing in air through the sides of the plenam rather than through the throttle. 
Before I could do this, the fuel rail needs to be removed and the lugs that remain in the block. 

The plenam chamber and cut down fuel injector housing, then bolts into the block. 

The throttle from the original manifold then fits to the end of the plenam and the air filter onto the end of that.

 Before the scuttle and dash go in, I wanted to run the loom around the engine bay. I am using the GBS loom so it should be quite straight forward – assuming you understand the labels on the loom. 
The first (and simplest  is the connector to the coli pack – it can’t fit anywhere else, but you do need to remove the coil pack to fit it as it is so close to the water rail elbow.



The next one took a little detective work. TPS is obviously throttle position sensor, but the connector on the GBS loom doesn’t match the connector on the throttle. Then I found the adaptor cable.

 The Crank sensor was a guess. I think it goes here.

 To be honest I am not sure what this one is, but it is likely to plug in here. I can’t be absolutely certain but my reference photos suggest this to be the case and there are no other connectors of this type within reach of the cable.

 Here are the oil sensors. The top one is for the Smiths oil gauge and the lower one is the standard Ford sensor for the oil warning light.

 After opening the Emerald ECU box I discovered two more sensors – lucky because I was short of 2. One is the water temp sensor for the ECU and the other the air temp sensor that fits in the plenham. But which one is which? I googled the part number on one to find it was the air sensor (the one on the right), which meant that the one on the right must be the water sensor. Eat your heart out Sherlock.


Here is the water sensor in place on the water rail elbow.

 Here is the air sensor in place on the plenam.

I have no idea what this sensor is. It was already attached to the block, but I don’t seem to have a connection for it as part of the GBS loom. Can anyone help?

I spoke to GBS about the radiator fan installation. They don’t bother with any brackets to hold the fan to the radiator. They simply clip it to the front and tell me it shouldn’t work loose. I am a little dubious. The suspension on a zero is firm and our roads are full of potholes. 

Coincidently I received an email from an other RhoCar member who has been following this blog. He very helpfully pointed out that I had mounted the radiator to the chassis brackets using the radiator mounting brackets on the back of the radiator. Whilst this seemed logical since the holes all lined up, it turns out that the nose cone will not fit if you do this. Instead you need to use the front radiator brackets which means bending over the back ones. The radiator then fits between the chassis brackets rather that in front of them. This meant that I needed to re-size the water rails to fit, but I would rather do that now then when I come to fit the nose cone – many thanks Busby.
While I was fiddling with the radiator I decided to make a couple of small brackets to hold the fan in place. Here it all is with a little black hammerite to tidy it up.

A couple of other minor jobs whilst I am in that frame of mind.

Number 1 – the dip stick. Clamped the GBS extension tube in place and pushed the dip stick home. Simple as that


Number 2 – the Smiths Oil sender. There is a GBS fact sheet about this, but I found it less than helpful. It talks about an “adaptor” and there is a little brass visible in the picture between the sender and the block. As I don’t have an “adaptor”and the thread on the sender seems to match that for the block I have screwed the sender straight into the block.

Number 3 – water temp sensor. Not sure about this. There are two tapped holes in the GBS elbow under the thermostat housing. I have screwed the temp sensor into the top one, but what goes into the second? Another question for Richard@GBS.

Back to the garage for a few hours….

The next item for me is the water system now that the engine is in place.
Firstly the radiator needs to be installed so the pipe lengths can be accurately cut. Just 4 bolts (supplied in the kit) so no problem there, but the cooling fan has me perplexed. I can’t figure out how it is installed, especially since it appears different to others installed on similar Zeros. I will ask Richard@GBS.
Next, the old thermostat housing needs to be removed before it can be replaced by the new GBS one. A couple of hex head bolts and job done – I thought. Unfortunately one of the bolts was heavily threadlocked and I managed to destroy the hex head, so had to resort to sawing a flat-head groove into the top of the bolt to work it free.

With the old unit removed it was time to build up the new one. On my last visit to GBS I spoke to Simon who provided a valuable tip. Make sure the powder coat is sanded flat on the new elbow as any unevenness in the surface can cause water leaks. You can see from the photos that I have made sure that the top and bottom surfaces are sanded flat before applying the instant gasket and the gasket itself. There is no need to remove all of the powder coat, just to make sure that the surface is perfectly flat. Also make sure that the powder coated steel gasket (upon which the thermostat sits) is sandwiched between the paper gaskets.
Once the new thermostat housing is in place, the water rails and pipes can be installed and cut to size respectively. 

The coolant overflow tank was another straightforward install. 4 stainless rivnuts mounted to the engine mounting plate. Connecting up to the small bore stainless overflow pipe is simply cutting the pipe to length and securing with jubilee clamps and tie wraps. The longer of the two pipes emerging from the overflow tank is connected to the thermostat and the shorter is vented to the road – or at least directed in that direction.