It's Running!

Yep, the engine runs! And boy, it sounds vicious, let me tell you. Starts up quickly, idles nicely, but the slightest twitch on the accelerator and it spools up extremely quickly.

I wasn't there for the wiring that needed to be done - down at my parents for the weekend. So all of this is second hand, however it all went fairly smoothly. Only concern was over a small fountain that appeared from a blanking plate. We'd removed the EGR sensor and blanked off this area, however one of the holes covered up must be linked to the water system, and when placed under pressure it sprayed a 6 foot jet of water from the engine bay, all over the laptop, of course. Frank resealed this up, however we were also getting a lot of water coming out of the exhaust. This implied that water was leaking past this seal and into the EGR system, which in turn was drawing the water into the exhaust. The risk here is that the cylinder can fill up with water, or that water simply speeds up corrosion etc. So we've put an aluminium stopper into the port, and this should stop any further leakage. I've also ordered a proper CNC-milled blanking plate with o-rings to seal up the water and EGR ports.

So, at this stage the only thing stopping me from taking it for a drive is the clutch. Initially, after the first bleed, I had the terrible thought that I'd blown the slave cylinder. The slave cylinder is the part inside the bell housing that pushes against the clutch to disengage it from the flywheel. A few of the guys had managed to blow the seals by over-pressurising the system, which means you have to take the entire drive-train out (engine and gearbox) which also entails unplugging the fuel system, water system, drive shaft, engine wiring loom etc etc. I had the tell-tale puddle of brake fluid under the bellhousing, so for a little while I was, well, worried I'd have to do the same.

Instead, it looks like I just stuffed up the bleed process (hooray!). It also appears that my master cylinder (the cylinder attached to the pedal) is too small, so it's extremely unlikely that I've done any harm. Instead, I've removed the master, and it's off to be bored out from 5/8" to 7/8" to give more pressure. Once this is back, I can install it, bleed it (extremely carefully), and take it for a drive. Should be on the road this Saturday ;-)