Blue wire or red wire?

With the main driveline components in, the moment of truth was quickly approaching. We needed to put together all the main items required to fire up the engine. We got cracking nice and early on a Monday morning with a target to get the motor fired up by day 3 and then move on to the cable trunking and layout.

The source: About to get operated on.

This was the work station for day 1; focus - getting the wiring harness out in one piece. One of my mates was doing the primary work, professionally of course. Some of his handiwork can be seen here.

The source: extraction in progress

Many minutes and a few nicks later, there was good progress. Dash out.

Dash comparison: Old vs. New

No clear photos so these will be shown in the next update.

Harness out: let the tango begin

The task to untangle this, separate the sections not required and trace sections requiring merging could finally begin.

Wiring stage 1: blue wire or red wire?

After a lot of cutting and taping, this was the scene. The surgeon hard at work. The idea was to get everything laid out and confirm zero breaks in the wiring as well as to eventually run a crank test with the harness off the car. We would only begin trunking and fitting the harness once the engine ran successfully.

Wiring stage 2: bright lights...

With everything connected, except for the engine bay side sensors, circuit was powered and diagnostics run. It was thumbs up and a GO for the crank test.

Ignition: the real test

Harness was hooked up to the car. A makeshift mod was done for this test to allow for direct powering of the fuel pump. With everything in place, we made a number of attempts to run the motor. Turned over but did not fire up. Diagnostics revealed that the ignition signal was not being sent out by the ECU. A minor niggle, probably related to the immobilization system. Further testing later this week, and another update.

Meanwhile, work on the suspension was going on in parallel. Here is a sneak peek into the works:

New brackets for the coilovers: redemption

From previous posts, the situation with these coilovers was piss poor. From the condition of the lower brackets to the configuration. I managed to get a replacement set of the brackets and got the coilovers taken apart, cleaned and oiled up before reassembly.

Left hand side, assembled: ready to drop

Self explanatory. However, these were put in to allow the shell to be in a ready state to roll into the body-work area and the paint booth. They will have to come off for the paint work.

Resting state: sitting down low

I foresee a lot of adjustment and fender alterations in my future. The new-age cross member enhanced the track width by some inches. The wide offset wheels also stepped this a notch up.

Left hand side: top view

Right hand side: top view

Looks good to me.

Rear cross member: swap out

The older rear cross member was taken out. R160 differential, hubs and single pot sliding caliper brake set. These would be replaced by the new-age R180, hubs and two pot brembo caliper set. A bit of body work was required on the right hand side trailing arm mount, old car problems.

Rad Fitment issues: not for long

The mishimoto radiator from the parts bin was plugged in as part of the preps for the crank. Fit was too tight. Probably because it was meant for the GDB chassis and not the GC. These are my LEGO nightmares. Luckily, one of my mates has an aluminium rad for this platform and I shall be testing it's fit for purpose before the end of the week.

I will to post another update once we sort out the niggles and run the crank test. Fingers crossed.