Finally Fitted The Air Filter

It has been many months since my last post about genuine work on the car but that is largely because it has been many months since I have actually done any!

Between preparing the house for our new baby, Christmas and then the arrival of our baby (Lilly), the car has just had to wait.

But spurred on partly by the slightly milder weather but mostly by the fact that Complete Kit Car Mag are coming to take some photos, I finally headed out to the garage to fit the last major component to the car, the air filter.

I have been driving around since SVA with no air filter fitted which is OK but it really is only a matter of time before something finds it’s way in to the throttle bodies so before any serious spring time driving could be done, the filter needed fitting. It also finishes the engine bay off nicely.

I purchased an air filter kit months ago but as seems the norm with kit cars, no one makes a kit for a specific engine so instead you have to order a generic filter and base plate and then drill and fettle accordingly.

 

So the base plate for the filter looks like this.

And these are the tops of the throttle bodies that the filter base plate needs to be fitted to.

So as every, I started with a cardboard template.

There are several holes that need to be made. The actual holes for the throttle bodies obviously but also the holes for the bolts that hold the filter to the top of the engine.

The problem is that you cannot see where the holes need to be, much less mark where you need to drill.

I came up with the idea of putting rivets in to the drill holes with the shafts pointing up. I then placed the cardboard template on the rivets and pushed to make holes where I needed bolt holes drilling.

 

It kind of worked OK. When all the holes where drilled, a little fettling was needed to compensate for the some what inaccurate measuring method but all in all it did the job.

The larger holes for the actual air intakes were more of a problem so after some thought, I decided the best method was to give it my best judgement and cut the holes lightly large to allow for any discrepancies.

I cut the holes out of the cardboard template to make sure I was in the right ball park, I was!

 

I also had to mark a couple of little sections of the plate to be ‘nibbled’ away in order to allow the base plate to site without hitting existing engine parts.

Once I was happy with the cardboard template, it was time to get drilling on the real thing.

As ever, my drilling (and particularly my hole cutting) was a little wonky and a couple of the bolt holes had to be extended to allow it all to fit but all in all it went on to the engine without any drama.

So then the final job was to attach the actual air filter to the base plate using the provided clips.

Last big job completed in just a couple of hours!

 

Well almost.

The actual final stage was to see whether the bonnet would still fit on the car as the air filter sticks up above the engine quite some way. Luckily, it did.

Some guys from Complete Kit Car are coming tomorrow to photograph the car and there is going to be a two part article in the this and next months editions of the magazine charting the build of the car through to final completion. So if you are interested, pop down to WH Smiths and get your self a copy (out 20th Feb 2009).

Feels great to be back in the garage and working on the car again. 

Oil Leak Fix – Alternator Cover Gasket Replacement

This is probably the most boring and least relevant post of the entire build process as I doubt anyone else will have to do the same thing. But what the Hell, I have nothing else to write about!

Throughout the car build, the engine has something that I have largely ignored. An aluminium lump that first worked, then didn’t and eventually was fixed by MAC#1 prior to SVA.

Sure, I know where the water goes in and where the sparks connect etc but inside the actual engine has remained a mystery to me.

This has been 100% my choice as I have felt that I was taking on enough building the rest of the car, and didn’t (and still don’t) feel confident to disturb the inner workings of the actual engine.

But on the other hand, the puddle of oil on the garage floor demanded some attention and I can’t go running to MAC#1 every time the engine needs a tweak so it was time to get stuck in.

 

The oil leak appeared to be at the bottom of this black part of the engine. This is the part that MAC#1 had to fix so it makes sense that if there is a leak, it may have been caused by the removal and refit of this cover. But before I could find out what the problem was, I needed to know what the part was called.

Luckily, ‘the black cover bit near the passengers footwell’ was an adequate enough description for fellow MAC#1 owner Big Rich to tell me that the black bits more technical name is the alternator cover. A quick flick through the Haynes manual (and an confirmation call to MAC#1) and I decided that the most likely culprit was the gasket on the cases. So I ordered one from my local motorbike shop.

This little piece of effectively cardboard cost £9!

Mark at MAC#1 advised me that all I needed to do was to take off the old cover. Use a stanley knife blade to clean all the old gasket off the casing, then fit the new gasket and bolt it back together. Easy!

Nine M8 bolts hold the casing on so once they are undone, you can remove the alternator cover, but, the alternator coils are mounted in to the casing so the cover is held to the engine with a strong magnetic force. So strong in fact that I had to use a screwdriver blade to prize it off.

You can just about see the old gasket around the outside of the alternator cover. There was a section mission which was probably the cause of the leak.

Problem was once the bulk of the gasket was removed, lots of it remained stuck to the edge.

It took a good thirty of work with a blade to scrape all this off.

I also had to refit the cog that connects the starter to the main crank shaft as it came out when the cover was removed.

 

If you have read some of the previous posts, you may recall that this is the offending cog that prevented the engine from working for all those months.

It just pops back in to position prior to refitting the gasket and cover.

So with all the hard work done, all I needed to do was place the gasket on the engine and then fit the alternator cover back into place.

To do this, I tried to use a little copper slip to ‘glue’ the gasket in place and then fit the alternator cover.

This proved to be a total pig!

I could put the gasket in place but every time I tried to replace the cover, the magnetism pulled the alternator cover in to the wrong position or the gasket would slip just at the wrong moment. I tried for a good 45 minutes in vain so decided to take a break and get some expert advice from MAC#1.

Revitalised with a cup of coffee and some good advice, I took the following measures.

• Went to the local garage and got some instant gasket (sort of silicone goo) to glue the gasket to the engine.
• Transferred a positioning dowel from the alternator cover to the engine side (as this would help guide it in).

 

The it was time to use some brute finger strength to try and slowly position the cover without disturbing the gasket.

And with this new approach, it worked first time!

Just goes to show the benefit of the experience that MAC#1 has supported me with throughout the build.

With all the bolts nicely tightened and the oil level checked, I ran the engine for around 20 minutes at various rev ranges with no more oil leaks.

So I took my first peak inside the Honda engine and it all worked out ok so next time, I will approach it with a bit more confidence.

Just need to fix the leaky brake ‘T’ piece and then the car will be road ready (if not road legal yet). 

She Is Finished!

The car is now finished. Not virtually finished or just about there, no, it is honest to god finished!

And by that, I mean that there are no more small but vital bits missing (fuel filler), no gapping holes in the bodywork and no last hurdle to overcome, it is all done.

But…

That does not mean that I do not have stuff to do, in fact there is currently a brake line leak and a fuel leak which need fixing before it can be driven but these are fixes (and probably the first of many!)

But it feels really good every time I go into the garage and see it sitting there just crying to be driven, and driven it will be soon as all the paperwork is lodged with the DVLA and I am just waiting for a ‘police inspection’ to give it the official stamp of approval and get a license plate number issued. So by next weekend, I could be on the road 🙂

Of course, to get to this finished state, I still had a bit to do over weekend, so here is what I did.

Engine Re-map

The first job of the day was to re-map the engine to make it run a little richer. The engine map used for SVA was running a lean fuel mixture to help the emissions test but now that is out of the way (and will not be tested again until the first MOT is due in 3 years), I can richen up the mixture to let the engine run at maximum power.

This procedure is really easy if you have a Power Commander and a handily supplied engine map file from MAC#1. With the engine running, you connect up the Power Commander to your PC (via USB), run up the Power Commander software and click on the ‘send map’ button.

The engine map consists of a range of different values across the ‘rev’ range which the Power Commander uses to adjust the fuel mixture as revs rise. Don’t really know what it all means but MAC#1 provided two maps for me, and SVA friendly map and a serious power map. When the engine was running the SVA map, the engine was not too smooth going through the rev range but with the full power map in place, the engine sound much sweeter.

Here is a video in which you can hear the engine.

Fuel Filler

Next up was the fuel filler. This was another area where the equipment fitted for the SVA is not exactly what will be on the final car. I ordered a nice black aluminium fuel filler and a bit of flexible fuel pipe from Europa Spares (https://www.europaspares.com/).

So first thing to do was to gauge where the filler needs to be and mark it on the bodywork.

Next I cut the hole. I used a 60mm hole cutter and then used the Dremel to eat out to a 63mm diameter.

Next I drilled out the holes for the bolts.

With that done, it was time to offer in the flexible fuel pipe and mark what needed to be trimmed from the pipe. The fuel pipe is fairly tough stuff, so you need to use a hacksaw to cut it.

Once the pipe was trimmed, it was time to bolt it all together. A couple of jubilee clips were used to fix the flexible pipe to the back of the fuel filler and the top of the petrol tank.      

   

And here is the finished article.

Fixed Oil Leak

Next up I tackled a small oil leak in the oil pressure extender. The stock Fireblade engine only measures oil temperature but MAC#1 prefer to measure both oil temperature and oil pressure.

To do this, there is a flexible pipe which goes to a ‘Y’ splitter for the oil temp and pressure sensors. It was this ‘Y’ splitter that was leaking but a bit of PTFE tape soon fixed it.

Rear Boot Cover

You may notice that there is a small hole in the top of the car!

This was originally covered by a sheet of plastic which Colin from MAC#1 cut to size. Unlike some of the other things, this was not just for SVA but was intended to be my final solution. It was on the car when it left MAC#1 but was not when it arrived here so I assume it must have blown off somewhere on the M62!

I will need to get another one done but in the mean time, I needed a stop-gap solution to satisfy the DVLA inspector and also to cover the unsightly hole.

My temporary solution involved a bit of hardboard and some black paint.

I carefully measured out the dimensions and cut the hardboard to shape.

It fits fairly well, but looks a little crap so I gave it a coat of paint.

Hopefully Heidi won’t notice the grass!

Fitted to the car it looks OK.

The problem is that being hardboard, the first time it gets wet, it will dissolve so I need to make a plastic replacement ASAP but this will do for the DVLA inspection and should make a good template when I come to do the real thing.

So that was that, I am officially declaring the car finished. Sure there are lots of things that need fixing but that is half of the fun of building and running a kit car.

Engine Working!!!

Talked to Mark at MAC#1 today just to check everything was progressing OK for next Tuesday’s SVA and not only did he confirm that the engine (and exhaust) are now fitted and fixed, but he even sparked up the engine and revved it on the phone for me a couple of times.

It was great to finally hear it (well again as I had heard it briefly before it all went bang) but this time it was actually working properly.

Mark has also confirmed that my electrics are OK and the the plumbing for the cooling system is also OK (which has never been tested).

The only negative thing is that I spent a lot of time and effort neatly routing the return fuel line around the back of the engine all those months ago.

At the time this seemed like a good idea but apparently, now that the red hot exhaust system is in, running the petrol just a couple of ‘cm’ away from it is not viewed as best practice so I will need to quickly re-route the fuel pipe accordingly.

Luckily, I should be able to do this on Saturday when I get to MAC#1 so it is all looking good for an SVA test (and fingers crossed, pass) next week.

I am really pleased to hear the engine finally running OK as in the back of my mind, I was dreading that the problem that it had was symptomatic of a more fundamental engine problem. With that out of the way, I can’t really see any other major stumbling blocks for SVA.

Final Late Night Garage Report

In many ways this is a sad day because this will be my final report from the garage as the car will be tailored over to MAC#1 tomorrow and I don’t expect to get the car back until after it has passed SVA!

I am not sure how I feel about this to be honest. I am sad that the experience of building the car is coming to an end but on the other hand I am looking forward to driving the car and I am also looking forward to completing the project and having a bit of a rest. There is still much to do before the SVA test on the 22nd but although I plan to visit MAC#1 a couple of times and do what I can, most of it is in the hands of Mark and Colin now.

Broadly speaking, this is what is still left to do before the SVA test.

• Fix engine!
• Build and fit exhaust
• Fit front brake callipers
• Bleed and test brakes
• Fit handbrake saddle and test handbrake
• Finish water cooling system and put water in
• Cut and fit transmission tunnel panels
• Fit ‘hockey stick’ trim to transmission tunnel and sides
• Fit prop shaft
• Gear lever and gear linkage
• Fit mirrors for SVA
• Finalise Digidash configuration
• Fit Digidash speed sensor and magnets to prop shaft
• Fit ‘U’ trim around underside of dash
• Adjust steering and wheel geometry
• Fit fuel filler pipe and filler nozzle
• Finish top of rear (above diff and fuel tank) with a panel
• Fit front cycle wings
• Add ‘U’ trim to front cycle wings
• Add Power Commander (just purchased one from ebay!)

I am probably forgetting some other stuff but I think that is all the main things. It looks like a lot but other than making the exhaust, none of it should take MAC#1 too long.

Back to tonight, as the car is going first thing tomorrow, it was really just a case of doing a few little things that had been left out. First of these was a return spring mechanism for the throttle.

I kind of made this bit up so I don’t know if it will be OK or even work but here is what I did.

Started with one of the old bike throttle cables I took off the engine several months ago.

Cut off the end.

Added a spring and some washers.

Secured the end using a solderless nipple.

So now when the throttle is pressed, the spring is compressed and when the pedal is released, the spring assists in closing the throttle bodies. This should make the throttle response more crisp.

As an interesting side note, I did not have any washers of the appropriate size with a small hole. Then I discovered that Norwegian Krona are almost perfect for the job.

(washer on left, 1 Krona coin on right)

So I used a 1 Krona coins instead of washers. I will change to something more suitable later.

Next job was to secure the steering rack side of the drag link arm (I think that is what they are called) gaiters, using big jubilee clips.

      

Next I tackled the flexible brake pipes that will connect to the front callipers once they are fitted. These flexible brake pipes are bolted through the side panels and the rigid copper brake pipes are connected to them on the inside of the chassis.

Way back in December, I wrote a blog entry about how to do single and double flares on the brake pipes and I finished the entry with the double flares needed on the front pipes to connect to the front brakes. Well, after seven months of doing nothing, those rigid pipes were finally connected up tonight.

The final thing I looked at tonight was connecting the DigiDash II Lite up to the PC and configuring the speed calibration and gear ratios.

Looks very hi-tech!

The way it works is you start by running the Speed Calibration Calculator tool. YOu have to put a load of information in to this such as diff ratio, tyre size and drive configuration.

Once you have typed in all this information, it give you a calibration factor for speed and gears. You then run the main Digidash program and add these calibration factors to the settings along with the gear ratios (which are in the Haynes manual). You can also configure a range of other options from the Digidash Config Tool. When you are happy, you download the setting to the dashboard via a serial (RS232) or USB connection.  

So that is that!

The last report before the car goes off. It will be strange having an empty garage and nothing to keep me up until 1:25 in the morning, but maybe that is a good thing!

Fitting the radiator fan

This was the first job yesterday and it only took about 5 minutes to do.

The fan is held on using special ‘zip tie’ type things that pass right through the radiator.

I used a small screwdriver to to gently part the radiator fins enough to push the tie through. Once it was threaded through, the radiator was pushed on and then a special locking ‘top hat’ is pushed on to secure the whole thing.

Job done!   

Broken Engine :-(

A month ago I posted a blog entry in which I included a short YouTube video of me starting the engine. This proved three things:

1. My wiring was OK and all the safety checks had been passed by the ECU so it allowed the engine to start.

2. Fuel and power were getting to the engine and it was generating oil pressure.

3. The engine (an un-known quantity) works.

Since then I have tidied up the wiring, added in some cable ducks (which I think was a mistake) and also re-wired the power to the dashboard and lights to make them fused in the correct way. But I have essentially not touched any of the wiring to the engine other than adding the battery cut-off switch to the main feed.

And yet, something has changed as the engine does not work now!

I tried to spark it to check it was all ok last week but it would not start. At first I thought it was the battery so I charged it up but still no joy.

The sound it makes is different, like the starting is freely spinning or not engaging at all and there is no oil pressure being shown on the dash, which makes sense as I don’t think the engine is turning over at all.

Last night, I took out one of the spark plugs and tried it to see if I was getting a spark, again there was nothing.

So, to me that suggests that it is an electrical problem but then why does the starter sound different. What the hell have I broken?

I have now checked all my wiring and can not see anything that has changed or is wrong but something must be. I think I will have to leave this up to the experts at MAC#1 as diagnosing an engine fault definitely falls on the wrong side of my current skill set.

It is disappointing but I will continue with the rest of the build and (unless inspiration occurs) leave the engine until the car goes to MAC#1 prior to SVA.

Arrrrrg

The Engine Starts!!!!

18:15 on the 22/04/2007 which is nearly six months to the day after picking up the kit, the engine sprang to life.

If you have read my previous post you will see that I tried to start the engine last weekend but ended up with petrol spraying everywhere due to what I thought was a bad fuel regulator.

MAC#1 got me another fuel regulator which arrived today and was fitted as soon as I got home from work. I primed the fuel pump and guess what, the exact same thing happened, fuel squirted out of the fuel regulator!

So it was not a faulty regulator after all. After some investigation, it just seemed to stop leaking. At first I thought it had magically fixed itself which was very worrying but thinking back, one of the things I did was loosen the jubilee clip on the fuel line, adjust the pipe and re-tighten it. So it looks like I owe the guys at MAC#1 an apology as it certainly looks like it was my fault all along. Well no harm done really, I will just send the replacement fuel regulator back along with a 4 pack.

So with that sorted, it was time to try to start the engine again. Last time I checked the oil pressure and temperature so I know that they are ok and I also checked that the spark plugs were sparking so in theory, once petrol is added, the engine should spring to life.

So it was a great deal of anticipation that I pressed the ‘start’ button on the dash. The engine turned over…. and continued to turn over with no effect. So I had to go through all the connections again only to discover that I had not re-connected the power to the spark plugs! So with that re-connected pushed the ‘start’ button again, not really expecting it to start but as you can see from the video below, spring to life it did.

 

 

I could not leave it running for more than a second or so as the water cooling system is still not complete so there was no engine cooling, but it proves that the wiring is all good, that the fuel system is working, that the engine is functional and most importantly, that the car is now a real, functioning thing. I can’t wait to get the water system finished and maybe the exhaust manifold on so that I can run the engine for a little longer and enjoy the sound as it revs (loudly).

Great day, one that deserves some beers which is exactly what I am doing as I write this entry!

As I have now wored out how to add videos to YouTube and the blog, here are a couple more. One of a secind test fire of the engine to make sure it was not a fluke. The other is the pretty lights on the dash and digidash on startup. Now, back to the beer.

 

The Wiring Loom – Massive Progress Plus A Minor Setback (Part 2)

In the last post I outlined the work I had been doing on the wiring loom in getting all the connections to the engine all extended and in place.

But that is only half of the exciting progress made this week. I set myself the goal of attempting to fire up the engine this weekend. This was a big goal to set but I was sure that I could do it.

So once the engine electrics were connected up (see part 1), there was still a fair bit to do. I had to:

• Put new oil in to the engine
• Fit new fuel filter
• Fit new sump plug washer
• Wire up the dashboard power
• Connect power to digidash
• Connect oil pressure and temperature sensors to engine (and to the digidash)
• Connect up the start button on dash
• Terminate all the cables in the loom that needed to be connected together (see previous list of loom connections)
• Finish the fuel lines and test the fuel pump
• Test the overall power system and ensure that constant and switched power (switched by ignition key) was going to correct places
• Check ‘anti hotwire’ voltage from ignition key to ensure security was bypassed
• Power engine and test for ignition sparks on spark plugs
• Check for oil pressure when engine turning over
• Add petrol to tank, press start button and hope.

Ok, to save you reading this whole long post to see what happened I will say now that I got as far as the very last bullet point but had to abandon my attempt due to a leaking fuel regulator which was leaking petrol on the engine. This was disappointing but at first but then when I looked back at what I had achieved this week, I did not feel too bad.

But let’s look at how I got to that slight anti-climax.

Putting oil in the engine was simple and in fact was covered in a previous post. Same for the oil filter.

Powering up the dashboard felt like a bit step. It basically all worked first time which I think is due to amount of thought and work done in the past 6 months plus the great advice offered by MAC#1.

The Digidash was also connected up to both power and the oil pressure/temp sensors.

The oil pressure and temperature sensors are mounted on an extension pipe. This was covered in a previous post but I also ran the connections from these sensors to the digidash to allow me to check for oil pressure when turning over the engine.

What seems like months ago, I just about finished the fuel system, almost but not quite. I was missing the return hose to carry excess fuel from the throttle bodies, back to the fuel tank. The rigid pipes were in place but the flexible pipe from the engine to the copper was missing. Obviously this would need fitting prior to firing up the engine. Luckily, MAC#1 sent me the extra hose I needed at the beginning of the week.

The pipe was routed up the chassis and round the back of the engine, then across the front to connect to the fuel regulator.

As mentioned earlier, the fuel regulator ultimately prevented me from starting the engine this weekend but I should mention that this was a faulty part on the engine, not a part that I had touched in any way! Which was frustrating!

So, with the fuel system intact, the electrical system working, the dashboard connected up and the digidash was working. Time to start the pre-startup procedure.

Once again, Mark at MAC#1 offered great advice on what I needed to do.

The recommended procedure is.

1. Connect the fuel pump and then turn the ignition key. The fuel pump will prime for about 5 seconds and then switch off. This proves the fuel pump and the fuel cutoff relay in the loom. It also pumps fuel to the engine.

This worked!

2. Disconnect the fuel pump and remove the sparkplugs from the engine, then rest them on the cylinder head so that the base of the sparkplug is touching the engine. The when you turn the engine over, you can see the sparks firing. This proves that the ECU is firing the cylinders and that your electrics are connected correctly.

I had spark!!

3. Under the same conditions, check on the digidash that you have oil pressure. This is vital as without oil, the engine will weld itself together.

When I tried this, I had no reading but I could also see that the oil level had dropped in the inspection window so oil was being pumped. Once again, Mark at MAC#1 had the answer. He thought it was air in the oil extender pipe which would need bleeding so I loosened the oil temp sensor and turned the engine over until oil started to leak out, then re-tightened up the sensor. After that I had pressure of around 10psi which I am not sure is correct but for this test, all I needed was an indication that oil was being pumped.

I had to add a little more oil but it worked, I had pressure!!!

So that was it. All tests done and passed, time to add some fuel and see if it would start.

I added a little bit of fuel and pushed the start button and the engine turned over beautifully but it did not fire up. So I first looked at the fuel and discovered that I had not put in enough fuel to allow it to reach the engine. So I put some more fuel in and was certain that the engine would start, but as it turned out, the lack of fuel was probably a good thing given that when fuel did reach the engine, it leaked out from the fuel regulator.

 

This is the fuel regulator and when I added more fuel to the system and turn the the ignition key, the fuel pump primed and pushed fuel up to the engine….. and petrol started coming out of the regulator here.

So I never got to try firing the engine a second time as I could not risk anything with petrol leaking from the system. The fuel regulator is a ‘bolt on’ part so I should be able to get a new one, bolt it on and then try again.

So there we have it. It looks a mess at the moment but the wiring is largely sorted, the engine has been tested and everything is ready to for the big start. The dashboard is in and the car seems far closer to life than ever before.

I am really pleased with the progress this week and although it would have been nice to hear the engine roar, I am an not too disappointed.

Here are some other photos of the work this week.

The Wiring Loom – Massive Progress Plus A Minor Setback (Part 1)

Well it has been a massive week for kitcar progress. I worked through to 1am every night last week plus put in a full day on Saturday.

And what have I been doing?

Well, I was tackling the job that most car builders dread the most. Fitting the wiring loom and breathing life in to the car.

There are basically three approaches wiring a kit car.

1. Build a new wiring loom from scratch. This is the hardcore option as you really need to know what you are doing. It is not just a case of connecting up all the parts, you also need to worry about fuses and relays. You also need a ton of coloured wire.

2. Buy a specialist wiring loom. There are several dedicated kitcar wiring looms that you can buy. This is a good option in that it does not cost that much (about £150 plus fuse box) but it will still require a lot of customisation. Also, these tend to be designed for ford car engined kitcars so they are not that well suited to my bike engined car.

3. Use the wiring loom from you donor vehicle. Technically, my car has two donors as some bits are from a sierra but the engine is from a Honda Fireblade. I am using the wiring loom from the Fireblade which may seem like an odd choice but my car is closer to a bike than you may initially think. Just like a bike, my car does not have a heater, AC, windscreen wipers or any other bits that you would not find on a bike, but it does have front a rear lights and fuel pump which is all I really need.

So the Fireblade wire loom is not ideal but it has all the connectors needed for the engine, includes provision for all the lights plus it has the fuse box and all the relays I need already included. There are several bits of the loom that I will not use and a couple of additional bits I need to add but in general will make my life easier. The only problem is that the loom was designed for the bike which means that the connectors exit the loom at the point they are needed on the bike but as my car will be more spaced out, most if these will need extending to the appropriate parts of the car.

Here is the loom before I started to fit it to the car.

I started by mounting the ECU to the panel I made earlier.

Next I mounted the power regulator and relays to the passenger footwell.

Then I set about the job of extending all the cables I needed to in order for the connectors coming out of the loom to reach the part of the engine or car they needed to.

In total I think I extended at least 50 cables but the process was the same as for them all.

(sorry about the low quality pictures)

Here was a typical connector (cam pulse generator I think). As you can see, it was originally only about 3cm long but needed to be extended to more than 1m. So first job was to cut the connector off.

I then put together the extension cable to be spliced in to the loom.

Next, use heat shrink and solder to connect the new cable to both the connector and the loom.

One of the problems was that most the connectors were very close to the loom so once cut off, the stubs were very short which is difficult to work with. 

But with a little patience hard work, it was all possible.

Once I had the all the engine connectors hooked up, I finished off with some cable ducting to make it all look good.