Swappin' Relays + Grit Blasting

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John
Date: Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 12:56 PM
Subject: Verrry interesting...
To: JtC

Yo!

This morning I swapped the fuel pump relay with one of the thermo fan relays and gave it a start. Buzzing as usual. I thought I would check fault codes...

P0036

P0056

P0463 and

P0483

...are all usual suspects, no problems there.

The interesting one is P0480...

Cooling Fan Relay 1 Control Circuit

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0480

Extract:

"The causes for this DTC may include:

  - Faulty fan control relay 1"

Don't know B2aaa, but I think "B" is something to do with body control module (which is deleted). I know the low-speed thermo fan function is managed by the BCM, so there is every chance it is tied-in with P0480.

Video here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjGA3Cb9O6k

After switching the car off I swapped the relays back again.

A few other things...

Coolant is below the top of the core.

Packed the bonnet hinges and bonnet latch into the Commodore in the hope that I can find some time this arvo to give them a grit blast.

< Edit... done! Photo below >

With all the starts I have been giving the Chev this week, I decided to disconnect the negative terminal and put the battery on trickle charge.

J

LS Starter Solenoid

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John
Date: Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 12:58 PM
Subject: LS Starter Solenoid
To: JtC

Interesting read...

http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-hybrids/1579106-5-3-problem-starter-hitting-flywheel-problem-fixed.html

Thinking about the gauge of purple wire from the VZ, I wonder if we are giving the solenoid enough juice?

If the starter problem surfaces again, we could try feeding terminal 30 of the starter relay with larger gauge wire from battery +ive.

J

The Big Push - Day 2 (wiring + fluids + START!)

Yesterday's efforts broke the back of the last leg to start-up, with the only remaining wiring being the interface with the existing Chev circuits:
- wire ignition on (pink 4mm wire).
- wire into the brake circuit (red 2mm wire).
- wire the reverse lights (yellow 2mm wire).

Then it was a case of adding all fluids, holding our collective breath and turning the key!

Nothing.

With "ignition on", we could hear the fuel pump relay click and the fuel pump whirr into life for a couple of seconds then stop. All good. Part of the design.

Then twist to start, we could hear the starter relay click, as well as a loud clack from the starter solenoid... but nothing.

After a couple of twists with nothing, one last twist caught and the engine stumbled into life...

A couple of things... you can hear some lifter tap, so there was a bit of concern around oil pressure. The idle is rough and hunting, plus the accel pedal did nothing.

We killed it and scratched our heads for a while; we needed to know what was going on.

I took a drive to a mate's house (Stu the Aussie champion) who lent me his OBD2 ELM327 adaptor. But on my return, JtC had nailed it!

The plug to the throttle butterfly was loose. A quick click and voila! Smooth idle!

We even had gears. First time in daylight for nine months...

A quick run up the hill showed that the thing was gutless as anything. Full throttle saw the car crawl up the hill... something awry there.

And one final issue, a buzzing from the relay that feeds the fuel pump...

One final video that highlights the baulk on start. The first crank is a no-go and the second fires...

So the issues are:
- baulks intermittently on start-up
- buzzing fuel pump relay
- gutless

Interestingly in the last video, the fuel pump relay is much quieter.

Time to do some research but the issues do not seem insurmountable.

HUGE thanks to JtC for all his efforts! There is no way I could have achieved all this in the time we did without his time, efforts and experience. Well done!

J

The Big Push - Day 1 (wiring)

It has come to this.

Through the week I booked the exhaust for 9/12 and rego inspection for 12/12, so there is a real urgency now to knock-off the last items on the to-do list... the majority being related to keeping smoke within wires.

We had mini working bee Tue night to fit the battery tray and drill through the firewall on the passenger side for battery positive, thermo fan and starter wires.

During the week, various parts were acquired ready for a committed weekend of wiring...
- 25 mm2 cable (battery to starter, batter to alt, ground)
- lugs for 25mm2 cable
- distribution post for feeding battery +ive to various circuits
- relay base (will reuse a relay from the VZ for P/N start conditioning)
- plug for thermo fan connection
- 10mm dia split conduit
- 16mm dia split conduit

So to the weekend: a HUGE double header from JtC, making the trip north on both Sat (wiring till midnight) and Sun in an attempt to get the beast started.

First mission:
- Create new battery/ground cables.
- Wire the battery positive/starter/alternator/ground harness.
- Wire the existing Chev battery positive harness to the existing horn relay.
- Wire constant power source (red 2 x 6mm wires) from EFI to battery positive...




Detailed shot of the battery +ive distribution post arrangement...




Secondly: Wire the fuel pump (purple 4mm wire). We ran the wire under the carpet (down the passenger side of the car), under the base of the seat and dragged it though into the boot using floor board tongue...




From there we passed it under the car, through a re-purposed grommet (that was used for the old fuel tank vent), up to the fuel pump and terminated.


Third task takes place under the dash (hard to take photos as the wiring is so well hidden!):

Wire a starter relay which is conditioned to feed the starter solenoid only when the trans is in Park or Neutral (managed by the ECU... the existing Chev P/N switch is by-passed).

We grabbed a relay from one of the VZ relay blocks and mounted into a relay base that clipped to the end of the string of relays in the ECU harness.

existing Chev start trigger wire = pin 86
grey 2mm wire from ECU = pin 85 (switched ground).
existing Chev start trigger wire = pin 30 (looped from the feed to pin 86)
wire to starter solenoid = pin 87


Fourth: Wire the thermo fan (green 2 x 5mm wires).



More tomorrow.

J

Wiring

A few days after the hole in the firewall was finished, JtC came up to help pull wires through...

Acres of room under a full-size dash for mounting all the paraphanalia!

We'll leave the harness, ECU's, etc. hanging down for access while we wire.

J

I Dug a Hole

After much umming and ahhing over the decision of where to mount the engine ECU + gearbox ECU + associated relays and fuses, the decision was finally made to make use of the existing hole in the firewall, set aside by GM for the clutch master.

It was around 2" diameter, so a cardboard template was cut-out to practice pushing the large ECU harness plugs through...




The first hole was an experiment in leaving the orginal firewall hole diameter and cutting a recess off to one side to house each strand of the harness as we passed it through.

Good in theory, but no cigar... 2" diameter was too small.

On the right is a 3" diameter hole which worked fine.

Time to get cutting...




Getting bigger...






Once drilled-out, all jagged edges were tidied-up with a carbide burr on a drill and lined with a grommet made out of spilt ATF cooler hose.

J

Wiring

A nice aspect of the test frame being 100% steel is the ability to earth back through the frame as if it were a car body; plus the C-rails meant there were locations to easily connect/disconnect earth straps...




We - thankfully - kept the battery terminals/cables off the VZ, which were pressed back into service...






Wiring the ignition switch and testing...




Red = power from the battery
Brown/white stripe = accessories
Orange = ignition on
Purple = starter



J