AdamQ

Regarding the alternator wiring, the alternator has a purple wire and a brown/orange one - I assumed that the brown/orange one went to a live feed and the purple to the ignition light; in fact it was the other way round. I submit to the wisdom of Blatchat once again. Having achieved a good steady idle and a generally satisfactory state of affairs all round, I switched to the M3D Emerald to which I had transplanted my K3 map. I also tidied up the wiring with that rubber tape stuff, fitted the silencer and replaced the blown immobiliser LED. I earthed the ATS, WTS and TPS earths to the Emerald AND to a separate earth on the chassis. I am now in the unhappy situation where the car will not start with either the K3 or the M3D Emerald. The fuel pump primes when the ignition is switched on. There are healthy sparks on all four cylinders. There is a strong smell of petrol during cranking and white smoke out of the trumpets on occasions. The cranking voltage is 10.8 - 11.3 V (jump leads to the tin top). The rational explanation is that I've disturbed a connection whilst 'tidying' the wiring. My question is: what might it be that I've disturbed that would still give a spark and fuel but no joy on the actual firing up front? I might add that the engine seems desperate to start but just can't quite bring itself to. Wisdom welcome ...! Cheers, Adam

Thank you all for the ongoing help. John, yes, all sorted now thank you - reversing the wires to the alternator cured the ignition light problem and then independently earthing the TPS resulted in the Emerald not throwing an error when I tried to calibrate the TPS and it gave me the elusive spark that I craved so much ... I'm just fitting rear wings and a couple of other things before letting the car down off the great big scissor jack so that I can fit the silencer (dog (and neighbours probably) not impressed at the initial start-up without it ...!) and then try to get a decent tickover etc. (and see whether or not I've transplanted the K3 map over to the M3D successfully). Regarding the resistance of a direct connection, I also get a reading of anything from 0.2 to 0.6 ohms when I short the two probes together ... Thank you all once again ... Adam

I spoke to Emerald yesterday and it is as you suggest Mankee - the only way of doing it is to copy the numbers across manually ... Ho hum - shouldn't be too bad hopefully ...

Hi John, Thanks for the post. Yes, with the ignition on the fuel pump was pumping. Wasn't quite sure precisely what the immobiliser immobilised if you see what I mean so that's useful to know. Regards, Adam

Thanks Revilla - that's useful information - I shall investigate ...

Well, I seem to have almost solved this - I at least have a handle on the problem. The strange ignition light behaviour was solved by switching over the connections on the alternator - they were simply the wrong way round. That didn't solve the lack of spark. In messing about with the Emerald I thought I'd recalibrate the TPS, but the Emerald reported a problem. I grabbed another TPS off a car that had been running this morning perfectly well and got the same problem. That seemed odd. I checked and double-checked the wiring to the ECU and there was the continuity you'd expect. Then I checked the voltages on the connector with the ignition on. TPS supply 5.0 V TPS signal 4.7 V or something - can't remember TPS earth 5.0 V Now I'm no electrical genius, but I've got a vague notion that earth is supposed to be 0.0 V or thereabouts and so this seemed a bit strange. To cut a long s. short, the TPS, ATS and WTS have a common earth on pin 30 of the Emerald and both the ATS and the WTS seem to be outputting 5 V to earth when they are connected - no idea why this is and I shall look into it. Anyway, with the WTS and the ATS disconnected and the TPS independently earthed, hey presto - a great thumping spark and she's running, after a fashion - struggling a bit to get any sort of tickover. At one point with the throttle closed we seemed to get about 4000 rpm and rising, but I'm sure just a bit of tinkering is required ... Anyway, in the hope that this might help some poor soul at some point in the future, that's the story ...! Adam

A bit more information. The alternator is new. The battery voltage when cranking is 9.8-10.1 V. The earths were all cleaned prior to installation and a series of probings with a multimeter suggest that things that should be earthed are. The resistance between the ECU earth pin on the ECU connector and the -ve terminal of the battery is 0.5 ohms. Regarding the fuel gauge, there is a reading of 12.5 V at the connector on the back where the green wires go in. The dash is the 'classic' one - not Stack. The OPG (electric) appears to be working. I might or might not be significant, but I did notice that, with the ECU connector unplugged and the ignition on, the ignition light stays on rather than just lighting up momentarily. Does anybody happen to know which of the several wires that go to the tachometer is the one that goes to the ignition light? Many thanks, Adam

Hi John, Thanks for the reply. There is an immobiliser and it is a concern of mine, but it clicks as you'd expect in response to the blipper. The immobiliser LED doesn't do anything, but I seem to remember some ham-fistedness (mea culpa) mullering that a couple of years ago when I was taking everything apart (it's been a long-term project!) ... I presume bypassing the immobiliser is non-trivial (else it would rather raise the question of their effectiveness) but any tests/checks I can do would be welcome ... Regards, Adam

Good Evening, Does anybody happen to know whether it's possible to convert an Emerald *.map map to an Emerald *.fig map - and if so, how? There are no options in the Emerald software Save dialogue that I can see and opening the K3 maps in MultiEdit gives a load of hexadecimal stuff from what I can tell, unlike the ASCII format of the *.fig files. I have a map on a K3 ECU that came from an M3DK map and which I would like to put back on an M3DK ECU. Many thanks, Adam

Evening All, I'm nearing the end of a Duratec conversion from a K series and today was first-fire-up day. Unfortunately, I seem to be sparkless. I've wrestled with our seemingly emasculated Blatchat search engine, but to little avail. I've tried jump leads to a (running) second car and have decent voltages. From a previous conversion, I know that there is no way of telling which way round the CPS wires go and I have tried both alternatives. I'm using an Emerald ECU. There's some slightly odd behaviour where the ignition/charging light is concerned. It lights up when the ignition is first switched on, but goes out after about a second. If I disconnect the thick purple engine loom power feed, the ignition light stays on as expected. The feed to the coil pack reads the same voltage as that across the battery terminals with the ignition on and during cranking. The coil pack is new. One thing to add is that the alternator wiring involved a bit of guesswork. It's a Powerlite RAC051 with two wires and a post. The post goes to the positive terminal of the battery. I then have a purple wire and a brown one. The Powerlite website makes no mention of to what these should be connected. I have the brown one going to a live feed and the purple one going to the ECU. I read somewhere on here that you can check which wire goes to the ignition light by seeing which alternator wire is earthed with the ignition off; neither of my wires is earthed with the ignition off. One other thing that might be worth mentioning is that the fuel guage seems pretty lifeless. Thank you for reading this far ... Any assistance gratefully received ... Cheers, Adam

I believe it's been suggested in the past that one of the main problems with the heat build up is that hot air finds its way into the transmission tunnel and then has nowhere to go. Two partial solutions I've seen talked about are coarse mesh gaiters for the gear and handbrake levers and some sort of opening at the rear end of the tunnel cover to allow air to flow out ... I've done the gaiter thing and, judging by the amount of hot air being emitted, it certainly helps, but it by no means solves the problem. Regarding a cooler air feed, I've got air coming in via a hole in the nosecone behind the number plate into some ducting, through an in-line air filter mounted behind the radiator and then up to an airbox on the TBs. It seems to work fairly well. I drive the car all year round and haven't had any problems with water ingress ... FWIW, Adam

Hi Julian, Regarding durability, I'd put it at somewhere between insulation tape and duct tape if that's any help ... Not sure it is to be honest .... You'd be extremely welcome to come and have a look - I'll blatmail you with my address etc. ... Regards, Adam

I had some internal panels that were in dire need of attention. I took them out, hammered out all the dents etc. and then stuck this stuff http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3D-Carbon-Fibre-Vinyl-Wrap-Air-Bubble-Free-Black-Multi-sizes-/200974170606?var=&hash=item2ecafe79ee onto them. I'm not particularly good at this sort of thing but it was fairly easy and I'm pleased with the end result. One is adding weight of course - tut, tut ... FWIW, Adam

I'm very impressed with these here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motamec-Racing-Formula-F1-Car-Wing-Mirror-x2-Convex-Glass-Swivel-Mount-CARBON/290965169051?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D32694%26meid%3D8611ab8240eb4cb8b196fb9878a1b8e9%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D290965168870 Price isn't too bad either ... FWIW, Adam

Hi Chris, I'll take this if I may please. £150 seems good to me. I'll drop you a blatmail with details. Many thanks, Adam

You could do far worse than Autoblast, Pot Hill Farm, Honeybridge Lane, Dial Post, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 8NX Tel: 01903 254562 Adam

I have a Duratec in an S3 with Jenvey TBs and no cut-out. Initially it had the Pipercross foam filter on it but it now has an alternative arrangement (still with no cut-out) whereby the air enters behind the number plate on the nose cone, goes through an in-line filter and then on up to an airbox. FWIW ... Adam

May I have first dibs please? I'll drop you a blatmail. Regards, Adam

Guy, I looked into something similar a short while ago and I'm 99% certain that the ECU used on the 1999 1800 VX 8V SOHC was a MEMS 906. Don't know if that helps - hope it might ... Regards, Adam

I don't know if it's still the case, but back in 2008 when I did my Duratec conversion the Cosworth buckets were siugnificantly cheaper than the Ford dealer ones ... FWIW ... Adam

Complete basic engine less sump - 13000 miles, assiduously serviced. Starter motor, alternator, clutch, flywheel, but no carbs. OIRO £200 SOLD Exhaust primaries and sliencer with cheese-grater from the above (can't find the collector I'm afraid). Could do with a polish, but otherwise in very good condition. OIRO £150. Happy to split. Lower wishbones, top links and trunnion uprights. OIRO £50. Again, I'm happy to split. P&P at cost, GONADS or collection from RH13. Please Blatmail or call 0781 007 3021. Many thanks, Adam

Morning! Not exactly NW Kent but Curds in Tunbridge Wells have been going for years and have an excellent reputation. Regards, Adam

Didn't mean to be quite so blunt in my comments about the SPA mirrors - in vino veritas - and bluntia! I understand the point about application and mounting method, but ready access to the Allen clamp screw was only really a side issue. It's the fact that the Allen screw has a fairly coarse thread and so loosens at the slightest provocation - solved by PTFE tape or threadlock - and that you've got a hexagon clamping onto a sphere giving poor contact - solved by 'countersinking' one end of the Allen screw - that were the main issues for me. I seem to remember quite a lot of trouble stopping the mirrors swivelling willy-nilly at the mirror end - more threadlock and/or PTFE I think - and walking the tightrope of getting things tight enough and not cracking the housing. I also ended up drilling and tapping the ball joint casing for a locking screw - slight overkill maybe, but I think others have done the same. I hope that's a little more objective and constructive ... Adam

FWIW, having bought SPA once I'd never touch them again - for the price there was way too much 'user input' required to get them to do what they're supposed to - ministry of crap design always springs to mind as far as I'm concerned ... Only my opinion of course.... Adam

Hi Andy, Stripping it down wasn't an explicit requirement - my car had just been to Arch and I'd had to strip it for that so it just sort of happened that way (it would be trying credulity to claim it was my impeccable planning!!). I'm sure that with a build manual to cover the various idiosyncrasies they'd be perfectly capable of doing the stripping. I'd urge you simply to drop in for a chat some time to discuss your requirements. Cheers, Adam