Wiring Part 1

I have called this post Wiring Part 1 but I probably should have called it Fabrication because that is how I spent most of my time the last three days.  Fabrication and trying to figure out where to put the ECU, the wiring harness, and all the wires! 

I finally decided on mounting the ECU in front of the front roll hoop where the dash was installed.  I don't need the old dash because I'm going to have a data system and will have a display on the steering wheel.  So, the first thing I had to do was make a plate to mount it on and I needed to make some brackets to secure it to the plate.  I had some thin 1/2" steel so I bent that so that it was a bit larger than the ECU with the plan of filling the gaps with some rubber strips which will minimize some of the vibration and also hold the ECU very securely. 

I installed some 10-32 nutcerts into the aluminum plate so that I could use 10-32 screws to hold the ECU in place.  There are 4 posts that the dash mounted to but unfortunately they were a little too long for this application because I wanted to use rubber standoffs to minimize vibration.  The standoffs were 3/4" long and unfortunately that length was about 1/2" too long so I cut off 1/2" of the posts.  I also had to trim the screw portion of two standoffs a little bit.  I trimmed the plate down and used countersunk screws to mount it to the standoffs.

Here is a pic of the ECU mounted.

And another pic to show the standoffs.

Here is a pic of the switch panel that came with the car which has an ignition switch, a rain light switch, and a starter button.

This is fine but I also need to install a fuel pump switch and I personally like to have a few lights installed to tell me when the ignition is on, the rain light is on, and I might even put one in to tell me when the fuel pump is on.  In order to get all that in, I needed a dash again!  So it was time to start fabricating again.  I wanted to mount this dash on the cockpit side of the front roll hoop.  This turned out to be a little tricky because the cross member above my legs is actually set back about 1/2" from the top of the roll hoop.  The first thing I did was make it out of poster board.

And here is the finished dash.

I again installed nutcerts in the frame so I could mount it with 10-32 screws.  I'm also going to paint it black.
All the fabrication really took a lot of time!  Even though I had three days to work on the car, it doesn't seem like I got much done but I should be able to get a lot more wiring done next weekend.

Cooling System

A number of water pipes and silicon hose connectors came with the HPD kit but the pipes were also designed for the 99 Van Diemen so Eric Langbein modified them or made up some new pipes for my car.  He did all the hard work and the stuff that I had to do wasn't too difficult.  Here is a pic of the header tank that came with the HPD kit.

It is a nice tank but it is again built for the 99 VD and is made to be installed at the front of the engine.  Instead of using this tank, Eric modified a tank that a friend of mine gave to me.  Here is the finished product:

Eric also made a nice bracket for it and provided some rubber stand offs in order to minimize vibration from the engine.  Here is a pic of it installed with the main fill line attached.

And here is the other end of the fill line.

The HPD manual called for two bleed lines, one from one of the water pipes as shown below and one from the top of the right side radiator.  However, I talked to a few different racers and they all said that two bleed lines aren't necessary if you fill the system properly.  So, I have only gone with the one.

The radiators aren't installed yet so I don't have pics of them but the installation will be very quick -- just silicone hoses and hose clamps.  I will also install some -3 drain lines just to make life a little easier when it is time to drain the system.

Oil System

Before I started on installing the oil lines, I needed to install the bell housing where the oil is stored and the transmission that is attached to the bell housing.  Although I used the engine hoist to lift it, a friend of mine came over and helped guide it into place.  We ran into a couple of small issues but overall it went pretty easily and the race car looks just a little bit more like a race car with it installed.

I also wanted to install the exhaust because I obviously don't want to have any lines close to it.  The header is integrated into the engine so there is only one exhaust pipe attached -- very simple!

Instead of an oil cooler, I'm going to use a small oil/water heat exchanger because these engines seem to run pretty cool.  The water runs through a tube in it and the oil runs around that water tube and like the name says, the two of them exchange heat and the temperature between them equalizes.  The heat exchanger mounts to the left side radiator so I installed that side pod and put the radiator, pipes, and heat exchanger in place.

Now I could start running some oil lines.  Attached is one of the packages from HPD which shows some of the fittings that I used on the oil lines.

The oil flows from the oil tank in the bell housing through the in-line oil filter and then to the right side of the engine and then comes out the left, through the heat exchanger and back to the oil tank.  Most of the oil lines are -10 but the line coming out of the engine is -12.  Here is a pic of the fitting coming out of the oil tank.  This fitting actually came with the car when I bought it so I re-used it.

Below is a pic of the in-line filter installed and a pic of the fitting on the left side of the engine where the oil goes into it.  Btw, most Van Diemens have the oil tank fitting on the right side but for some reason mine is on the left.  As a result, the 3 or 4ft of -10 hose that HPD provided wasn't enough and I needed to buy a couple more feet.

And that is as far as I got because the heat exchanger has two -10 fittings and I need it to have one -12 so I will have to see if I can order one.  HPD also shipped about 4 ft of -12 hose but the fitting on top of the oil tank is -10 so I'm going to order a few more feet of -10 hose so that I can attach a -10 line from the heat exchanger to the oil tank.  Once I have what I need, the oil system should be finished up pretty quickly.

Btw,  it was a balmy 19 degrees outside this morning so the garage was very cold!  Here is how I get the garage up to temperature on these cold mornings!!



Fuel System Part 2

It took me a little while to figure out exactly how to mount everything and I ended up having to order different fittings over a couple of weekends.  I also didn't have a fuel pressure sensor from HPD so I let them know and they sent one to me.  Here is a pic of everything installed without the engine is in place.

I also covered the lines with heat shield just to keep the fuel as cool as possible.  You will notice that the filler neck is now installed.  Eric Langbein welded a -6 fitting onto the filler neck.  The line coming off the bottom of the fuel regulator attaches to the filler neck and this shoots over flow fuel back into the fuel cell.  Eric made the fitting so that it shoots the fuel down the filler neck at a 90 degree angle.  The only thing that is not installed is the air vent hose.

Here is a close up of the fuel regulator with the engine installed -- you can see the fuel pressure sensor coming off of the fuel regulator at a 45 degree angle.  I couldn't have it come straight out because it would have come in contact with the engine.

And a pic of the fuel filter as well as the fuel pump.

Here is a pic of the fuel sampling port which is a requirement of the SCCA.  Putting it here gives me nice easy access to it and gives me a good place to separate the line when I pull the engine.

So all the hoses are complete but one of the things that I spent the most time on was the aluminum cover to the fuel cell.  I bent the first one wrong and I was out of aluminum so I had to order more and bend another one.  But I finally got it bent and to fit right.  Here is a pic of it installed. 

So, the fuel system is done!!  Next is the oil system!

Weight!!

Since I weigh less than 150 lbs and the Honda engine is lighter than the Ford engine, I need to add a lot of weight to get up to the minimum weight.  I figure I'm going to have to add a least 60 pounds and probably more.  I want the weight as low as possible and since most of the weight of the car is in the back, I want as much weight towards the front of the car as well.  So, I ordered 60 pounds of lead sheet.  Some of it is 1/16" inch thick and most of it is 1/8" thick.  The 1/16" thick lead is for the areas in between the extra bits of steel that Eric welded onto the frame and I can stack the 1/8" pieces can be stacked on top.  Lead is very soft so it actually came in rolls.

The 1/8" lead was a little bit of a challenge to unroll and here is a pic of the lead unrolled.

In order to get it flat so that I can work with it, I simply beat it with a hammer and a board.

Lead isn't exactly the safest stuff in the world and it oxidizes so I wanted to do something to cover it.  I came up with the idea of using Monokote.  I had never used it before but it is used to cover the wings of model airplanes.  It will stick (really melt) to itself using a heat gun and it acually shrinks a little bit as well.  It should be very resistent to different chemicals like oil and gas as well.  Here is a pic of a piece of lead covered in Monokote.

And a pic of it installed.

For the 1/8" thick pieces, I simply drilled holes in the first piece where the rivets were just like I did with the plywood that is underneath the fuel cell.  So far I have about 40 lbs of lead installed.  Here is a pic of the battery box and the fire extinguisher holder installed on top of some lead.  The hobby shop was out of black Monokote so I had to use blue.