1-7-'03

Yesterday I found the speedo sender T1723 in the instrument pack. Thanks to a excellent hint from Gareth, I finally found the place where to mount in on the differential. I also drilled the holes for a pair of tweeters in the dashboard top and cut the holes for the handbrake and the seatbelt latches out of the handbrake cover.

Speedo sender T1723 on differential

Handbrake cover and dashboard top

5-7-'03

Today was a very productive one! First, I finished work on the hard trim panels and removed them all from the car. They are now ready to be trimmed.

The next job was fitting of the dashboard switches and instruments. In the past weeks I made a few modifications to the binnacle to get a better fit with the dashboard cover. The gelcoat repairs took a lot of time, but now it was finally ready to fit. I used stainless steel panels of my own design, and decided to use a Peugeot 205 hazard switch, to match the fog switch. The led for the 5AS system is also in the switch panel.

I had been thinking about the hazard switch a long time, but it functions differently from the Rover 114 switch. It took 3 relays to get everything to work! The switch illumination works with the switch off. It doesn't blink when it's on, but this is no problem, because I've placed a hazard warning light in the instrument panel.

Behind the binnacle there's a huge wiring mess, this will be taken care of when all the electrics in the car work. I had to remove the tape from most of the GTM dashboard wiring loom to be able to reach the switches, because they are on the left hand side of the instruments! And of course my hazard switch wiring and relays add even more to the chaos.

Switches and instruments

Switch panel

Instrument panel

Instrument wiring chaos

Switch wiring and relays

11-7-'03

This week I've spent quite some time reducing the wiring chaos. While I was at it, I discovered that the Peugeot switches are of very poor quality, it's very difficult to remove the connectors without pulling blades out of the switch. I know this because it happened to me with both switches! The hazard switch was beyond repair, so I picked up another one from the scrap yard. A slight modification in the wiring means that the switch is now also brightly lit when it's on. It's not flashing (it could be done, but only with a 4th relay!), but this is no problem since I've got a flashing hazard light in the instrument panel.

I also made a aluminium bracket for the 3 relays. The white/black wire from the tachometer was connected to the matching wire in the GTM loom near the heater blower. For this I used the existing white/yellow wire which was connected to the Rover diagnostic plug. This plug is not needed because there's a new one on the GTM 5AS loom.

On the other end of the dashboard I could have used some help from the Wood Wizard! I want to have a neat glove box without any visible hoses or wiring. So I made a rear panel from MDF. The bottom half is fixed permanently, while the top half can be removed when it's time to fit the air ducting to the dashboard top.

3 hazard relays fixed in place, a bit less chaotic wiring

Glove box rear panel

12-7-'03

I used an old industrial vacuum cleaner hose as ducting for the windscreen demister vents. Both hose end fittings fitted very nice in the heater. The hose itself is a tight fit over the demister vents. It will be a struggle to connect these once the windscreen is in place! The distribution of air flow between the 3 vents is very uneven. I'm considering placing restrictor discs in the hoses to get it more evenly distributed.

Next job was the trial fitting of the seats. Below the rear ends of the runners are temporary 20 mm thick wood blocks. I'll have to find something suitable (probably an aluminium box section) to replace it with. Three things were immediately clear to me when I got behind the wheel for the first time:

1. This will be great fun, once it's ready!

2. Headroom is very restricted with the standard Metro seats.

3. The steering wheel and column have a slight offset and are pointing rather a lot towards the centre of the car. I'm thinking about placing the drivers seat at the same angle. This way everything lines up much better, even the pedals.

Ducting made from vacuum cleaner hose

Hoses connected to heater

Trial fitting of seats

14-7-'03

Today I picked up the combined hose and pipe WJH105330 from the Rover dealer. I carefully bent the pipe in the direction of the petrol filter, making sure to leave room for the air filter. The pipe clicked simply in the fuel rail and the hose clicks on the short pipe that came with my filter. I let the petrol pump run for a while and could actually hear the filter filling up and after that I clearly heard the pressure build up until the pressure regulator opened. I'm very happy about this!

Last week I also received the cable operated heater valve from SVC. I ordered it without the cable. First I modified it to operate in the opposite direction. This way moving the lever upwards means hot, like it should! I mounted it in the top hose of the heater radiator inside of the dashboard. In this position the existing cable is long enough and it doesn't need to go through the bulkhead. The air valves in the heater are now fixed in the "hot" position as the temperature is now controlled by the new valve. Most of the work I put in to mirror the heater controls is not used anymore! With this new valve my dashboard won't be heated by the constant flow of hot water when the heater is off, unlike in the original set up. I'm confident that it will work, because there's a similar valve in the ZS 180 and I'm copying it's coolant flow.

Tomorrow I will drop off my hard trim panels at Oracle Cars, so Eric can take them to the UK for trimming.

hose/pipe WJH105330

Cable operated heater valve

Panels ready to go to Oracle for trimming

Very little work done today, it just was too hot in the garage! I only connected 2 wires to the 5AS plug for the remote central locking, according to Gareth's drawing. I cut them out of the 3AS plug and simply clicked them in the other plug. They still need to be lengthened and fed through to the doors. While I'm on the subject of doors: On the way home I just realised that I totally forgot to take off the door panels for trimming! All my other panels are at GTM now! Great! :-(

Tonight I tested the central locking by temporarily connecting one motor to the 5AS. I'm glad to say that it works very well! After that I decided to make my own aluminium adapter plate between the PG1 gearbox and the exhaust mounting plate. It was actually a very simple job, because there were 2 unused M10 threaded holes in the differential. I'm also very happy that I can drop off my door panels this week. Jack and Robert will take them to GTM at the open day this weekend. Thanks guys!

Central locking wires (black and white) connected to 5AS

Exhaust adapter plate

22-7-'03

Trying to keep a little variety, I glued all the speaker wiring in place, including 2 crossover networks between the front speakers (to be fitted in the foot well) and the dash mounted tweeters (Magnat Xtract 2130). I found a place for the antenna above the windshield. Everything will be hidden when the trim panels are fitted. The electronic antenna is meant for windshield mounting, but since there's no metal in the Libra bodywork it should work just as well in this position. At least I hope so!

Wiring to rear speaker

Electronic antenna above windshield

Last weekend there was an open day at GTM, and Robert and Jack had a last minute offer I couldn't refuse, so all the current Dutch GTM builders made the trip to the factory. Thanks a lot guys! It was a long, but very rewarding day, especially since there were several V6's present to have a look at. Gerry from GTM also gave the V6 builders instructions for the fitting of the engine wiring harness.

There were no parts for me at the factory, because Eric had picked them up for me the week before. 2 Days ago I collected them. My list of missing parts is getting very short now! Amongst other things I've received my wheels and the engine wiring harness.

Tonight I fitted the exhaust, after my colleagues at work modified the right hand side 180° bend. The obligatory crate of Jupiler is already in the car! It fits beautifully and there's just enough room for the handbrake cable now. I wrapped it thermal sleeving to protect it from the exhaust heat. Only the 3rd lambda sensor and the damper heat shield still have to be fitted.

I also trial fitted the lengthened driveshaft. It needs to come out again to remove the damper which hits the engine. The gaiters need new clamps, but other than that it's fine!

Anthracite KN RLR 7x17" wheel

Exhaust, handbrake cable and driveshaft in place

modified 180° bend to miss handbrake cable

2-8-'03

It was a very warm day in the garage. Typical weather to be thinking about heating the interior! Copying the coolant flow of the ZS180, I've connected the heater hoses to the engine and the expansion tank. The hoses will be wrapped in thermal sleeving where they pass close to the exhaust manifold. The cooling system is almost ready now, only the 2 coolant hoses (and perhaps the oil cooler) need to be connected to the pipes in the tunnel. This will not happen before the gear change is in place and working!

To stick with the heating theme, I replaced the heater control bezel with the new SVA friendly recessed model from GTM.

The exhaust heat shield is also in place. I placed small rubber rubber pads between the shield and the exhaust, to keep it from resonating (hopefully).

In the afternoon I decided to connect the new KV6 engine wiring harness. I haven't received my relay bracket yet, so it looks very chaotic! Most of the wires were easy to connect thanks to the drawings I got at the GTM open day. I made a tiny modification to use the engine's original temperature sender wire.

There are a few problems remaining: I found that in the new harness 3 wires (red, white and green with pink tracer) have been joined together. This makes my starter motor run continuously when I turn the ignition key switch to the second (ignition) position. When I disconnect the white wire from the main GTM loom the starter motor functions like it should (well almost, it only functions when I connect wire nr. 001 to ground, but that's probably because I still have to sort out the old 3AS wiring). Either I'm missing something completely (probably) or there is an error in my engine harness (unlikely).

There are 2 blue/white wires coming from the engine. One of them needs to be connected to the GTM harness, but it's hard to choose when you can't tell them apart!

Heater hoses connected to engine, heat shield still covered in black foil

ZS180 coolant flow

New recessed heater control panel

Engine wiring harness

Tonight I picked up my wheels, this time with tyres on them. I'm very pleased that the spare tyre fits, and there's even some space left between the tyre and the radiator. The other 4 would have been on the car by now, if only I had wheel nuts!

Thanks to Gerry from GTM I was able to identify the blue/white wires. It was the slightly larger one that I needed. He also confirmed that there really is a fault in my engine wiring harness, as the ignition feed and starter relay feed have been joined together.

I joined all the speaker wires together in an ISO B-connector. There's already an ISO A-connector in the Rover loom, so it will be very easy later on to connect a CD/radio unit.

Spare tyre fits

Thermal sleeving around heater hoses

It is alive! I provisionally fixed the fault in the engine wiring harness. This made my starter motor operate in a normal fashion, and it's also controlled by the 5AS immobiliser. After this I traced the fuel pump wiring, to find out why the pump wasn't running. It just was disconnected in the tunnel! Once connected the engine fired without hesitation! :-) I only let it run for 2 seconds, because I don't have an air filter on it yet. Well, at least I'm sure that the wiring is basically all right!

I also fitted the lengthened driveshaft again, after I had my local garage fit clamps on the rubber gaiters. I over tightened one of the ball joints on the rear steering arm. I'll need to replace it with another one, and it will be hell to get out, but tonight nothing could ruin my good mood!

So I started fitting the gearchange rods. First another pleasant surprise: the reversing light works! There's still a lot of work to be done here: tidying the tunnel even more, grinding down bolts and possibly some bending of the rods. The feeling in the gear stick is rather hopeless at the moment, but it's hard to judge when the engine is not running and the clutch not working!

Gearchange rods

Lengthened driveshaft in place

Lots of different jobs were finished today: first I replaced the rear steering arm ball joint, making sure not to over tighten it again! It only took about 10 minutes to saw through the nut of the old one :-).

I've connected the last coolant hoses: the ones between the engine and the pipes in the tunnel. The one on the gearbox side will just miss the engine steady bar (when it's fitted). On the other side I decided to try and connect the oil cooler in the coolant circuit, using a shortened 180° bend. There is some clearance between the bend and the suspension, but it's not much! I'm also not very happy with the flattened look of the bend, so I hope to replace it in the future with an 90° elbow on the cooler and a rubber elbow. This will give much better clearance.

The seats are also firmly in place. To lift the rear of the seats I've used an aluminium box section (40 x 20 x 3 mm) across the floor. The bolts go straight through the box section and the floor.

The gearchange works a lot better now that I've bended the rods some more and ground away the bolt heads (including one on the gearbox). It was also necessary to elongate the hole in tunnel backwards by 10 mm. Pictures of the rods in the tunnel will follow shortly.

ball joint T0311 replaced

coolant hose on gearbox side

coolant hose on oil cooler

Gear lever in place

10-8-'03

Just made some pictures of the gearchange and the tunnel today.

Bottom view with gearchange in place

Gearchange mechanism in tunnel

Pipes, hoses and cables in tunnel

The engine has been running for about an hour tonight! There were a few jobs to do before I could start it. First I fitted an ITG Maxogen JC60/70 air filter and a small breather filter. The gear box was filled with Unipart MTF94 oil.

Next job was to flush and fill up the cooling system (with water only for the moment). I attached the garden hose to the radiator vent hose (at the header tank). A second garden hose ran from the header tank to outside the garage. First I flushed it for a while to get all the fairy liquid out, which I had used to fit most of the hoses. I also bled the air out of the heater with the water running.

Then I could finally start the engine. I had the fire extinguisher ready just in case, but no unexpected things happened. The tachometer, oil pressure and water temperature gauges all work. As the engine temperature started to rise and the thermostat opened I bled some more air out of the cooling system. When the cooling fan is running the engine temperature stays stable at 100 °C.

The engine sound is great, but a bit too loud at the moment, since I haven't fitted a post cat oxygen sensor yet. The breather filter however, is producing a very loud and annoying noise. Clearly the suction is way too much for this small filter!

ITG air filter and noisy breather

16-8-'03

Today I warmed up the engine again, and a little more air came out of the cooling system. The coolant temperature is lower now: 90 °C. When I start the engine with my foot firmly on the brake I can feel the pedal drop, so the brake servo is also working.

Various odd jobs were done today: I fitted the rear and side Perspex screens to the engine cover. Holes were drilled in the underside of both doors and the bonnet. Each door has three 25 mm holes, both for drainage and ventilation. The holes in the bonnet are much larger, to get rid of any pebbles or gravel that might end up there.

I connected the front wiring loom to the headlights. The indicator wires in the connector needed to be swapped because the loom is mounted mirrored in a LHD car. The wiring loom also had the wrong connectors for the indicators. Luckily I had a pair of the right ones! They came with the pair of clear indicators that I bought, and which are to be fitted after SVA. I placed the bonnet on the car for testing and everything works! Well, almost everything: I still need to fit the side repeaters and one of the driving light connectors is missing.

Perspex screens fitted to engine cover

Drainage and ventilation holes in bottom of doors

Drainage holes in bottom of bonnet

27-8-'03

Lots of puzzling with the electrics this week, so I don't have any interesting pictures to place online. The dim/dip unit was connected and tested. I neatened the pipes and cables above the petrol tank to get more clearance from the exhaust shield. The cable and hoses on the right hand side were wrapped in thermal sleeving, because they still were very close to the exhaust.

Last week I wired in the alarm system. Obviously I won't be placing any details online! The system works, but the door and bonnet switches still have to be fitted and the indicators need to be connected.

I've added an ECU warning light to the steering column. If I had known earlier I would have added one to the instrument panel, but I'm quite happy with where it is now and I'm very happy that it isn't lit when the engine is running!

ECU warning light added

29-8-'03

Yesterday I received some parts from GTM, so it was off to the garage today to fit them!

First up were some small items like a new starter relay wire to fix the fault in the KV6 engine wiring harness, a driving light connector and the third lambda sensor, which sadly I can't plug yet in because of a missing connector.

I also fitted the engine steady bar, so the engine is now finally fixed in position!

The relays in the engine harness are now mounted on the back of the ECU bracket that GTM sent me. I extended the bracket a little with a strap, so I could fit the fuse holders on it as well.

Engine steady bar

ECU and relay bracket

30-8-'03

This morning I cleaned up the wiring chaos near the engine. Everything is taped up and tied in place. It looks a lot better now, but it would have been easier if the cables were (a lot) shorter!

I started the same job in the front of the car. Most of the wiring on the passenger side is in place. I still need to do the wiring on the drivers side above the radiator.

Engine wiring fixed in place

Wiring in front on passenger side tidied up