Friday 9 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Twenty One - First Start?

There were a few bits left to finish the car off, but for some reason I'm just not motivated to complete the final few bits...  Having to give myself a good push, I took the car off the axle stands and set about fitting the rear wing lights.

I find it best to fit these when the car is on the ground and you can check it's level with spirit level.  As long as the boot is level, the rear wings should be too, so offer the lights up with a small spirit level top and then using a very small drill bit drill through the mounting holes in the rubber of the light and through into the wing.
Level up rear lights with a spirit level prior to drilling the holes in the wings
Level up rear lights with a spirit level prior to drilling the holes in the wings
Remove the rubber light block, open up the pilot holes with a 4.5mm drill bit (was best size for me) and then fit the rear lights.
Rear lights fitted to my Caterham Academy Car
Rear lights fitted to my Caterham Academy Car
There were plenty of other jobs to do, but I really wanted to try and get the car started tonight, so in went the engine oil (about 4 litres so far) and about 4.5 litres of 50/50 coolant / water mix.
About 4.5 litres of 50/50 coolant / water mix went in
About 4.5 litres of 50/50 coolant / water mix went in
Now for some petrol!
I added about five litres of petrol
I added about five litres of petrol
Next stage prior to starting was to get some oil pressure, so wanting to 'capture the moment' I filmed this video:-


With the oil pressure up, I re-connected the inertia cut-off switch and tried in vain to start the car... It just wouldn't fire up - and after looking at the connections and double checking everything, I can only assume there's either not enough petrol in the fuel tank, or the immobiliser isn't disabling (which seems the most likely option).  

Will try again tomorrow - hopefully the result will be better than today's effort!

2 comments:

  1. Ideally the first fill of the tank requires 25L. The pump needs to prime to be able scavenge and you need to cover the bowl to do that. After that you can run it from almost dry.

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    Replies
    1. Cheers David - a couple of guys on the Academy Facebook page suggested 15L, but filled it with 25L to be safe, and it started - video to follow...

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