IT'S ALIVE!!
At long last, I fired it up last night! It started with one touch of the key. It ran like crap until the computer figured out what it was doing (~10 mins.) and now it's smooth as silk.
That's the short version, now here's "the rest of the story" -- you didn't think it went
that smoothly, did you? It's still an old Mustang at heart!
So Tuesday evening I'm getting ready to fire it up. I run to the gas station and fill a 5-gallon can, come back, and dump it in. I turn the key and listen for the fuel pump, and it's there. Seems a bit loud. I go to the engine compartment to look for fuel pressure to come up on the gauge on the regulator, and there's nothing. By the time I think about it for 15 seconds, go back to the driver's seat and reach for the key, the fuel pump grinds to a stop.
It was running dry, which will munch an in-tank pump in short order. It probably took 45 seconds. What had happened was that the 5 gallons wasn't enough to get into the surge tank in the fuel cell, which depends on the sloshing as you drive to send fuel through the one-way valves into it. Either that or fuel just pouring in over the top, and 5 gallons wasn't enough to reach.
Sooo, i siphon the fuel out of the tank the stupid way, which led to gnarly gasoline burps for the rest of the evening.
I learned that changing a fuel pump in a Fuel Safe cell sucks, and it took a couple of hours. Luckily, I had another similar cell here to rob the pump from.
Then I ran back to the gas station and got two more 5-gallon cans full of premium -- not taking any chances this time! I poured all 15 gallons in and ran the fuel pump for like 5 seconds to make sure everything was cool. It was.
Then came the moment of truth -- I turned the key on, fuel pressure came up in just a few seconds, I touched it to "start" and it fired right up! It was running really rough, but running nonetheless. I knew it would take a while for the computer to get its bearings, and even then it won't be all the way there until I drive the car for a while. I let it run for just a few minutes and shut it down for the night.
Today I wanted to get it broken in and running smoothly. It fired right up again after less than a second of cranking, and as it ran it improved quickly. I got to the point where it was idling great, oil pressure was great, etc. I started to push the revs a bit, and was holding at about 2000 rpm when SPLOOSH! there's oil spraying everywhere! By the time I reached for the key and shut it down I had probably gushed close to 3 quarts all over the place. I had blown one of the lines going to the remote oil filter. It's all good stuff: Aeroquip AN fittings, Goodyear Insta-Grip hose, etc. Hmmmm. After a couple of hours sopping up oil and talking on the phone with Aeroquip, Canton, Earl's, and anyone else who had anything to do with my oil system, the consensus was that everything was perfect and it was a freak occurance. That sucks. The hose had blown off of the socketless fitting, which nobody had ever seen before, even under race conditions, etc. Everyone recommended I make a new hose, put it all back together, maybe add a clamp for extra security, and go for it. I did all of the above, and ran to NAPA for a case of new oil, just in case...
With everything clean, re-plumbed, and re-filled I started it up again. Perfect start, smooth running, and no problems. I'll be running it a bunch more throughout the afternoon and evening to get it up to temperature, make sure the fan kicks on, and thoroughly check everything out.
If all goes well, I just have to put the new master cylinder in, bleed the brakes, and hit the road! I'll keep you posted as to how it goes...
