Day 12

Well still have not found out the reason for not geting any spark, swapped out the coil, the distributer and still no spark. Checked double and triple checked all wires connections, grounds and power supplies and all are good. So now I'm thinking that it may be the computer, I'll see if I can borrow one to test it out. So with the car not starting I decided to finish off as many other things as I could.

Put the front end back together

Installed a smaller wiper bottle to allow better airflow to the Cold Air intake

Finished up the trim around the battery

The custom fit rear upper strut bar

Day 13

Well I have my specialist coming down tonight to look over the electrical as I've exhaustd my knowledge adn don't wat to mess anything up. So hopefully he'll find the problem and I'll get her fired up tonight. Pic and video will come once she is running.

Day 14

IT's ALIVE!

We finally got it! After 3hrs of chasing wires and connections we found the problem, fixed them and now she's running. Turned out I'd missed one ground, but more importantly the switched power i'd picked was one that got interupted during cranking to allow more power to get to the starter...DOH! So we found a clean power and up she went! Still alot of little things to do, but she will be on the road tomorrow night!

I'll post the final build pics and a video then!

Again a huge thanks to retro_mike from Vortex, without whom I'd not have figured it out. A special thanks to his wife...please forgive him and I'll send you flowers! My buddy Mike whose garage this was all done in and my folks for watching my boy tonight so I could get this done.

Day 15

Well suffered a minor set back...I was warming up the car to do the timing when I noticed a slow coolant leak. Checked around and found it was coming from the outlet flange going to the heatercore. At first I thought it was maybe the O-ring so I went to remove the flange and found out the lower bolt was loose. Went to tighten it and...SNAP. Bleedin thing sheared off flush with the head. Okay that bit, but no big deal drilled out the centre, threaded in a drill ease and started to back it out...SNAP. Bloody drill ease breaks off flush with the head. So now began the painfully slow process of drilling around the ease with a very small bit to worm it out. 4hrs(and numerous bits) later and it is out, but the thread is shot in the hole. Drilled it up to the next size, re-tap the hole and off to the parts store for a new bigger bolt. So tomorrow I'll bolt it all back together, do the timing and it'll be time for a test drive.

Day 16

She's up and running! Got the new flange bolt in and it's holding fine, connected back up everything else. Did the timing and she is purring just fine. Took her for a short test drive and no major problems. There is however some electrical issues that puzzle me.

1) Why when I turn on the parking lights does the fuel pump come on.

2) Why are the water and oil temp gauges not working.(when the switched power is hooked up the both go to max reading)

3) Why is the rad fan not coming on.(might be the sensor in the new rad)

But I have the rest of the weekend to try to sort them out, and then I also have to wait for 3 days of driving before I can really push her as the Charger has to be broken in.

Day 16.5

Okay this wiring thing is getting weirder...when I dim my interior lights the fuel pump turns off...lol wtf! So the only point where the new G60 harness touches the old harnes is at ground and at the ignition switch. So my thinking is I must have a short behind the fuse box somewhere. Guess i'll be pulling it back out tomorrow night and having a look.

Day 17

Well i got a couple things fixed with the electrical issues I'm having. I removed the ECU relay power from the ignition line and connected it striaght up to the battery with a kill switch. This solved the problem of the parking light/dimmer switch activating the fuel pump and the ECU.

Though the dimmer switch is still acting up...when you put the dimmer to full, the tach drops off...DOH...guess I have more digging to do there. I also had one wire on the passenger side turn signal reversed which was taking out the back one.

I checked the rad fan motor and it is working fine, checked all the wires going to it and they are fine, so I'm thinking it is the thermo switch that is hooched. I'll be flushing hte coolant onthe weekend and I'll change it then. It is cold enough right now that the fan will probably not come on anyways. And if it warms up before then I'll wire in a temporary switch for it.

Still do not know why I cannot get the gauges to work properly, but I'll keep plugging away at it.

On the plus side I drove her to around all day yesterday, and took her to work today with no problems.! So tomorrow will be day 4 and I can finally give her a little bit more.

Day 18 & 19

Started off thinking I'd work some more on the electrical, but the exhaust was too loud and needed attention. So I went out and got a Thrush Turbo muffler (I kept the Sebring and the Magnaflow for future track days) and slapped it up back. I replace the gaskets for the Cat, and repositioned it up higher to stop the irritating scraping leaving the underground at work when I did not take it at the perfect angle . Then I fashion up with some flex pipe a air inlet for the intercooler. Hooked up the amp temporally to get some tunes happening. Then called it an eveing.

Tonight I did diddley...I needed a night off! I'll get to the electrial on the weekend.

Cheers and goodnight.

Day 20

What was to be a weekend of fixing and cleaning up the electrical, turned into fixing another coolant leak. The T-hose return for the heatercore and the oilcooler split at the bottom. This is a hard hose to get at as the charger blocks it from above and the lower rad hose from below, plus the charger oil return hose is in there too. So drained the coolant, removed everything in my way and changed it out. Between finding a new hose and getting it in, I was at it all day. Then I went around the entire engine bay and checked the torques on all bolts...and sure enough some had started to loosen.

So with everything battened down I took it out for a short drive, got her up on the highway on ramp and let it loose in second gear...WOT 12 lbs of boost...damm is she quick!

(side note: those Hankooks need to be replaced...not a hope of holding the power)