Now that we have the fuel tank modified, we can use the donor car ( 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII) fuel pump. Our strategy is to wire the engine back up again and get it to run. In the process of fitting the engine in the frame, we needed to take off the intake manifold, generator, aircon compressor, starter, and the fuel and electrical lines. Here are some photos of putting that all back together a job completed by David and Jacob.
When we first turned the key we had no crank at all, over the last week we debugged the wiring and found a few broken wires and unconnected wires, some additional grounding points were needed and after a few days and 10's of hours we got the engine reliably starting.
Although at times this was frustrating, it solidified our thinking that we need to eliminate the car systems (lights, heater air con, wipers, radio, gauges) from the engine system (ignition, starter, engine controls, transmission controls, fuel delivery system and PCM (powertrain computer).
So we are now looking at every connector, and every wire to see if we need it. For example, there is an electronic control box called the SCIL (steering column, ignition, and lighting) it has four connectors with over 70 wires entering it. Upon examination only 3 wires are needed to run the engine system. We are looking if we can direct connect these three wire to the PCM and eliminate the SCIL box and over 60 wires, it may be needed for the PATS system (anti theft key). Our next job is to look at every connector, electronic control box, fuse and relay to see what else we can eliminate. The desire here is that it will make the final wire looms less complex, and we will know every wire which will make it easier to debug if we have a problem down the road. We think this is a must as we are putting 20-year-old technology in a newly built car. Most people who do this, put a brand new engine and custom wiring kit into an old body and frame. We are doing the opposite since this 20-year-old engine is one of the first 32V DOHC 300HP motors, and doing it is quite a challenge. We are also starting to think about how we get the wiring to fit the car. It's like tailoring a suit you got from your taller, heavier cousin. For example, on the donor car, the battery is in the front and in the new configuration it's in the back. Just one more challenge to keep us on our toes.
