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................................--- Engine Runs Some More ---..........
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The side panels on both sides are attached but the right side needs to be
jogged and dimpled from the middle back. The back needs the tail fin support assembly and 4 more top panels fabricated.
The ledge formed by the rear half of the belly pan will be cut flush to the side panels. The Lexan is in place
in the canopy and the port holes. They doesn't seem to be much distortion, if any in the windshield.
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The nose piece needs to be done but the rest of the front half panel work is good enough to go.
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The ugly muffler (see below) has allowed me to hook up the laptop to the TecII ECU and run the engine quietly. The fan and the radiator allows me to run it for long periods with no heat problems with about 6 qts. of water.
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The $40 laptop is working well and I can't tell you how excited I am to run the engine and monitor the engine functions with this used, 10 yr. plus technology ECU! Its no doubt pretty crude compared to the new ECU's but it manages ignition advance, injector pulse width under many conditions such as coolant temp., manifold air temp, MAP and TPS. It also monitors most of this information, recording on graph. It doesn't use a wide band O2 sensor but it uses a narrow band up to about 4500 RPM. It records AFR on the monitor graph down to 10 to 1 but that can't be very accurate with the narrow band O2 sensor. I plan on finding out it works on a WB O2 sensor. Another problem is, I believe the laptop has to make the run in the car to record. Starting it and stopping it will have to be done remotely. There is no room in the cockpit for a laptop. I need some ideas on this. Probably a door in the back to reach the key board.
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This is pretty ugly but I'll probably take it off before I run it in public. I went looking down at the local muffler shop for a muffler and a 10' flex pipe, The muffler was $44 and he didn't have the flex pipe. I didn't have the $44 to spare but outback in the junk pile I spotted this jewel! I told him I could take it off his hands. Building this lakester has turned me into a beggar!
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The chute release hasn't been planned yet and it will probably be set up with provision for a pushbar. I confirmed that I had made a mistake in the manifold fabrication and have started to rectify it. We'll leave that for next time. Doesn't look like I'm going to make it to speed week with the car. I'm still trying though.