The Ecobeamer

[hkv]

^ is it just me or is wiring the worst thing to be doing?

its certainly not my favorite but at this point im glad to be doing it over the firewall stuff for example because that was getting tedious. I definitely would take wiring over working with body filler and sanding any day lol.

I will say the wiring is intimidating at first but when you take it step by step, piece by piece and as your going along you get an understanding of the layout of the wiring its really not that bad once you get into it. plus the fact that the wiring harness is well labeled is very helpful.

lowest point of the exhaust is the vband. I can move it further up the pipe for like a 4.5'' but it's fine doesn't scrape.

oil pan was 6''.

Clearance by jet jones, on Flickr

ok thanks for that pic, based off your experience with your setup im gonna shoot for 3.5"-4" ground clearance and just try to be carefull and not scrape the oil pan and then later on modifying the oil pan for better clearance and doing a balance shaft delete while im in there will be on my list of future projects for the car

[hkv]

so ive wired up the taillights and most sensors and just been working on allot of trim type stuff and other things here and there. no pics but I will take some in the next day or two for an update. biggest thing right now is I still need to do the gauge panel and wire up the gauges also need to put seat harness in eventually. finish up the wiring as well but probably have an good update here with pics in the next day or two and then if things go real good we might be looking at the big update ive been working towards(main project of getting car built and driving) this weekend im hoping for and I will have pics and a couple youtube videos of first start and driving when I make that update. hopefully Saturday or sunday but allot could set me back in that time as well.

just a side note, as far as sway bars go im planning on installing the stock one in the front if it will fit and then not running a rear for a bit but those are something I will pursue getting taken care of but I know they aren't absolutely necessary for driving so Im not letting them hold me up.

[hkv]

ok so sat/sunday was optimistic for a first drive and I haven't been working at my previous pace the past few days. had an urgency that prevented me from working one night but put in some good work tonight.

First start however is planned for SAT!! fingers crossed it is successful, stay tuned for youtube vid.



engine ground strap


cleaned up the rear section and it is pretty much finished



been having brake troubles, some leakage and some of that was me overlooking that the brake lines that came with the BBK are 3an one side and 4an the other which I find kinda odd. so I had 3an to 3/16 inverted flare adapters screwed into a 4an line which actually worked for the most part but one or two leaked and then one I stripped the threads not surprisingly when I cranked it down. now I have new 3an to 3an lines on all four corners and I think ive sorted out the brakes, hopefully. no leaks so far from what I can tell.




20mm wheel spacers fixed my caliper clearance issue on the front just barely by a couple mm and now the tires are in a much better looking spot on all four corners. they look real good farther out at the edge of the fender. unfortunately the spacers add weight.



rolled the rear fenders which wasn't hard at all. cracked the paint a good amount too, no worries. maybe that's why it was easy is because I just sent it no worries for the paint lol. fronts i will do at a later point when i get the chance to torque the front wheel bearings.

[hkv]

thing wouldnt start, some electrical issue. got the throttle body servo or something making noises and then the relays do some clicking so it should start but there's something preventing the system from working properly. no fuel pump power or crank or anything but the system has power so Idk exactly whats wrong. bummer

[roguetoaster]

thing wouldnt start, some electrical issue. got the throttle body servo or something making noises and then the relays do some clicking so it should start but there's something preventing the system from working properly. no fuel pump power or crank or anything but the system has power so Idk exactly whats wrong. bummer

Replace all relays with rivets.

But seriously, that sucks.

[rzerob]

Does it have fuel? Does it have spark? If you are running the stock computer you should be able to plug into it with a scanner. Do you have EWS(theft deterrent chip in the key or fob)? If the powertrain came out of a donor that uses EWS your computer will be looking for that signal, without it, it won't start. Unless you had it deleted from the programming in the computer the EWS will kill both fuel and/or spark.

[b5dover]

The Ford controls packs don't come with anti-theft. They are meant for a drop in swap, wire it up and go. Like rzerob said, hook up a scan tool and see what you're getting for codes. The throttle body clicking back and forth multiple times is a telltale sign for these engines that the PCM isn't happy. It should click once for stuck detection but that's it before start. Once you have power, go through the sanity checks with the scan tool. Are the engine coolant / air inlet (iat1 and iat2) temperatures reading close to ambient? Is MAP and TIP reading close to barometric pressure? Is fuel rail pressure reading around 55 psi? Once those all seem reasonable hit the key.

[hkv]

The Ford controls packs don't come with anti-theft. They are meant for a drop in swap, wire it up and go. Like rzerob said, hook up a scan tool and see what you're getting for codes. The throttle body clicking back and forth multiple times is a telltale sign for these engines that the PCM isn't happy. It should click once for stuck detection but that's it before start. Once you have power, go through the sanity checks with the scan tool. Are the engine coolant / air inlet (iat1 and iat2) temperatures reading close to ambient? Is MAP and TIP reading close to barometric pressure? Is fuel rail pressure reading around 55 psi? Once those all seem reasonable hit the key.

once again you know your stuff. your location of Dearborn Michigan makes me wonder if you work for ford or something. the throttle body doesn't seem to click back and forth it clicks a bit when first powered up. unfortunately I don't have tool that can show me those readings via obd2 but I did get a basic scan tool and couldn't seem to connect it to the ecu so maybe theres something wrong with the ecu. i read online of someone doing a coyote swap with a control pack which is very similar and he supposedly had a blank ecu, kinda weird.

everything else seems to be fine. the ford power distribution box has power at where it should based on the troubleshooting guidelines in my instruction manual. I did find out that the fuel pump does in fact power up under crank. I can crank the motor right now with a direct line that I did under the direction of the ford techs. im working with the ford tech people and they are helping me try and figure things out. they had me check coil pack power and put a noid test light on the fuel injectors and im not getting any flashes so the injectors aren't firing.

hopefully whatever is wrong can be figured out pretty quick and easy. I always look forward to knowing what the answer was whenever I lose something or have a problem like this.

[hkv]

Replace all relays with rivets.

But seriously, that sucks.

i have to figure out the issue before i rivet it. no point in riveting the relay if its something else wrong

[hkv]

https://youtu.be/zGHphnM-bXI

[rzerob]

Good job. What was wrong?

[hkv]

Good job. What was wrong?

im not exactly sure, the blow off valve wasn't connected but that wasn't it. I think the fact that I didn't prime the fuel system until today is what did it but I don't understand why that would prevent the ecu from operating. I had to directly power the fuel pump from the battery while pumping a vacuum pump on the output line to prime the system. once I did that the ecu connected to my obd2 scanner where as before the ecu seemed to be off. when I saw the ecu connected I thought well maybe the injectors will have power now so I cranked it and then it fired up on 3 cylinders. now everything seems good. that's something to know for anyone in a similar position; don't bother using the control pack to prime the fuel system, the system wont turn on without fuel pressure apparently. you gotta power up the fuel pump and prime it and set the fuel pressure and then depend on the control pack to operate the fuel pump.

[hkv]

the 2.3l ecoboost isn't known for sounding great but man the exhaust note on this one with this exhaust is so nice IMO. not too loud either

[roguetoaster]

Riveting stuff this.

[ForcedFirebird]

Replace all relays with rivets.

But seriously, that sucks.

I spit some coffee out reading that statement. Reminds me of one of my clients who home-built his turbo m50 before we converted it to a built s52 for road racing - he does hurricane windows/shutters. I swear there must have been a 5lb box of self tapping screws holding various things on his car haha.