Skoda Rally Blog

Well, today has been rather productive. I got up early, and got everything bolted together – this was actually the first time all the manifold had been in one piece, so that was progress in itself. It all fitted reasonably well, so I thought I should crack on with the rest of the installation in the car. First up, the new fuel pump needed to go on, which wasn’t too bad – getting the old one off was a bit tricky, but the new one came with new connectors and even dirt shields, so it was a quick job to fit, albeit temporarily cable-tied to the bracket – a new one will take about an hour to make, so I’ll do that on Monday.

And then off with the carb, and on with the bodies. They bolted up reasonably easily (just minor filing needed to get everything to line up properly), and then connect everything up – fuel feed and return, and all the connections to the injectors, etc. As ever, parts were needed, so I had to dive off to the MDC, so it took a bit longer than I’d have liked, but finally, I turned the fuel pump on, and realised I needed to do the return up tighter – the jubilee clip had jammed, making me think it was tight. A pool of petrol on the floor said otherwise. After that, it was all good, so I ran the pump for 10 minutes just to make sure, and then left it for a bit so the spill could evaporate completely.

And then, it was time to plug everything in, and start it. And amazingly enough, it didn’t start first time….. but only because I’d forgotten to turn the fuel pump on! Moron! Once I’d done that, it fired up pretty much straight away, although running rich as hell. And then it was just a case of tuning it with the laptop. There were a few gotchas (like loose connections and so on), and the throttle bodies worked loose because the clamps won’t be here until Monday (cable ties are sufficing for the moment), but it was amazing just driving the thing at all – drive for a bit, change settings, drive again, and so on. Just like they said in the manual. I’ve got it reasonably driveable already today – it’s quite weird because the throttle doesn’t need to be ‘blipped’ like it did with the carb – it’ll just drive! There’s still plenty of work to be done, as it’s nowhere near done – it’s running rich pretty much everywhere, except a lean patch at light throttle, low revs, which is like it was before. But I think that can all be dialled out. We will see. And if not, the carb can go back on in about 10 minutes flat, which is reassuring!