metaruss

IT’S ALIVE!!!  This unusually warm weather for November has allowed me to finish assembly of the engine.  After completing assembly, I filled all the fluids and stared at it for a very long time, trying to think of anything I may have forgotten.  I then proceeded to clean the garage to find any parts that I may have neglected to put back on.  After all that, I decided that I had stalled long enough.  I pulled the ignition wire off of the coil and cycled the ignition switch a couple of times.  The fuel pump moaned and pressurized the system.  I did a careful inspection of the fuel system, and found a small leak near the fuel filter.  After fixing this, I took off the oil fill cap, and tried to crank the engine.  Sure enough, it cranked over and after few cranks there was oil to the head.  I then reconnected the ignition wire, said a little prayer, and turned the key once more.  Three cranks later the engine sprang to life with more clattering and chattering than you can shake a stick at.  A few seconds later the brand new lash adjusters were pumped up and the engine quieted down.  I watched carefully, with the fire extinguisher nearby, as the oils and other residues left on the manifolds burned off.  After a few minutes of idling, the engine stopped smoking and was running smoothly.  I kept an eye on the fluids all this time and there were no leaks, but I had to keep topping off the radiator.  I believe this was just the air being purged out of the system, but my paranoia kept making me think it was the headgasket.  There was no white smoke out of the back even when I goosed it a bit, so I became confident enough to go for a drive.  I took it once around my subdivision (1.1 miles) at the lightning speed of 30 mph.  The engine ran smoothly and pulled with confidence, even though I was not going into boost or revving it past 3000 rpm at all.  I pulled it back into the garage, shut it off, and did a through check over.

Everything looked great, so I started it back up again and went for another drive.  I took it easy and put a good 15 miles on it keeping it under 55mph and around 2500 rpm.  I let it go into boost a couple of times and I quickly got 5psi, even though the wastegate actuator was tied directly to the manifold.  The engine was running great and I finally got to experience what it was like to drive a CSX (I was so wound up on the initial drive home, that I never really got a chance to observe the handling).  That super-stiff suspension makes for a bouncy ride on rough roads, but the thing corners like it’s on rails.  What a difference from my Shadow ES!  Definitely not a touring sedan, but that not why I bought it!  🙂

After my little trip, I pulled it back in the driveway and popped the hood to listen the engine carefully.  There was a weird whine coming from the timing belt.  I think the shroud may have been rubbing on the intermediate sprocket.  Also, I noticed that the BOV was leaking boost when I was at or above 0psi.  The BOV should be closed at this point, so I have to look into that.

After over three months of owning the car, I finally got a chance to drive it around.  All that work was not in vein!  Special thanks have to go to Chris Wright for setting me up with Venolia and pointing me in the right direction, to Neil Emiro for all the advice about the choices in pistons and rods for the bottom end, to Gus Mahon for all the advice and info about the world of boost and compression ratios, to Mike Demoss at Forward Motion for advice and good deals on parts, to Randy Chet for selling me this car and telling it to me straight, to Brian Rachwarter for helping me find the car, to John Johansen for checking the car out in California, and to countless others on the Shelby Dodge Mailing List that have helped me over the past year and a half.  Here is a shot of the engine bay as of this date:

That white thing in front of the Turbo I turbocharger outlet hose is an oil catch canister that I have on all my cars.  It keeps oil out of the airbox, but in this case, it is venting to the atmosphere.  It’s made out of PVC pipe parts and I plan on making a web page for it.  I have improved the design well beyond this one, it was just lying around from the days of my Sundance.  Obviously, the CSX has no A/C right now, but I plan on installing it over the summer.  You might recognize the radiator; it’s from the Shadow ES before it was intercooled.  The wires are Splitfire Dual Coils.  I have no love for Splitfire, and I have never used their worthless plugs.  However, these were on sale for half price, so I grabbed them since they seem to be made very well.  If they act up, I’ll pitch them for Magnecores.