It runs!

Spent every spare moment I had today on this thing, and at last, it runs!

Much of today’s work was in mounting and wiring the ignition coil, which we are allowed to replace in ST.

Since the car is heater delete, the heater blanking panel makes a nice convenient spot for mounting both the coil and the Moroso catch can, without making any new holes in the firewall – which after 45 46 years, has seen a bit of tinkering.

Stock/ST also allow for catch cans, so long as factory PCV/emissions functionality is retained.  In this case, the “input” to the can is from the PCV valve, while the “output” goes to the vacuum port on the carburetor.  For those not familiar with catch cans, the idea is to have something that captures the misty oil vapors that escape a PCV system under load, and separate out the oil from the air.  Any oil consumed by the engine will combust, but it does so at a lower temperature than gasoline, and can lead to detonation/preignition.  This is bad on a normal engine, even worse on a high compression engine like this 302, and extremely bad on a forced-induction car.

With the catch an in place, the oily mist is turned into regular oil, which can be emptied out when needed.  The engine continues to enjoy a functional PCV system, but through it, only ingests clean air.

The remainder of the work was spent under the dash, getting the DL1 and DASH2 all wired up and talking.  Still figuring out the exact song-and-dance needed to get the DASH and DL1 to talk properly, was able to get what I wanted after some effort, but there is probably an easier way.

With the plugs out, verified the motor made oil pressure just using the starter, and that the sender/dash combo reflected the pressure.  Still haven’t wired in the fuel gauge or coolant temp sensors, hence their bogus readings.

Later, put the plugs in and ran the spark plug wires.  The MSD wires I have are all wrong, will need to get different ones, and route them more carefully.  But at 9:09PM, it started and ran!  Since the 20 month old was just getting to sleep I shut it off right away.

Still lots to do, but this was a gratifying step, and I met my goal to “have it running by New Year’s” – even if it was New Year’s day.  🙂