There is an earth strap which goes under one of the starter mounting bolts from memory?? Though I don't think this is the issue..


That would not cause the dash to do funny things in my opinion. Has the bonnet switch for the alarm been disturbed? try disconnecting it and see what happens.


Surely the guy who's built your engine can sort this out? It's gonna be something silly!!

You were definitely right about it being something silly haha there were two issues, both equally stupid.

Firstly, the Start/Stop button wasn't starting the car because it wasn't connected to anything :lol: We removed that button and the trim around it when we installed the hydraulic handbrake, and at some point we put it back but didn't reconnect all the electrical cables to the back of it as we were just seeing if it all fit properly. Apparently then we all completely forgot about it...

Second issue was that there was no fuel in the tank. Took us longer than I'd like to admit to realise this.

As for Ricky (the guy who built the engine), I gave him a ring before we realised what the problem was and he actually happened to be staying at a hotel just round the corner from me (which is a weird coincidence, as he lives about 200 miles away from me). He was kind enough to come round and give us a hand sorting everything out. We had an issue with the serpentine belt jumping off the crank pulley the first few times we fired it up and he sorted that out and stuck around until we had got everything to a good state.

So yeah as it stands now, the engine is back in, all seems to be running ok, just need to put it through a few more heat cycles and then take it to Fensport to be mapped for more boost (which is already booked in for early Feb)

Nice one Chris, hope it all goes well for you from now on. look forward to some dyno graphs!!

just watched your video. very cool seeing things progress on the forum, then getting a recap on your YouTube channel!

Changed the oil after running it through a few heat cycles over the last couple of days as recommended, then took it for a test drive today... and all seems good :) haven't thrashed it yet but so far so good. Looking forward to getting it mapped next week

Nice, let s wait the reprog ;)

Did you get it mapped and what were the results?
How are you enjoying it so far?

The turbo bearing died when Fensport were mapping it... so had to wait a bit for a new turbo (went stage 4 instead of stage 3 this time as got a good deal on a stage 4 one).

Once that was sorted, they noticed oil building up in one of the cylinders. So I took it back to Ricky as I assumed it must be something to do with the engine rebuild, but we found it looks like the oil is coming from the intake manifold. Seems like the catch can Fensport installed as part of the original turbo installation is doing absolutely nothing (as it was bone dry and the intake manifold was covered in oil). Can even see oil stains on the inlet ports where it has run down into the cylinders.

So yeah... not having much luck so far lol Ricky has got the car this week to modify the breather system to try get this catch can to actually do its job, and also do another leakdown n compression test just to be sure its nothing internal. Then hopefully all being well, I'll get it back at the end of this week or early next week and can take it back to Fensport to get the final map done.

even if the leak down isn't the greatest, i wouldn't worry too much. the top rings still need to seat before that clears up.

What's the difference between stage 3 and 4? Where did U bought it, how much?

Rings fully bed-in within 10 minutes. Partially bed just rotating the engine by hand.
Leakdown should be around 3% on a fresh Snap-on leakdown tester if the bores are fresh on those CP's and providing the valves are sealed perfectly.

Odd that it's breathing that heavy as the stock setup just sucks into the intake manifold via a PCV. Hopefully the leakdown will tell you one way or the other. What condition were the bores like? Did they have a good hone for the new rings to bed into?

How did the leakdown test go? That would be a cool video for your engine builder to do for those that don't know what a leakdown test is

Any updates?