Al's Coyote: First Start

[Al_C]

The idea was to get to have a first start on June 30. That was the second “birthday” of the Coyote. It was delivered to my garage on 6/30/16. (June 30 also happens to be MY birthday…) I had a few folks over, but the celebration was rather subdued by the fact that nothing happened. We had two relatively fundamental issues: no power and numerous fuel leaks. Minor details!

It took a week to fix the electrical problem. It took longer to fix the fuel leaks. Let’s count them: first, the quick connect plug on the fuel pump connection let go, spewing gas all over the driveway. Secured that one. Then, moving up the line, the flexible line out of the in-line filter leaked at the connection to the hard line. Hmmm – not tight enough. Fixed. Next – hard line union. Somebody didn’t do a very good job of tightening that, either. Hard line to braided line in the engine bay. Same issue. Do you see a trend here?

The larger issue was the fuel pressure regulator. As it turned out, I needed to get all new Aeromotive fittings. The fittings that came with the fuel pressure regulator (in the box from Ford), were not Aeromotive parts. The Aeromotive tech pointed that out after he saw a photo of my parts. In this case, it apparently does make a difference! It took a while to isolate the problem areas, but some paper towel and twist ties helped in that department. Once I got all three fuel pressure regulator connections re-done, the leaks were solved. Except for the line coming out of the in-line filter. That reared its ugly head yet again. A bigger wrench prevailed. And… IT’S ALIVE!

I hope you enjoy this short little video as much as I did making it! Here's the video link:

Now that I have this behind me, I can get things buttoned up a little better and then we can do a more extensive “live” test.

[edwardb]

Congratulations! See, that wasn't so hard. Big milestone for your build. Sounds healthy.

[Straversi]

Congratulations! Exciting time in the build for sure. My “first” start had a few rehearsals too.
Thanks for the video.
-Steve

[DowenS]

Congratulations Al. Lookin good. Sounds great!

[2bking]

Congratulations, a big milestone and proof all the connections are correct. I restarted mine almost daily for a week just because.

[sbhunter]

I always watch these videos at least twice. Once for the car and once for the grin on the builders face. Sounds great! Well done.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Big, BIG congrats Al

Jeff

[wareaglescott]

Love those videos!
Congrats AL. Great to see it alive. Also nice to see you in the video. Funny how much we communicate with some people own the forum without ever really seeing them. Always nice to put a face with the internet persona. haha
Looking forward to some go cart videos!

[PeteMeindl]

That's great! Congratulations - what a gratifying sound!

[Boydster]

Congratulations Al! The look on your face makes everyone thats been there feel it with ya...

[Al_C]

Thanks for your comments and encouragement! I still have a long way to go...

Aside from the fuel leaks, I found that the power steering pump is a bit out of alignment. Even after just a few starts (less than a minute each), the belt was working itself off. I think the pump pulley needs to go forward a little (1/32nd will get the shaft flush with the pulley face). I also decided to re-work the entire fuel plumbing. I spent a lot of time (and aggravation) installing 5/16 and 1/4 hard lines. I'm going to replace it all with 3/8 braided line on feed and return sides. The idea is to have one connection at each end rather than the current multiple connections.

I need to re-think a lot of the dash wiring as well. I don't want any poor connections popping up later down the road, so I may re-do a lot of the spade connections I already did.

In any event, knowing that it's alive takes a lot of self-induced stress away! King's comment is a classic: "I restarted mine almost daily for a week just because". It hasn't run since Sunday. (It's now Tuesday.) I think it's time for it to run again this evening.

[Ducky2009]

Sounds great! Good job working through all the issues.