Dax Cobra First Start 2

Better sound quality and from a slightly different angle. There was about 20 seconds of cranking on the starter to get oil pressure before going for a start, then the fuel pump was wired the wrong way round. Once that was sorted it started easily.

The smoke is the paint on the headers, it went away after 5 mins. Only problem was a tiny tiny oil leak from the oil pressure sender, fixed by tightening it up. It gobbled a full header tank full of water/coolant and required topping up after the first 5 minute run. I followed the run-in procedure and kept it between 1500 and 3000rpm, didn't leave it idling except for about 20 seconds during the second run when Max was playing with the idle screw to get it down from 1000 to just over 750rpm. Water temp read 90deg after 5 mins and we could feel the temp change on the rad as the thermostat opened. Fan came on a bit too late to be honest, need to change the setting on the controller. Water temp gauge read 100C when the fan came on. Temp peaked at 110 so we stopped the engine but I had (sensibly!) wired the fan on permanent live so it stayed on.

Hot start was fine, the heat shield on the starter and battery cable was doing its job. It wasn't a massively hot day but it was probably a good 18-20deg C in full sun on the driveway. The engine would idle with no throttle after approx 2-3 mins quite happily which bodes well. Remember we had completely removed the choke mechanism.

Oil temp gauge did absolutely nothing until the 3rd start (after 2 x 5 minute runs) then it slowly got up to about 70-80 deg C or so, but the water temp was reading 110 so we shut everything off after 15 mins total running. The header tank had emptied again so there was probably a massive air lock somewhere hampering the cooling. Header tank was topped up yet again. I think when we initially filled it the circuit to the heater matrix was closed off and I hit the switch on the dash which activates the solenoid and opens the line to the heater matrix, thus needing more water/coolant.



We had a good old look at clearances when the engine was being revved, the torque reaction rotates the engine anti-clockwise viewed from the front so the passenger side headers bang on the cutout in the body. There were no other clearance issues, clutch slave was fine (which I was most worried about) and clearance of headers to brake servo heatshield was fine. Lower coolant pipes were also fine and the silicone bends in the hoses took up the movement of the engine.

The run-in procedure said 20 mins (4x5mins) but we had to stop after 15 mins as it had run out of fuel. I put 5 litres of 99ron in and the greedy thing gobbled it all.