Vin 6298

[Bill6298]

Vin 6298 has been in storage for about 5 years. I did not intend to put it into long term storage and did not take any precautions other than keeping it safe from the elements. I have a really small single apartment garage but I at least have a power receptacle and light fixture both located in the ceiling.

I had every intention on draining the fuel tank today. Unfortunately, the automatic garage door pulley bolt snapped off as I was opening the door. This leaves the garage unsecured. I spent the day preparing the move to another garage. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. My 12V tire pump wouldn't reach the front tires, had to drive around looking for a 12V extension cord, and I blew a fuse in the car that was powering the tire pump. The tires were 5-7 PSI and it took a LONG time to fill them. That's now all behind me.

Before 1st Crank Checklist

I have a great pre-crank checklist thanks to a lot of great threads already on this board including specific advice from NightFlyer, rdarlington, Rich, WelmoedJ, DMCMW Dave, and David T. (See http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?8409-Post-storage-start-up-checklist)

1. Drain and clean fuel tank.
2. Assess state of the Fuel Pump and Fuel Sender to determine if replacement is necessary.
3. Change fuel filter.
4. Change fuel accumulator
5. Flush fuel system
6. Clean connections to WUR and injectors
7. Remove the air box and GENTLY press the metering flap - check for resistance. If so, take off the fuel distributor and unstick the plunger.
8. Drain motor oil and change filter.
9. Replace the battery.
10. Add a teaspoon of Marvel Mystery Oil down the plug holes.

After first crank - before a test drive:

1. Flush and change coolant.
2. Assess brake system
3. Tires

[NightFlyer]

If the coolant looks OK (ie - no visible chunks floating in the header bottle after running the engine for a bit), I'd personally drive it around for at least 50 miles on the old coolant. Let the old coolant do a pre-flush of the system before your actual flush and change. Just my opinion. I'm sure others will differ.

Best of luck with the re-awakening! :smile:

[Bill6298]

If the coolant looks OK (ie - no visible chunks floating in the header bottle after running the engine for a bit), I'd personally drive it around for at least 50 miles on the old coolant. Let the old coolant do a pre-flush of the system before your actual flush and change. Just my opinion. I'm sure others will differ.

Best of luck with the re-awakening! :smile:

Thanks for the tip and wishes. Hopefully I can get this car pushed the LONG way to it's new garage tomorrow. I couldn't get any help today. Wish my tires luck! I hope none of them crap out mid-push.

[ALEXAKOS]

Yay!~
Another D awakens from the deep sleep.
I don't think you will have too much trouble on getting her started up. 5 years is not all that long. Limit I' d say. But a good thing you are cautious about the first fire up.

Are you planning to do any restoration? Or just a full overall service on expendables?
oh...and WE ALL LOVE PICS!!!
What it looks like now after 5 years of sitting. OR what it looked like before you inflated those tires, all dusty and forgotten.

Give us the show!

[Bill6298]

I can only find one picture back from December 2002 when I originally took possession of my DeLorean. I will take some pictures today before I start my work.

[ALEXAKOS]

Awesome:)
Sorry to hear you have to work on Sundays..

[Bill6298]

Getting ready to finish draining my tank this weekend. I could have sworn my tank was almost full when I stored it. It's like more than half evaporated or maybe my memory is just bad. I wish my cheap o pump did not fail on me but I ran out of time to go buy a new one on Sunday. It looks like I'll have time to start cleaning it.

Another concern is the ventilation in my garage. There are no doors or windows other than main garage door since this is a row of apartment garages. I'm not sure how dangerous the acetone will be all the way in the rear of my garage. I would run a fan but I'm not sure it makes sense to have an ignition source so close. I have a respirator but that won't help if everything goes up in flames. :-)

Some more bad news: the brakes do not work at all. I wasn't in the driver's seat during my long push from the old garage to the new garage. However I was told the brake pedal goes to the floor and had no affect on stopping.

Although unrelated, I also learned that DMCH has new improved parts for the rotors. I have some NIB from 12/04. Hopefully they are new and improved rotors that are sized correctly. I lost the post but recall the change was made in 2007+.

Some good news: I found some Pittman DeLorean struts that I did not know I had. Only two sets and I'm not sure I have the door struts that I so desperately need. Hopefully 10+ year old parts are still good.

[Bill6298]

The fuel tank cleaning process went fairly well two weekends ago.

I ended up using a respirator because my window-less apartment garage was pretty rough with the gasoline and acetone. I found a decent one on Amazon for $20 plus the cost of the filters. I found a filter that supported gases but also has a P100 particle filter.

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Facepiece-Respirator-Respiratory-Protection/dp/B00AR63G12/
http://www.amazon.com/3M-Protection-Replacement-Multi-purpose-60921HB1-A/dp/B000LDMDDS/

The tanks itself wasn't terrible. There was quite a bit of gunk but I've read it could be much worse. My pickup hose filter was disintegrated. My baffle bottom is missing. Otherwise, nothing notable. I need to go back over the thank again and vacuum out next weekend.

One tip: I bought a metal dryer vent cleaning brush that was a big help. I zip tied shop rags to it and scrubbed.

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[Bill6298]

After being sick for the past few weeks, I finally got back out today to finish cleaning the tank and to test out some new jack stands.

The stands I have are Esco flat top stands. There is about a 5" rubber top on each stand. The foot print is huge. They were insanely expensive ($61 each including shipping) but after seeing/using them, I think they are worth it. The second biggest downside is that they are not made in the USA.

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I got my first view under the car in a very long time. I found some rust on a pipe but nothing on the frame. (After looking at the rust picture, I don't actually know what I'm looking at. Need to get back out there. My pictures are terrible.)

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Next up (tomorrow) is to flush the fuel lines. I still need to figure out the supply/return hose sizes at the fuel distributor so I can buy a fitting to connect them together. I also need to buy some new hoses locally to connect a cheap fuel pump to the hard lines near the tank. If finding this stuff is easy, I may also get around to pulling the injectors and getting them in jars. I have a new filter and accumulator from DMC on the way but not in time for this weekend.

[Bill6298]

I first noticed the entire area around the oil pan is covered in grime. It looks like dried oil. I just took a close up of the pan and realized one of the bolts has oil dripping down. The oil in this pan hasn't moved in years.

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[djdogbone]

All those seals are no doubt dried out- valve covers, pan....

[Bill6298]

All those seals are no doubt dried out- valve covers, pan....

This might be a bigger job than I thought. I was reading that changing the gasket on the oil pan required pulling the engine out.