Restoring VIN 2784

[MountainGoat]

Hi guys

So I'm a relative newcomer to this forum, but the group's been good to me. Within a few days of signing up, I found my dream car from a forum member (medicineman). Last Sunday, it arrived.

It's in tremendous condition! I don't have the number in front of me and I'm terrible at recalling numbers, but I believe 27,000 miles on the odometer and I bought it from the second owner. The first owner had put most of the miles on it, and the second owner took good care of it -- garaged and all that.

Basically, all the visible bits are in great shape. Stainless panels looked great, the interior was perfect. Original radio still in there. A lot of original bits and pieces -- exactly what I wanted. Here's a picture the previous owner took:

17848471696_12c7d5d2fb_z.jpg

Really pretty all around. The problems that I either identified or were told about right away were:

- Transmission governor needs replacement
- Some minor cracks in the dashboard
- Various minor cosmetic issues (fascias need painting, etc.)
- Rust on the underside of the front end. This was the big scary one, as judging 'how rusted' something is isn't my strong suit. However, it appears to be in 'common areas'. When I later cracked open the fuel compartment, I pulled the other panels and was relieved to see the top part of the front frame looks great at least
- Engine runs really rough -- kind of barely runs
- Breaks are bad
- radio LED doesn't work
- radio cassette player doesn't work (won't load tape)
- needs weather strip replacement
- fuse box is a crazy rats nest:

crazy-electrical.jpg

- Probably more things I'm not remembering right now!


...

So my first task here is to get the engine running, for the simple reason of the place that it currently is, isn't the place that it needs to stay long term. Plus I need to get it VIN inspect which requires taking a short ~ 1 mile journey. Right now, I'm not sure the car could make it even though it "runs".

The first problem I identified were the air hoses. The hot air hose had completely rotted, and when I pulled out the air system, the hot air hose practically disintegrated and the paper part of the cold air hose fell apart as well. I replaced this with a direct air hose from AutoZone, exactly as documented here by someone else :

http://deloreanblog.blogspot.com/201...ification.html

I'm considering what to do about the "stove" the hot air hose connects to. In the long term, I want to remove it, but I don't know if it has some linkage to the rest of the engine under there or if it's just a bolt-on. For now, maybe I just cap the hole to it and leave it. I hate having an upward-facing hole exposed in the engine compartment :P


....

So the car ran a little better after that, but still not mobile. The previous owner said he had let the car sit for maybe a 6 year stretch at one point and had the fuel system rebuilt. I knew he got the car inspected a year ago judging from the paperwork that came with the car, so it had to have been running better in the not-too-distant past. I suspected the fuel system was the next problem; the thing had a full tank of gas in it, who knows how long it had sit. At least a year.

So ... open up the gas tank, and lo and behold the gas is the color of urine. Yuck! The fuel pump and everything fuel related were in horrifying condition even though they were indeed replacement. Granted, I've seen way more horrifying than what I dealt with from other people's pictures, but it was pretty gross. The gas was bad, but still good enough for the lawnmower -- lawn mower runs great on this stuff, it's kind of funny So all the gas I siphoned out will be put to use.

Anyway, I've ordered DMCH's fuel pump replacement kit, plus a new fuel accumulator, and that's where I am right now -- waiting for parts. I've started the tank cleaning work and made good progress.

...

So that's where I'm at now! I will probably pull and clean the injectors as part of this. It sounds like the fuel distributor is a level of leaky hell to play with, so maybe see how it runs (with maybe some injector cleaner) after all that. Certainly suggestions are welcome!

And as for the "hot air intake stove", does that actually have some hole into the engine, or is that just cuddled up nice against the engine? Any suggestions on how to cap the air-tube hole into it? Or alternatively, can I remove it without pulling the engine? Pulling the engine is in the future, but I need to move it first! :P

[DMC-81]

Hi there,

Welcome, and congrats!

For the stove, if you are referring to part # 106108, it doesn't have a hole into the engine. It just clamps onto the exhaust manifold with 2 clamps on the underside. The clamps are fastened with 2 x M5 x 25 hex bolts.

Here is a picture of the underside.

Feb 15 229.jpg

Good luck with the resto!

Dana

[MountainGoat]

Hi there,

Welcome, and congrats!

For the stove, if you are referring to part # 106108, it doesn't have a hole into the engine. It just clamps onto the exhaust manifold with 2 clamps on the underside. The clamps are fastened with 2 x M5 x 25 hex bolts.

Here is a picture of the underside.

Feb 15 229.jpg

Good luck with the resto!

Dana

Thank you so much for the picture -- that's exactly what I'm talking about, and exactly the information I was hoping for I'll just remove the thing next time I'm able to.

[SS Spoiler]

Toss the stove. It just adds a restriction to the air coming in, and by the time it opens up the
motor is already warm.

[Bitsyncmaster]

That fuse box looks scary. You will need to put that fuse box fix near the top of your restoration of things to do.

[MountainGoat]

So the gas tank is really filthy still after trying to clean it 'by hand', and I need at least 2 or 3 extra joints in my arm to reach the back part. So I took my friend's suggestion and I've whipped out the Marine Cleaner / POR-15 to finish the job. I will be out of town for a week, so I've filled the tank halfway and I'll let it sit while I'm gone. This works great but means putting water in the tank which is scary -- I will siphon, shop-vac, swap out, and finally touch up with acetone where needed.

While that's sitting, I went to remove my fuel injectors and give them a cleaning as well. I got the 4 easy ones out; the 2 remaining driver's side ones I'm not too sure how I'll get out. Seems like some folks have had a good success with wrapping a wire around the injector and then using that to pull the retainer off, so I'll try that.

In the process of removing the injectors, I found one of the spark plug wires 'casually' fell out -- like, I nudged it and it fell loose. That's not right ...! The last major work the previous owner had done to the car was a spark plug change and a tune-up, and he said it wasn't the same since -- I think I found at least one of the problems there! So, I think I'm going to go ahead and redo that work while I've got the injectors out.

I need to post more pictures, though I haven't grabbed 'em off my camera yet. :P

[MountainGoat]

As a quickie update -- and my last one for about a week as I will be out of town -- I pulled out all the injectors. I found a method that works for me -- basically, use the circular-end of a wrench to hook the table and pull them off. I have a set of wrenches where the circle (socket I guess) end of the wrench is bent about 30 degrees or so, and that works AWESOME I must say!

Pop one part of the clip, then use a screwdriver to wedge the clip (so it doesn't pop down). Pop the second tab on the clip. And then use the screwdriver to rotate the clip til the third tab is reachable and pop that. I got pretty good at this by the time I got done.

Injectors are a mess -- I will see about getting them cleaned, as they are gross but not damaged looking. I've ordered replacement clips and injector boots. Considering buying a spark plug kit -- I might want to just go ahead and do that while I'm 'in the neighborhood' so to speak.

There's some evidence that only the driver's side cylinders were getting fuel. Specifically, the passenger side fuel lines didn't leak when I disconnected them whereas the driver's side did. What a mess! Might need to clean out the fuel distributor .... Anyway! That's a problem for next week. See ya all then.

[MountainGoat]

So, my fuel pump was on back order when I tried to get it from DMC, so I got an equivalent from Special-T which should be arriving within the week. Unfortunately I could not wait up to a month for the DMC one.

I also purchased new fuel injectors; I could not get them cleaned locally for a reasonable price, but I found these :

http://www.injectorwarehouse.com/gas...rt-mp5150.html

which appear to be the correct thing and a good price. Fingers crossed!

Today I pulled the "stove" mentioned in my first post off. It was so rusty it was almost falling apart. Felt good removing it.


Leaving the Marine Clean in my gas tank until the pump arrives. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a running engine!

[MountainGoat]

As it turns out, can't win with cheap -- the place that had my injectors for cheap didn't actually have them. They offered to clean them for the same price, but after doing some research, I think I can do it myself just as well. For those interested, here's links:

http://www.mbca.org/forum/cleaning-m...ossible-things

http://alabbasi.com/injectors.html

I will let you all know how it goes. I'm probably going to try the first method as it seems more methodical and less random.

My fuel pump came today, so I flushed the Marine Clean out of my tank. Ugh, so much spillage -- anything on the frame that was only thinking of rusting will probably full on rust now, especially the plate under the tank. Feel kind of awful, but the end plan is to do a frame-off anyway so it kinda is what it is.

I also ordered a weather strip kit and the T-cover insulation, and a tune-up kit with new plugs, wires, distributor cap, etc. This is more or less the last big purchase I'm going to do for awhile, just about used up my budget for a bit However, I have (fingers crossed) everything I need to get it running in order to take care of the short-term legal requirements of registration and ability to transport it to the shop where it will be long-term worked on.

Hooray!

Also, I need to take more pictures. Sorry for a not-as-interesting-as-it-could-be log

[Bitsyncmaster]

I found you can hold the injector in open position by sticking a solid copper 30 AWG wire under the little valve at the end of the injector. I just pull that valve open with my fingernail. Not sure if that will help you just ultrasonic cleaning but if you can get a revers pressure flow it may be good.