They don't like to sit - or, reviving the Seven

Old man rambling time.

I've got some changes coming in the fleet, and as part of that it's time for a few to leave. One is the Seven, my Locost. It's been out of the garage exactly twice in the last...five years, maybe? That's no way for a car to live, so it's moving on.

But in order to do that, it needs to run.

Well, the battery was dead. Fair enough. Jumped that.

Now, I'd had signs of a fuel leak right after I parked it last time. But nothing now. I peeked in the tank - empty. Okay, at least there's no risk of stale fuel. Easy to fix.

Then...nothing. It cranked, but no fire. On this car, you can just open the throttles by hand and see if the injectors are doing a priming squirt. Nope. Then I realized that I couldn't hear the fuel pump.

It's never the fuel pump, right? It was the fuel pump. An external Pierburg, which are usually bombproof. So I pulled it off and installed a spare. Luckily, I'd only put about a cup of fuel in the tank because occasionally I get smart, so it wasn't that big a deal to drain it into the jerry can. I also cleaned out the filter because that's why you install cleanable filters.

The new (well, new used) fuel pump leaked from the body. Seriously? I didn't even know they could do that. At this point, I was done with Pierburg so I ordered in a new MSD unit. Some futzing around with fittings gave me a nice AN flare connection on the inlet to replace a short piece of 1/2" hose I'd had to use on the Pierburg, so the car's actually improved from before.

Voila! Fuel pressure. Which then identified the leak as an o-ring in the two-piece fuel rail. I pulled the rail apart and headed for Autozone. Eventually I found something that worked. Win! We can now build pressure and not leak. I should mention that with this car on a Quickjack and the hood off, you've got access that rivals having the engine on a stand. So easy. And a big thank you to younger me for using AN fittings on the fuel system.

And the car fired up! Well, 3/4 of it did. I checked the temperature of the header primaries with my tire pyrometer and found that #3 wasn't firing. Well, I knew it wasn't spark as 2 and 3 share a coil. So it had to be fuel.

Another peek down the throttle body for #3 and there's no prime squirt. A probe with a test light shows power, but it doesn't click when I ground out the other side. Stuck injector. So I grabbed a spare battery and used that to energize the injector directly. This is the brute force method from the injector's point of view. Click click click, we're good.

Victory! Fire in all four holes and the glorious noise of one of my favorite ever engines filled the garage. As did a certain amount of noxious exhaust, this cam is not exactly California friendly. But I don't care.

All this on a car that was running well when I parked it. PSA: don't let them sit.

And then I took it for a test drive and fell back in love. No, no, it has to go. But maaaaan, what a car...

Rip your mancard in half. Oh wait, you got a Caddy

I couldn't really comprehend the bidding frenzy on the roadkill truck a few weeks back, but I will understand it when a similar bidding war develops on your locost. What is your plan to sell it?

It's a private sale to a friend. We've agreed on a price that works for both of us. It's possible I could get more for it elsewhere - or not - but he knows exactly what he's getting, I know it's going to a good home and I'll be able to visit if I want to.

Yup. I would do a fly and drive, as is and ironman it to south east PA. That is seriously about the most fun thing I can think of. Love this car.

Keith Tanner wrote: It's a private sale to a friend. We've agreed on a price that works for both of us. It's possible I could get more for it elsewhere - or not - but he knows exactly what he's getting, I know it's going to a good home and I'll be able to visit if I want to.

Crap, i was going to inquire about it.

well, the Caddy will be coming up for sale shortly as well if that helps...

This wasn't really intended to be an announcement of sale of the car, although it is the first time it's been mentioned anywhere. It was more a story of what it takes to bring a car back to life.

Cleaning inventory? Something up you feel like sharing?

Keith Tanner said: PSA: don't let them sit.

A friend of mine in TN is pretty concerned with this. He might be going to London for 3 years and he has a '90 Miata with 45K miles that looks like it just came off the showroom. He doesn't want to sell it before he leaves, because with the way Miata prices are going, he's afraid he wouldn't be able to afford something similar when he gets back in 3 years. He planned on storing it in his mother's garage, but is afraid it's going to be all screwed up from sitting.

He asked if I wanted to take care of it/use it while he was gone. I declined. I don't have the room for it, so it'd sit outside most of that 3 years. And I have my souped-up Miata, which I would much rather drive over a stocker. Plus I don't want the responsibility if it gets stolen, vandalized, tree falls on it, house fire, etc.

NickD wrote:

Keith Tanner said: PSA: don't let them sit.

A friend of mine in TN is pretty concerned with this. He might be going to London for 3 years and he has a '90 Miata with 45K miles that looks like it just came off the showroom. He doesn't want to sell it before he leaves, because with the way Miata prices are going, he's afraid he wouldn't be able to afford something similar when he gets back in 3 years. He planned on storing it in his mother's garage, but is afraid it's going to be all screwed up from sitting. He asked if I wanted to take care of it/use it while he was gone. I declined. I don't have the room for it, so it'd sit outside most of that 3 years. And I have my souped-up Miata, which I would much rather drive over a stocker. Plus I don't want the responsibility if it gets stolen, vandalized, tree falls on it, house fire, etc.

Leave the car at his mom's garage. Have him pay for the insurance and registration. Just stop by every two weeks for a 20 minute drive around town. Wash it once a month and change all the fluids once a year.

Keith, I've been a member of that other site since 2006ish. Still have yet to build one. I brought it up with the wife again yesterday "you know, if I get laid off while you are working contract you make enough that I can finally build my car. This could be the only chance I ever get with the young kids"

imagine how well that went over. hint: my wife is not Mrs. Mazdeuce.

Point is that I very clearly remember reading about your build and book back then. I was pretty surprised when i saw you on GRM when I joined. Like damn I know that name from somewhere.

jimbob_racing wrote:

NickD wrote:

Keith Tanner said: PSA: don't let them sit.

A friend of mine in TN is pretty concerned with this. He might be going to London for 3 years and he has a '90 Miata with 45K miles that looks like it just came off the showroom. He doesn't want to sell it before he leaves, because with the way Miata prices are going, he's afraid he wouldn't be able to afford something similar when he gets back in 3 years. He planned on storing it in his mother's garage, but is afraid it's going to be all screwed up from sitting. He asked if I wanted to take care of it/use it while he was gone. I declined. I don't have the room for it, so it'd sit outside most of that 3 years. And I have my souped-up Miata, which I would much rather drive over a stocker. Plus I don't want the responsibility if it gets stolen, vandalized, tree falls on it, house fire, etc.

Leave the car at his mom's garage. Have him pay for the insurance and registration. Just stop by every two weeks for a 20 minute drive around town. Wash it once a month and change all the fluids once a year.

That would be an absolutely smashing plan, except for the fact that I live in NY (forgot to mention that) so there's about 900 miles between me and said car.

All the sadness I've seen from long term sitting in various cars has come from the fuel system. Rarely to the level I experienced, but injectors clogging up are pretty common. If I was decommissioning a car for three years, I'd probably pull the pump relay while the car was running to depressurize the system, drain the tank and then pull the injectors and give them a squirt of cleaner so there's no fuel sitting in there.

Flight Service wrote: Cleaning inventory? Something up you feel like sharing?

Not really. Just too many cars not seeing enough action. It's more a matter of removing obligations than it is making space or making money. It took a long time to get my mind around selling the Seven, but where it's going was a big factor. I'm not sure I can let the Land Rover go, despite the fact that it just sits and provides refuge for wasps.

I got really lucky. I pulled the mustang out of sitting for 3-4 years and All I needed was an oilchange, Power steering fluid (slow leak), and a fresh battery. I had doused it with stabil before storing and it fired right up.

Even drove 20 miles on the old gas to the station to get fresh and didnt have any hiccups. (granted I didnt take it over 2k RPM)

It was stored in a heated garage.

Its currently halfway to the new house, 2nd leg happens this weekend. Probably going to dump some injector cleaner in there and let it get a tank or two through before I will take it over 3500rpm though.

If you avoid using gas with ethanol, you should be okay for longer periods of storage. Near me, one station sells gas without it. Mostly it's marketed towards small power equipment but I put it into my Datsun which sits for long periods between start ups. At $8.00 a gallon, it's not cheap but it is more cost effective than cleaning out the fuel system varnish every so often.