Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 10:25:37 -0700
Jerry Oliver <slantws@home.com> said:
>Subject: TR4A purchased
>
>I brought home a new friend over the week end.
>
>[snip]
>
>I hope to breather life into her once again.
Congratulations, Jerry - looks like you found a good one!
I'd like to solicit the list's collective experience on bring one of these
garage queens back to life. What drill do you find most effective in
de-gunking an old engine?
I just did one and will recall my experiences.
I had one in storage for too many years. The car was in good condition
and tune when I garaged it. I added some graphite additive to the oil
shortly before storage and ran it out of gas. Time and distance (among
other things) kept maintenance to zero. Every couple of years, some oil
got squirted into the spark plug holes and (if we were lucky (seldom!!))
the engine was turned over. It had not been *started* in 18 years by now.
(Eventually (before trying to start it) I drained nearly 8 qt from the sump
- no gunk or goo (or water...)).
I drained the coolant (yes, I left it "wet" w a good a/f load) and
discovered I
may have lost the heater <sigh>. But it looked pretty good otherwise. A
quick oxalic acid flush didn't give me much trash.
Then I changed oil and ran it on the starter w/o ignition to bring up the oil
pressure. This was done 4 or 5 times over a week before the first start.
Just for luck, I rebuilt the fuel pump, flushed the carbs w Gumout and blew
the gas lines clear. On first startup trial, I had no spark, but, hey -
this is a TR
and I was prepared. After the usual fooling around it started up with its
characteristic
"first piston up" start. It runs pretty well, considering the gunk in the
fuel to clean
the fuel system out. I don't think the rings/valves are loose yet; I'm
getting a little
smoke, but its white-ish and I think fuel related. The rear main seal is
weeping but
I probably installed it wrong circa 1969 and can hardly complain.
Now I am rebuilding the hydraulics (for the last time, thanks to DOT 5) and
trying
to loosen the motor up. I remember using Casite "Tuneup" in the past, but
did not
find any locally this time. In its stead I used Marvel Mystery Oil because the
can looked good <science...>. I've been told its really ATF - but I guess a
high
detergent light oil lube isn't a *bad* additive. So its been start, warm
up, cool down, sit.
About a half dozen cycles.
No problems noted except the engine *seems* noisy. Nothing like a rod knock -
mostly valve clatter, but more than I remember. Maybe I should drag the
laptop out
and record 15 seconds in a wav file ... <grin> Oil pressure is good - on
30 wt it is
holding ~55 lbs at 1200 rpm idle and 190 deg water temp.
I pulled the old filter element and there was no apparent blockage. There
appears to be
adequate oil to the valves, but I gave them all a shot of Kano KROIL for
good measure.
(If you don't know about KROIL ...). I'll
I really don't want to spend a lot of time idling the engine, but felt a
need to get it back to
life *slowly* at first and probe for weak spots. Seems to be working, but
a little slower than
I was hoping.
Comments / Suggestions ? I haven't played motorhead for a few years...
Dave
'53 B-4 PW
'56 TR-3
If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by
candlelight.--George Gobel
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