>>I want to fire the engine up before the body gets back and I have a few
>>questions:
1) Is there a way to pre-charge the engine with oil before I crank it
over
2) Where can I best hook up an oil pressure gauge to monitor pressure.
3) If anyone has done this before, is there anything that I should watch out
for.<<<<
Hi Bob:
Just getting around to reading (digest mode, weekend, etc.)
I have mentioned in the past a story about starting an engine on a car I
have. The car had been stored in a garage for 25 years, but was not frozen
(I think the PO had turned it occasionally.) Anyway, the story goes
something like this:
----------------
Subject: Some Good News - After 25 years IT LIVES!
After sitting for what I am told has been 25 or more years, today the engine
of the 20th Doretti every made started, also most by surprise! (The Doretti
is a British made cousin of the TR2, with chrome-moly steel tube frame and
aluminum body, using most of the TR2 drive train.) The car had been parked
in the previous owners garage without master cylinder and a few other minor
parts (NOS parts in boxes!) for over 25 years, waiting for "round tuits" I
guess.
The engine was never stuck, but I soaked the rings with penetrating oil
followed by lots of oil over a several month period. After changing the
"ink" (which is what it looked like) in the engine, I soaked the valve train
with oil, flushed out the old oil by pressurizing the oil system through the
oil pressure gauge pipe, the cranked the engine over without spark plugs to
check the oil pump and work the excess oil out of the rings. After putting
the plugs back in I put some fuel directly in the SUs and hit the starter -
it fired on the second try, with no throttle, choke or anything - it just
caught and came up to about 1200 rpm and stayed there without even
hesitating! Oil pressure at 60 pounds. Couldn't have ask for more than
that! ........
------------
Anyway, here is what I did.
I made a small pressure tank to put oil in, charged it with air and plumbed
it into where the line goes to your oil pressure gauge. The tank I used is
a piece of 2" PVC pipe (I would prefer to use copper - next time.) I
drilled a hole in a cap, inserted a rubber valve stem to allow it to be
pressurized and glued that cap on the pipe. The other end was a reducer
that went down to a pipe thread. Into this I screwed the appropriate
adapters, a valve, a tee with a pressure gauge and finally the appropriate
adapters to get to the oil line. In this case, the oil line is the double
bubble fitting used on brake lines. I got a short piece of line with
connectors on both ends, cut it in half and used a <" copper tube fitting to
adapt to pipe threads. Works great.
With all this assembled, fill the tank half full of oil, screw in the pipe
fittings, pressurize to about 40 - 50 pounds (careful here) and connect to
the flex line that goes normally to the firewall. Now you turn on the
valve, which pressurizes the engine without ever causing wear on anything.
Remember to shoot some oil into each cylinder to lube the rings real good.
Leave the plugs out so you don't over compress a cylinder when you first
turn it over (the oil won't compress if the plugs are in!) If you have
changed the oil, removed the valve cover and poured oil over the rockers,
valve stems and down the push rods to the followers and cam, you have done
about as much as you can to help it out.
I then installed the battery, turned on the oil pressure, and then cranked
the engine over. I could watch the oil pressure as I injected the oil, and
then could see the pressure rise as the oil pump started working.
Backfilling like this also primes the pump!
The fuel pump was clogged, so I just took a squirt bottle and put some fuel
into the line, put the plugs back in and darn if the thing didn't just start
on it's own - no choke, throttle or anything. Was wonderful.
I would recommend pressurizing any engine that has been sitting for a long
time. I would think it would really save those bearings.
Frank
Swallow Doretti #1020 (20th made of 276)
TR3 TS55223L
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