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The DeLorean needs routine maintenance and the occasional, more significant refurbishing. Beyond that there are also a number of customizations and upgrades to improve performance, reliability and functionality.
With the damage to my block, I had to decide if I was going to repair it or swap to a 3.0L engine. Either way, I was going to have to take apart the old 2.8L. The first steps are to remove the valve covers, main pulley, timing cover and optionally the water pump.
Read MoreAfter discovering a hole in the valley on the top of the engine block, I decide I needed to pull the engine. While the basic process is outlined in the Workshop Manual, there are a number of things they just assume you know (since the manual was targeted at mechanics), so it could be a bit unclear what to do at times. Some Google searches found a few engine removals, but no step-by-step instructions.
It took me a couple of months of working for a few hours for one day each week or two to remove the engine and transmission, including various questions to the DMCTalk forums, setting up the tools I'd need, and doing research. In the end I took out the engine and the automatic transmission as a single unit. I've attempting to catalogue my experience as best I could in the hope that it will help others who need to remove theirs.
The question now is what I'm going to do about the engine now that I have it out.
Read MoreMy fuse box has seen better days. Three of the fuses had melted so badly that I had to replace the sockets with inline fuse holders. While waiting to get some money together for the EFI conversion, I finally took the time to replace my fuse box with a new one from Houston that I'd gotten a few months ago. I actually wound up buying two of them -- my dog decided the first one would make a good chew toy. At least this gave me extra terminals for the inevitable mistakes I would make.
Read MoreSome DeLorean owners have reported that the check valve has failed in Houston's fuel pump/sender combo. This can cause starting problems due to loss of fuel pressure. This in turn led to a discussion on DMCTalk about adding an inline check valve. Although I haven't actually started up my car since I installed the new fuel pump, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to install a check valve just to be sure.
Read MoreAfter replacing the fuel pump and cleaning the tank, I needed to replace the fuel filter. In principle, this is simple -- disconnect the hard line, remove the bracket, and take off the banjo bolt. In practice, I had rusted lines that required quite a lot of fiddling to break free.
Read MoreA rather odd design decision on the DeLorean is how it deals with removing water that runs off the windshield. The water rolls down the glass, is funneled towards the center of the window, and drains down a hole and right on top of the fuel pump. This likely contributed significantly to all the water that had collected at the top my my pump.
Using some aluminum stock and weather stripping adhesive, I built a simple deflector based on some discussion on DMCTalk to help redirect the water away from the fuel pump to reduces the chances of such a failure happening again.
Read MoreAfter a hole in the cap covering fuel pump filled the top of it with water and rusted everything within, I decided this would be a good time to upgrade to the Houston's fuel pump/sender combo. The replacement isn't very difficult in principle, but I ran into a couple of issues along the way.
Read MoreI took Dave Swingle's advice and tried starting the car by pushing down slightly on the deflector plate while cranking the engine. Since I didn't have an assistant to crank it for me, I picked up a momentary pushbutton and hooked it up to starter relay socket I'd installed some time ago. This let me start the car and test the mechanical advance, which appeared to be working just fine.
Read MoreWhile attempting to start the car to test the mechanical advance on the distributor (and failing to even get the car started), I discovered that the cold start valve had become clogged. Dave Swingle provided some good diagnostics that helped me make sure that this was true, as this part rarely fails. I've included Dave's tests in this post.
Read MoreAfter limping the DeLorean to the garage, I attempted to diagnose my misfiring issue and replaced the spark plugs and coil -- alas, to no avail.
Read MoreA failing seal from the fuel pump cap and boot is likely what led to water getting into my gas tank. This resulted in extremely poor performance, first limiting me to 3000 RPMs, and soon after to only 1500 RPMs. Repairs included cleaning the injectors, replacing one that was completely dead, testing spark (just to be sure), testing fuel pressures and cleaning the fuel tank and replacing the fuel filter. While clearly there was something wrong with the fuel system, it did not fix my misfiring problems.
Read MoreThis blog is to chronicle general repairs and maintenance to my DeLorean. This will include diagnosis of problems, performing the repairs, and the parts and tools needed to get it done, with as many links to other resources as I can find.
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