[DeTomaso] NPC: Getting other barn finds going again.

Thu Nov 11 08:23:21 EST 2021

Waking my 240z after a twenty year nap was a similar experience except at the first try, it didn’t crank, she was stuck. 
All the plugs were out and the cylinders had been injected a day prior with ATF/acetone to soak. 
I moved out of the cabin to the engine bay and poked at the starter solenoid with a screwdriver and noticed it did actually rotate a degree or two each time. I kept at it and finally she spun freely after pumping out some nasty pus from the plug hole for cylinder number 2. It looked like grey toothpaste. 
After a bunch of fiddling with the carbs she fired up, all my cylinder prelubing burned off and filled the shop with so much smoke I couldn’t even see the car from across the room. 
That was the easy part. Every bit of the clutch and brake hydraulic systems required rebuilding and critters had nested in every available void in the car. 
Ten years later cylinder 2 remains down about ten psi in compression from her neighbors, and will show a bit of oil fouling on the spark plug, which I stay ahead of by periodically swapping the plugs around in an established pattern. She uses a quart of oil every thousand miles or so. 
Runs too nicely to bother doing anything about it at the moment. 

Waking the 47 Dodge p/u after her forty year nap required cylinder head removal. Compression test results were 0, 60, 0, 0, 80, 0. I found one broken and three stuck exhaust valves. Lucky it’s a flathead or that broken valve head would have caused some drama in the cylinder bore. 
I replaced the one bad valve with a donated used one, cleaned up the others, hand lapped them all. 
Brake hydraulics were the big issue again. Everything had to be replaced, the pistons were so frozen in the wheel cylinders I couldn’t drive them out with a 4 pound hand sledge. 
Eleven years later, the old Dodge is a favorite weekend morning coffee ride. Over 3,500 miles added, which took a little seat time at a +/- 35 mph cruising speed. 

Good luck. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 11, 2021, at 7:13 AM, Larry Weston <lplugw at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> All that, and we used a homemade pre-oiler made of some 4” pvc pipe and a few fittings and a length of hose connected to the oil pressure port. Used a few psi compressed air to force in a quart of oil while hand rotating a Cleveland that had sat for nearly twenty years. 
> Fired up without even making any lifter noises. The display of acorns and related debris that shot out of the mufflers was pretty amazing. 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Nov 11, 2021, at 1:22 AM, Jack Donahue <demongusta at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I’d put in new plugs, spray-lube cylinder walls with a penetrant/lube, let it soak around the rings awhile - overnight, and hand crank the motor (before the plugs are put in - Dah -  or rock the car in high gear - All to avoid that sickening "snap" sound of a piston ring in that first millimeter of movement.  Just look at the alternative. Keep Murphy out of there.
>> 
>>> On Nov 10, 2021, at 6:42 PM, Jerry Knotts <knottsj at galstar.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Might be good to do engine oil and filter, flush and fill coolant,
>>> replace battery.  Make sure the engine turns over with fresh oil.
>>> Initially you might refill the oil filter with a lower viscosity for
>>> primary oiling to crank, rods and pan. Next replace thermostat and then
>>> move on to the list.
>>> 
>>> jerry knotts
>>> 
>>> Hafast Racing
>>> 
>>> On 11/10/2021 6:47 PM, Dave Londry wrote:
>>> 
>>> eat up.
>>> 
>>> On 2021-11-10 4:46 p.m., Dave Londry wrote:
>>> 
>>> I would just start over and replace the oil, coolant and brake/clutch
>>> fluid.
>>> On the other hand, that would east up a whole day at the speed I move
>>> now.
>>> Dave
>>> 
>>> On 2021-11-10 4:37 p.m., Mike & Elizabeth wrote:
>>> 
>>> I've just learned that one of our members passed a while ago.  His wife
>>> has reached out to us to help her get the car started/running so she
>>> can move on to selling it.  It was a very nicely done 74, but has not
>>> run in over 5 years.  There is currently no battery in it.  I would
>>> imagine that any fuel in the carb has long since evaporated and left a
>>> nice lacquer sheen on everything, and the fuel in the tank is likely
>>> far gone as well.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I'll check the coolant and oil levels and condition, also see if I can
>>> get a sample of the ZF fluid to see what shape it's in.  I'll also take
>>> a look at the brake and clutch fluids, get air in the tires and make
>>> sure the brakes aren't seized.  What other things should we look for
>>> before trying to get this car running?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Mike Thomas
>>> 
>>> Panteras Northwest
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
>>> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
>>> DeTomaso mailing list
>>> [[[1]1]1]DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> [2][2][2]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 
>>> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the li
>>> nks above.
>>> 
>>> Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any message p
>>> osted here to all past, current, or future members of the list. They also grant
>>> the list owner permission to maintain an archive or approve the archiving of lis
>>> t messages.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Dave Londry
>>> TRGuys.com
>>> 
>>> [[[3]3]3]davel at trguys.com
>>> Cell     604-721-2278
>>> Skype    embeddedspaces
>>> 
>>> References
>>> 
>>> 1. [4][4]mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 2. [5][5]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 3. [6][6]mailto:davel at trguys.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
>>> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
>>> DeTomaso mailing list
>>> [[7]7]DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> [8][8]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 
>>> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the li
>>> nks above.
>>> 
>>> Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any message p
>>> osted here to all past, current, or future members of the list. They also grant
>>> the list owner permission to maintain an archive or approve the archiving of lis
>>> t messages.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Dave Londry
>>> TRGuys.com
>>> 
>>> [[9]9]davel at trguys.com
>>> Cell     604-721-2278
>>> Skype    embeddedspaces
>>> 
>>> References
>>> 
>>> 1. [10]mailto:1]DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 2. [11]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 3. [12]mailto:3]davel at trguys.com
>>> 4. [13]mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 5. [14]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 6. [15]mailto:davel at trguys.com
>>> 7. [16]mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 8. [17]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 9. [18]mailto:davel at trguys.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
>>> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
>>> DeTomaso mailing list
>>> [19]DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> [20]http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 
>>> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the li
>>> nks above.
>>> 
>>> Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any message p
>>> osted here to all past, current, or future members of the list. They also grant
>>> the list owner permission to maintain an archive or approve the archiving of lis
>>> t messages.
>>> 
>>> References
>>> 
>>> 1. mailto:1]1]DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 2. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 3. mailto:3]3]davel at trguys.com
>>> 4. mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 5. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 6. mailto:davel at trguys.com
>>> 7. mailto:7]DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 8. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 9. mailto:9]davel at trguys.com
>>> 10. mailto:1
>>> 11. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 12. mailto:3
>>> 13. mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 14. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 15. mailto:davel at trguys.com
>>> 16. mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 17. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 18. mailto:davel at trguys.com
>>> 19. mailto:DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> 20. http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
>>> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
>>> DeTomaso mailing list
>>> DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>>> http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>>> 
>>> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the links above.
>>> 
>>> Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any message posted here to all past, current, or future members of the list. They also grant the list owner permission to maintain an archive or approve the archiving of list messages.
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
>> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
>> DeTomaso mailing list
>> DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
>> http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>> 
>> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the links above.
>> 
>> Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any message posted here to all past, current, or future members of the list. They also grant the list owner permission to maintain an archive or approve the archiving of list messages.
> _______________________________________________
> 
> 
> Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
> http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
> 
> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the links above.
> 
> Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any message posted here to all past, current, or future members of the list. They also grant the list owner permission to maintain an archive or approve the archiving of list messages.