The DIRT

["cruznmd" <racuti1@xxxx>]

Sorry to hear that guy with the frame resto issue didn't get the help 
he wanted. Here's -my- story of other "D" owner's generosity:

I am so glad that of all the cars, clubs and people I could have
associated myself with, that I chose to buy a DeLorean.

For the second time now I've had people come from out of state, with
parts, tools and test equipment just to help me out. They didn't want
anything in return. No money, no parts. Just a "help me out next
time". (Dave Stragand wanted some Dr. Pepper for the radiator he 
brought me)

Mike Cohee donated his garage. His wife courteously kept us stuffed
with hot wings, candy bars and soda all weekend. Chinese for dinner.
I did contribute pizza Friday night. :) Dave Stragand came down with
a gazillion different fasteners, tools and a Bear engine analyzer. He
also brought his experience and knowlege. Bill Robertson, conned his
buddy into towing me 40 or 50 miles to Mike's place free of charge
and shuttled me around while my car was on the operating table. He's
also the McMaster.com stainless king. People flame Bill far too much.
If you don't agree with how he runs his cars, that's fine but he'll
give you a kidney if you needed it.

I call these guys "The DIRT", The DIsaster Recovery Team. We took
pictures with Dave's digital cam so hopefully he'll post them when he
gets home. Here's the short list of what we did Friday and Saturday:

1. Removed my blown out radiator. The RH tank has seperated from the
tubes.

2. We discovered Dave's radiator had a pin hole. Some discussion led
to Dave soldering it while I applied vacuum with a hand pump to draw
in the solder. All Dave's idea. Bill had the vac pump. We vac AND
pressure tested the radiator. Good fix.

3. We replaced every section of rubber hose from bow to stern. Bill
supplied the hose from his remaining section of stock as well as a
slew of clamps. I swapped out my otterstat for one that clicks on a
bit sooner. I think the original is out of calibration.

4. Here's a biggie: TABs. One was determined to be "not original" and
looked like it came from a hardware store. Ewww. Again, replaced with
one of Bill's originals. It was very clean and straight. No rust.

5. The coup de gras was Dave's portable engine analyzer. Mechanic in
a box. Hooks about half a dozen leads to points on the car, talks
through a lap top. He could show us which cylinders were firing
poorly and maybe why. Ignition graphs, cranking tests, the works. We
found a near-dead plug wire so we fab'd a replacement.

6. At last, a fuel pressure test rig. My pump puts out 4.8-ish Bar.
My CPR cold, only puts out .8 Bar. Too low but it -does- warm up
quickly to the required 3.5 bar. We found that the metal tubing at
the fuel filter was kinked closed so I installed John Hervey's filter
fix kit. I cut back the kinked section of metal tube.

7. Inertia switch. Dave found wires upstream stripped and twisted
together providing a constant ground to the fuel pump. I separated
them and now the switch works like it should.

8. The "De-carbonizer". Eco-disaster in a can. This stuff is cool.
Disconnect the supply and return lines from the fuel dist. Hook up
this pressure rig to the supply side and screw in the can. Start the
car. The engine runs -on the can-. Makes a wicked smoke screen but it
will positively eat anything bad in your engine. Kind of like a car-
colonic. May cause cancer in humans.

That's all just MY car. Mike Cohee got some attention too but I'll
let him tell his story.

The end result? My car now runs the best it has since I've owned it.
The drive home was incredible. I believe I have as much power as that
engine is supposed to make in stock form.

Thanks guys.

Rich A.
#5335