first start advice: 72E MFI

[dhamilto]

No, you're golden Jeff ! Thanks for the confirmation about the pressure!

I'll let you know how it goes...

[Tyson Schmidt]

If the car sat for a long time, it might be worth taking the time to remove the muffler and turn it in it’s side and let the oil drain out.

Oil drains from the oil tank into the engine over time, and reaches a level that drowns the exhaust guides. Then it’ll just keep sleeping into whatever open exhaust valve there is. I’ve drained as much as a full quart of oil from a muffler on a car that sat for years.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by Tyson Schmidt

If the car sat for a long time, it might be worth taking the time to remove the muffler and turn it in it’s side and let the oil drain out.

Oil drains from the oil tank into the engine over time, and reaches a level that drowns the exhaust guides. Then it’ll just keep sleeping into whatever open exhaust valve there is. I’ve drained as much as a full quart of oil from a muffler on a car that sat for years.

Oh man, don't tell him that - you'll ruin it for all of us! He was going to film the startup...

But, yeah, in all seriousness, these things can have a surprising amount of oil in the muffler. John Walker told me years ago about how he poured several quarts out of a customer's muffler. I can't remember the whole story (maybe John will see this...), but I think the guy just kept pouring more oil in the tank because it wasn't showing on the dipstick...

[dhamilto]

Guys,

I was going to film the startup but guess what - its started on the first turn of the key and I just wasn't prepared!!!! and it idled and sounded pretty smooth running too!!!

I guess all of that MFI tuning with help from this forum about 5 years ago paid off (see my old threads).

Here are a few titbits and information for those who might might be interested and maybe if you guys notice something unusual you can point it out....

Start/run #1 As anticipated, it smoked like a smoke machine on a film set, and the (white) smoke tends to choke the engine. Because of that, I only ran it for a couple of minutes first time around and to let it heat soak and check the oil dipstick - dipstick was completely dry. I'm pretty sure that oil was filled to max 5 years ago and it has sat with the usual small leeks since then. I only put about a litre/quart back in before starting, to make up for that dripping, and fed about quarter of a litre/quart down into the MFI pump through the oil return pipe as part of my preparation. In addition, my preparation included priming the fuel pump with gas, and then the MFI inj. pump with gas and building pressure with cold start solenoid wire disconnected, plugs out, and HT wire disconnected. Immediately before that first start, I put the CSS wire back, cleaned and gapped the plugs and put them back and cranked to build pressure again with HT lead still off and arcing against the case. For that first start, I put the HT lead back on and the hand throttle was down/off. It started on the first turn of the key!!! I pulled up the hand throttle a little and it revved faster and smoothly, but seemed happier with it down. It was happy with a few short low rev blips of the throttle too. Oil pressure was about 100 psi immediately on startup, and dropped to about 60 after a minute or two. Anyway, I turned it off and let the smoke clear.

Start/run #2 Started after a few turns but didnt run (hand throttle down). Lifted the hand throttle a little bit, then it started immediately and idled and ran smoothly. Gave it a few bigger blips and it was happy. No real smoke initially, then it really starts to smoke after a couple of minutes!! This time around, all I did was try to video it, but that was a mess and so was the smoke. This time I noticed a little bit of popping as it heated up. I think this is normal behaviour, as the mixture leans - is that true? Again, nothing on the dipstick after shutting her down.

Start/run #3. I added about 1 litre/quart more of oil before starting her up this time, about 30 - 60 minutes after run #2. Hand throttle on a little to start. Started on first turn of key and idled, but idled better with the hand throttle off. Its 11degC (51F) here, but probably a few more inside the back of my garage. Exactly the same behaviour as previously, popping a little as it warmed, but this time I was ready with a heat gun on low pointing towards the MFI thermostat, once the smoke machine started. This didnt really seem to do much - there was still some small popping (just like the sound popcorn makes) and I think the idle speed actually went up and the idle sounded stronger if that makes sense. I think I got a reasonably nice video this time and I noticed from this that the idle is actually a little bit low - I will post a link here once I upload it to Youtube.

Thanks to Tyson for chiming in . That's something I didnt know - oil possibly entering the muffler. Could that be the reason for all the white smoke????

Any other thoughts or observations guys???

[dhamilto]

Just removed the muffler - no oil, just plenty of flaky rust. No signs of oil in the manifolds either. A couple of 'blobs' of water in one of the manifolds, out close to the muffler flange. Maybe the smoke is just burning out the oil from the cylinders. Strangely, it only starts really smoking after a few minutes. Is it time to get the gas tester out?

[dhamilto]

I just uploaded the videos that I took of the second and third runs. Not very impressive, the sound doesnt do justice to how decent it sounded and idled. Looks like the idle is a bit low. Pity I didnt capture the first start and subsequent idling - I was expecting to have to crank it until the batteries died and then start again, but it started first turn of the key!! Engine is now out and against the back of my garage, for some touching up behind the back seats, and then for weight relief for replacement of inner/outer rocker panels and kidney bowls.

https://youtu.be/moBDSFjKPDo
https://youtu.be/FK82H89qgW8

Stay safe! Dean

[dhamilto]

Oops, looks like I missed disconnecting one of the oil tank connections before dropping the engine - snapped clean off !! Why does it have to be the most expensive and tricky one to replace!! doh!