THE ROVER SD1 FORUM

chris_derby

Does anybody have any tips about starting a V8 engine after it has been stood for a year? Car was layed up after the fuel pump died, have since fitted a new fuel pump & the car starts on first turn of the key, although the starter turns slowly at first...
Are there any things I should have done before starting the car? IE priming the oil pump, cleaning terminals on the starter etc etc etc??
Just wants to make sure that the car runs OK before taking it for an MOT!
Also is there anybody in the Derby area that knows about the EFI system & could possibly come round my house to have a go at tuning my engine up? A few cold beers in it for whoever can help me!!!

Lehto · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject:

Just start? My car stood for 10 years and I just started it and it ran well...

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Owner of 3 Rovers and 1 MG.

rover v8 · SD1 User Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 103 Location: Finland

chris_derby wrote:

Does anybody have any tips about starting a V8 engine after it has been stood for a year? Car was layed up after the fuel pump died, have since fitted a new fuel pump & the car starts on first turn of the key, although the starter turns slowly at first...
Are there any things I should have done before starting the car? IE priming the oil pump, cleaning terminals on the starter etc etc etc??
Just wants to make sure that the car runs OK before taking it for an MOT!
Also is there anybody in the Derby area that knows about the EFI system & could possibly come round my house to have a go at tuning my engine up? A few cold beers in it for whoever can help me!!!

Priming the oil pump would be a good idea..? Not a bad idea at all..

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Timo..

chris_derby · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:48 pm Post subject:

Well I've had it running & there seems to be a decent oil pressure, it just runs a bit rough, was going to put some injector cleaner in the tank to clean the fuel system out, see if that clears it up a bit.
Had heard about priming the oil pump, but that was after I got her running....

Mattv8 · SD1 User Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 28

Did the injector cleaner help? I am having trouble with my engine that was stood for 10 years and dont really want to take the injectors out to clean them.

What cleaner did you use and how did you stop your engine running roughly?

Matt

chris_derby · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:45 am Post subject:

I haven't got round to putting any injector cleaner in yet, was going to have a go early next week. Was going to use redex or some thing similar, will let you know how I get on.
The engine isn't running all that rough, but there does seem to be some hesitation when you press the throttle, sometimes it results in the engine stalling, sometimes not. Have replaced the air flow meter(the old 1 had been opened up), spark plugs, dizzy cap, fuel pump & fuel filter. Am thinking maybe some crud from the bottom of the tank has been sucked into the pipes at some stage & the car was over fuelling too when I got her running, as the plugs were black when I took them out.
Just need somebody local to me with a gas analyser to come give me a hand tuning the engine.......

tim leech · Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:02 pm Post subject:

I would give it a service chris, fresh petrol and a nice long run!

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1979 Rover SD1 V8-S
1987 Rover 2600VDP Auto.
1985 Citroen BX 19GT
1990 Citroen BX 16v
1994 Citroen Xantia 1.8i SX

chris_derby · Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:42 pm Post subject:

I think the 'nice long run' will be when I take her for an MOT! Going to put the injector cleaner through this week & see how that helps

ramon alban · Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:37 pm Post subject:

chris_derby wrote:

Going to put the injector cleaner through this week & see how that helps

Chris, I put injector cleaner into three different cars I'd had at various times and decided that the only obvious gain was Halfords profit margin.

It then occurred to me that I was putting 100ml of some obscure solvent, or limescale remover, or snake oil into 30 ltrs of another explosive solvent (petrol) and expecting it to make a difference. If it did I couldn't detect it. But I'd spent the money so I had to be satisfied or take a reality check.

On the same three occasions I remember that changing the Plugs, Oil, Filters, cleaning and spraying wd40 over all the ignition components, plus inspection of wiring and a damn good engine clean always seemed to work wonders.

If you have good oil pressure, the coolant temperature is steady, it pulls like shov off a shittel and sounds wonderful, take it for a low speed run up and down your local road in first and second gear only, redlining the engine to about 5500 rpm and listen for odd noises. If there are none, keep doing it and make sure it continues to hold oil pressure and steady coolant temperature. The pressure should get higher with engine speed. The temperature should remain stready all the time.

And remember, just up and down your local road so its not too far to recover if something breaks.

If nothing breaks you should now be confident that the car will behave immaculately at 2500 rpm in 5th and the only thing you need to worry about are Gatso's.

If you detect any engine problems report back with symptoms.

And if you have an overfueling problem still, then we can address that separately.

FYI, when set-up normally the SD1 Efi system has a tendency to run on the weak side at idle so when you go for your MOT take a set of hex wrenches with you, talk to the MOT tester before you start and tell him you may want to adjust the CO mixture at idle if its too high.

To pre-empt that, you might check that the CO adjust screw on the AFM is approx 2.5 turns out from fully home before you go. If it is a lot more than that turn it down to 2.5 and see if it still idles ok.

If it does reset your idle speed to 800-900 rpm.

If the engine will not run at 2.5 turns then there may be other problems to investigate.

Read about AFM on my website.

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Ramon

tim leech · Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:51 am Post subject:

What about a Italian tune up?

_________________
1979 Rover SD1 V8-S
1987 Rover 2600VDP Auto.
1985 Citroen BX 19GT
1990 Citroen BX 16v
1994 Citroen Xantia 1.8i SX

londonbabe · SD1 User Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 81

Treat it to a tank of the expensive petrol and give it a good, high-revs run up the motorway.

replace the plugs and air filter, clean the electrical connectors. Change the oil.