New Addition

[toldfield]

I may be going through a late onset Mid-Life Crisis. A few weeks ago I purchased a '82 S-3 from a friend up north. The car has a Lotus Twincam and has not been on the road for several years. It has run as recently as six months ago, but I'm busy learning about Webers and how to bring everything else back to life. I am anticipating a fun project...

Tom

[Doug Liedblad]

Tom

Welcome to the group. I am not Weber wise but there are some on here and Bisimoto where we do our dynodays is an expert.

I go thru a Mid-Life Crisis about every 6 months.

What city are you in?

Doug

[toldfield]

We are in Altadena.

[RAC mini]

Welcome, look forward to seeing another 7 roaming the area, I'm in La Canada and have a 2005 SV
. Steve

[Doug Liedblad]

We also have

Slomove aka Gert in Pasadena
Moosetestperson aka Chris in Tujunga
ScottE in Eagle Rock

These are just the owners near you I can remember.

I'm in Newbury Park.

Come out to our drives when able.

Watch the events section.

Doug

[toldfield]

It will be a bit before I'm ready to participate. We finally got it running a bit today and I think it needs to get warmed up a bit and some good gas needs to gets run through it before we visit the smog place. I need to replace all of the coolant, fuel, and brake hoses as well as clean up some other things. If I am comfortable in a few days I'll give you a heads up if I think it will make it to Hill St. (and back). I will be looking for lots of advice...

Tom

[moosetestbestanden]

It will be a bit before I'm ready to participate. We finally got it running a bit today and I think it needs to get warmed up a bit and some good gas needs to gets run through it before we visit the smog place. I need to replace all of the coolant, fuel, and brake hoses as well as clean up some other things. If I am comfortable in a few days I'll give you a heads up if I think it will make it to Hill St. (and back). I will be looking for lots of advice...

Tom

There's a Unocal station at Arroyo Parkway right where the 110 starts that sells 100 octane. It ain't cheap but it doesn't have any corn in it (it's toluene, mostly). A couple of gallons wouldn't hurt.

[Doug Liedblad]

If it has old gas in it, drain and replace.

Newer gasolines have a limited shelf life. A few months at best. This is critical if your engine is high compression, >9:1 or so.

Old gas will ping or detonate badly and can cause engine damage.

[toldfield]

The car has been in storage for a few years but the previous owner would put gas in it and fire it up every so often. He drained the gas after each run. I put new 91 octane in it over the weekend.

We cleaned the jets and emulsion tubes yesterday and it is running a lot better. I have given some thought to the 100 octane and may just put some in to help the cleaning process. Unfortunately it has a catalytic converter installed or I would be heading to the airport for some real gas. The previous owner said he had to put the converter on but none of the DMV paperwork indicates that one is required. I will be doing some research on that.

[Doug Liedblad]

You can buy octane booster at the local auto parts store.

[moosetestbestanden]

The 100 octane at the Unocal is unleaded. There's a gas station in Orange that sells both that and 104 octane leaded. I got me a jug o that! It smells soooo good when burnt. :-D

Avgas isn't really what you want. It's designed (literally) for constant rpm engines.

The octane booster on offer at your local automotive accessories store won't work that well. Snake oil, like basically all of the additives those junk stores sell.

[toldfield]

Thanks for all of the advice. After fiddling around for a few days it was running very well on Sunday. I need to square away some other things, like a coolant recovery tank (apparently unheard of in 1982), a fan on the radiator, and some adjustments. But now that it is running I'm beginning to find out that it was in a lot better condition than I expected. _MG_0549.jpg_MG_0560.jpg

[moosetestbestanden]

Thanks for all of the advice. After fiddling around for a few days it was running very well on Sunday. I need to square away some other things, like a coolant recovery tank (apparently unheard of in 1982), a fan on the radiator, and some adjustments. But now that it is running I'm beginning to find out that it was in a lot better condition than I expected.

There's a regular Saturday morning car gathering in the La Canada movie theater parking lot on Verdugo at the 2 if you're interested. I pop by from time to time, either in the carr or on the Duc. Bring it round sometime. 7:00 - 8:30 is prime time.

This is the 1st car I've seen with an air raid siren! :-D

[toldfield]

We are out of town for three weeks but I'll come by when we get back.
I can't tell you. how many times it's gone off in my ear. The instructions were a bit incomplete so I have stuffed a rag in it.

[Doug Liedblad]

In your ear?