That old car smell is back! 1970 Aston DBSV8

Thanks to @Roo and speed bleeders, the brake lines and clutch seem to be working although I will have to see how they work when I get the engine running.

Now it’s on to finish up the fuel system and cooling.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates. The water pump is back from being rebuilt and while the pump was out, I removed the spark plugs and added some oil to the cylinders and turned the engine over by hand without incident. Time to put the cooling system back together and then concentrate on getting the remaining parts of the fuel system cleaned up.

 

I reinstalled the water pump and the fan and installed all new accessory belts.

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I also painted and installed the header tank.

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Unfortunately, when I was working on the accessories I realized that the power steering hoses were leaking so I ordered some new hoses which should arrive shortly. By the way, I find the availability of parts to be very good and the prices generally are surprisingly reasonable. However, my supplier sometimes has to order some of the parts which results in delay and most of the parts have to be ordered from England.

 

I also changed the heater valve which is also used on other British cars of the era. The hose has pretty bad so I changed that too.
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Here is more evidence you shouldn’t let your car sit for years. The pipe or adapter to the heater valve and the heater valve itself were clogged with crystals from the coolant.

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Installed the new low pressure power steering hoses, changed the filter and seal in the reservoir and filled the system with fluid. These are correct low pressure plastic hoses but they sure look strange.

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Changed the oil and filter which was dirty but otherwise looked pretty good.

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Just need to check over the cooling system and make sure everything is tight and then I can fill the system with coolant. Already changed the accessory belts.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates. I filled the cooling system and everything seemed ready to try to start it. I again made sure the engine was feee by turning it by hand. I removed the spark plugs and disconnected the ignition. I then spun the engine with the starter until it developed oil pressure. I then installed new spark plugs and hooked everything back up. I ran the fuel pump to circulate some gas through the injector pump and then into a catch can. I then removed the catch can and hooked up the fuel system and added some fresh fuel to the gas tank.

 

Unfortunately, a breather hose from the surge tank to the top of the gas tank started leaking. I tried to start the car briefly while it was leaking. It did fire on some cylinders and had good oil pressure but wouldn’t run. I didn’t try long because of the fuel leak. I removed some gas until it stopped leaking and tried to order a new breather hose.

 

I contacted Aston Engineering to order a new breather hose but they said it wasn’t available. I thought it would be easy to make one but when I tried to do that I realized the threads where the fittings screwed in was not common. After trying to determine if various available fittings would work I contacted Aston Engineering again. I knew the connection was 1/2 inch but nothing available would thread in. Aston Engineering looked into it and told me they couldn’t determine the exact thread but figured out it was 1/2 with 24 threads per inch. Thanks again to the people at Aston Engineering.

1/2-24 is extremely unusual and difficult to find but I did find one connector with 1/2-24. I bought two and it took some time to find another connector that would work with them that I could connect to a fuel hose to make a breather. Finally, got it hooked up and installed and added some new gas and it didn’t leak.

 

Here is the old breather hose.

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Here you can see the one I finally was able to make connecting to the top right corner of the surge tank.
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I tried to start it again now that I had solved the leak. The car would fire at times but wouldn’t keep running. I was hoping once the air was out of all the injection lines it would run but it didn’t even though it came pretty close. I took a break and did some repairs to one of my other cars but now I’m back on this. More to follow.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Progress has been slow, but at least there is progress.

 

The car seemed to fire to some degree so I assume it has spark, but just to check and make sure it has spark on all the cylinders, I decided to have my 13 yo son crank it while I checked for spark on each spark plug wire. I had to show him how to turn the car to on and then hold it to start because he's never started a car before. I found spark, but sometimes it looked kinda weak but then would get stronger when the engine fired. I had him crank it twice and the car tried to start but didn't. Anyway, the third time, while I was checking the spark, I told him to stop cranking but the engine kept turning. Turns out it started!

At first it just limped along but soon it was running fairly well. I gave it some gas a couple times and it sounded really good and responsive. We shut it off and it started right back up. I didn't have my iphone ready because I did not expect it to start. I started it again later after it had cooled down and it is very hard to start, but once it is warm, it starts fine.

Here is a short video of the engine running.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IrZQXay4a2I

More videos to follow.

Thanks for following along, sorry it has been so slow.

 

Oh and when it started the first time it filled my garage with blue smoke, probably from the marvel mystery oil I put in the cylinders to make sure turning it over didn't do any damage. I had the wisdom to back the car into my garage to give me more room to work on the front of the car, but when it started my great idea led to the exhaust throwing oily exhaust all over my air compressor and work bench drawers.

 

Ok, I’m trying to troubleshoot the hard cold start problem and I haven’t figured it out yet, but I have discovered if you just give it 3/4 throttle before you try to start it it starts fairly easily.

My son has been bugging me to take it for a short drive in the neighborhood. Here is a short video:

https://youtube.com/shorts/20J5ZbgRQYA?si=yh7ARwcGMWiYZL7C

 

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