Just put a deposit down on a DeLorean

[88mph]

Looking good Marty.
Really like the thick 'go faster'strips look.
Hope mine looks half as good whenever it turns up!
How's it drive?

[marty]

88mph Wrote:How's it drive?

Good question! Although I have driven on the left side of a car abroad before, I have never driven a left hand drive in this country before and I have also never driven a DeLorean before - so to answer your question, the car drives really well but it is gonna take some getting used to for me!

It seems pretty quick. I thought I was just tootling along and I looked down at the speedo I was somewhere around 3pm I slowed down pretty sharpish and too my surprise the brakes were pretty good also.

I have fitted the new headlights courtesy of Martin Gutkowski http://www.delorean.co.uk and some help form Chris Williams and that was fairly straight forward. The Blower switch was not working so I dismantled it and rebuilt it and is working great now. I have also fitted some steering rack boot covers from http://www.deloreanclub.co.uk which went on nicely. The otterstat is rubbish and I have bypassed it to a switch - I will explore "wings-b-cool" or similar at some point.

Other than that the car works great and I have been pretty lucky I think

When is yours here?

[88mph]

Got an email this morning..... "Car has cleared customs"
Just got text at 7pm............. "Car is being delivered 2pm tomorrow"



Just need to be able to get there to meet them now. I've been back in Hospital since Christmas night, but there is talk of day release for tomorrow. If I behave myself!

I've driven lots of lefties before, you get used to it but late at night in the rain isn't great, however, like you never driven a D, infact never even sat in one until after I'd bought this one unseen. :roll:
Wish me luck!
On both counts! :lol:

[mknowlton]

Good luck Karl
I hope all that goes well for you
Be sure to let us know how you get on!
Cheers
Mike

[Darren C]

Good Luck Karl

I watched the Faust grand European & East Coast USA tour....does your transporter have a tracker (supatrak etc) we can watch it from Southampton to S.Devon...I've still got some popcorn left from watching the ship, would be a shame to waste it :wink:

I hope it all goes well for you.
Best regards
Darren

[88mph]

Cheers guys. Sorry old bean, no tracker I'm aware of. But will take lots of unloading pics for you........ Exciting! :lol:
Only then got to somehow get it to my new garage. The way things have been, the garage was built but not the driveway....... I'm thinking old scaffold planks! Shhhhhhh :lol:

[marty]

At least it's not this bridge I saw, that you have to cross to get to your garage!

[88mph]

That's near Gilgit on the KKH. Was great fun crossing in flip-flops. Although the locals do it in flip-flops whilst carrying a goat! :lol:

[marty]

88mph Wrote:That's near Gilgit on the KKH. Was great fun crossing in flip-flops!! :lol:

YOU HAVE ACTUALLY CROSSED IT!?

[88mph]

Yeah there's lots of those sort of bridges up there. Timber is rare & expensive in the Karakoram mountains and also stops the flood waters having too big an area to work against.
IIRC, The one on the left is the new & improved one! :lol:

[marty]

Well she's been on the road a while now and all is going well, other than a few switches and bits and bobs failing.

I have a question about cooling of the engine, I think I have a fault of some description, I shall try and explain:

1. Start engine.
2. Engine warms up normally
3. The engine then continues to warm up all the way to 240 F, sometime a little over and then drops very quickly to between 100 and 220
4. It continues to go up and down like this continuously regardless of the fan being on or off (I have a bypass switch for the fan)
5. Once I coasted down a very long gradual hill with the engine at 240 F and as soon as I throttled up again the temp dropped.

My only guess is that engine has a temperature valve which is sticking closed? That's the only idea I have though.

Hoping someone can shine some light on the fault (if indeed it is a fault)

Cheers

I have no idea why this car has reputation for being slow, it's everything but slow! The brakes are also pretty sharp and it handles great - great car!

[MikeWard]

I was always told if the temp get's to 220, pull over and shut the car off. Could there be air in the system, have you tried bleeding it?

For the relatively small cost it might be worth changing out the thermostat and otterstat as a matter of course if they have not already been replaced.

For the thermostat a drop in replacement is Gates TH32882G1 (circa £15), and for the otterstat Intermotor 50171 (circa £20). The gates thermostat opens a few degrees lower and the otterstat turns on a few degrees lower than the OEM parts, gives a little more piece of mind if you are paranoid of overheating.

Edit - A friend of mine had an issue with his car overheating, which was caused by a duff thermostat.

[marty]

OK, I shall try the bleed and order a new thermostat , the otterstat is only 12 months old and has already failed so I may look at wings b cool or something for that, although they are fairly new territory to me.

Thanks for that.

[MikeWard]

marty Wrote:the otterstat is only 12 months old and has already failed

Unfortunately they are not known for being the most robust piece of equipment on the car - having said that, mine has been in now for 4 years and touch wood is still working perfectly.

Try the bleed first before ordering the thermostat, it could be something as simple as a bit of air in the system that just needs to be bled out.

[88mph]

Cars looking good Marty.
Any problems from the old bill regarding the number plates?
Where did you get them from?