Starting my Griff after 3yr layup!! Advice please

[budd]

3 yrs ago I put my Griff under a cover in the garage, after removing all it's mods, (de-cat, chip, Act inlet, roll cage, brakes etc) the intention been to put it back to stock and use it simply as a road car. But life intervened in the form of babies, house extention various trackday Nissan turbos, the result is the Griff as sat under it's cover in the corner of the garage. Well I think it's time to dust it off and ready it for use again.
The car hasn't been run since I refitted the std parts ( inlet, plenum, chip, ballast resistor, etc) it a simple matter of filling with fresh fuel and hoping it fires up? or is there something else I need to do?

[Slacey]

I'd change all fluids and filters too.

[GJR]

I'm in a similar position, or at least hope to be towards the end of the Autumn. Mine has been laid up a few years now, but is in running order and started & run till the fans kick in on a semi regular basis.

When the time comes I suspect I'll opt for a low loader to the nearest garage and make sure it has a full service, change all fluids, filters as already mentioned. Will likely need new tyres and I'll replace any pipe work (esp. fuel lines) that look like tired or cracked. Once it's MOT'd and back on the road I'll take it easy for a bit. For a start I haven't driven anything as powerful since it was laid up, but also there's the chance that something could fail on the car due to lack or use/corrosion etc, and I'd prefer it to happen (if it does) at lower speeds.

Can't wait though

[yellowgriff]

If your doing this your self.. after giving car a mini service, Take of the king lead which runs to the middle of the dizzy cap, So as the car cant start. keep on cranking engine over for about 5/10 seconds at a time letting the oil find its way around the engine where it has dried up over the time spent parked,, After you have turned it over 4 or 5 times re connect lead & see if it starts..
If it does all well & good.. Dont take it for granted the brakes are going to work.You could end up with no brakes with perished rubbers..
Hope alls well & its running for the start of the summer,, or did we just have it last week.. GOOD LUCK<<<<< GOLDIE

[blitzracing]

Drop the plugs out as well to keep the bearing load as small as possible. The RV8 oil system has a nasty habbit of draining down over a long period, and the oil pressure may not come up that quickly. Worse case is you have to remove the oil pump and pack it full of vasaline to get it to re-prime if you dont see pressure within say 30 seconds of cranking. Id also remove the fuel pump relay so that it does not keep pumping fuel in with no spark.

Edited by blitzracing on Friday 27th March 15:44

[Barreti]

A question for you blitzracing, just for my future reference really.
If you remove the plugs, is it worth dropping about a teaspoon of oil down the holes before turning the engine over.
I have this in the depths of my memory but I'm not sure if its actually any practical value.

[yellowgriff]

Oil in piston bores will lubricate the liners or bores . Stopping Or helping pistons sticking.. Also improves compression when testing but its only short lived,, This is always a good idea if storing car over a long period, Stop rusting in old bored & rings getting stuck on pistons...Hope this helps GOLDIE

[blitzracing]

Spot on. If your engine is pre serp, its possible to remove the distributor to gain access to the oil pump drive. You can then use a crushed metal tube to lock over the drive "key way" so it can be spun with an electric drill or like until the pressure is up without turning the engine over. You need to mark the possition of the distributor and rotor arm before you remove it, bearing in mind the rotor arm will move a few degrees as the gears unmesh. Once the system has primed, you need to turn the oil pump until the keyway will realign with the distributor cut out but with the few extra degrees added (in a clockwise direction.) I dont know if there is a simular trick for the serp's.

[budd]

Thanks for the feedback, i'll be putting the battery on tomorrow and giving it a go, (fingers crossed)re the brakes ,hoses, tyres etc I don't expect any issues with these the brake hoses are goodridge and the discs and pads were all replaced with OE stuff when I sold the big brakes I also replaced the toyo 888s with T1Rs, The car as been up on stands for part of the layup but as probably spent a yr on it's tyres, I'm hoping because they were brand new when fitted they still be OK and not be out of shape, I guess I won't know till I drive it (if it starts that is).
Also I understand how a little oil down the bores may be a good thing for the engine ( my father used to swear by Redex) however this resulted in lots of black smoke for a while , how would this effect the Cat? Surely oil/Redex etc would clogg up the cat or would a small amount on first start up be OK
Thpe plan is to get it running and up to temp then change all the filters and fluids (the gearbox and diff oil should be fine as they were changed for fancy Motul stuff 6 months before I laid it up)

[HRG]

I'd definitely replace the rubber fuel lines

[budd]

I'll deffo check the fuel lines for any signs of splits or perishing

[GreenV8S]

In terms of starting the engine and getting the pump primed, your best bet is to actually fire up the engine as quickly as possible and not sit there grinding it over on the starter. It will take an absolute age to get oil round the engine at 300 rpm, meanwhile you're doing the worst possible thing you can do to the cam which is running it slowly with no oil. Get it fired up, hold it at 2000 rpm for 10 - 15 seconds, if the oil pressure doesn't come up by then switch off and prime the pump before you fire it up again.

I do agree with the suggestions to replace all the fuel hoses and flush the brakes before you drive it anywhere. Personally I would want to hear the engine running before doing that just because I'm impatient, but you might be more patient.

[budd]

[quote=GreenV8S]In terms of starting the engine and getting the pump primed, your best bet is to actually fire up the engine as quickly as possible and not sit there grinding it over on the starter. It will take an absolute age to get oil round the engine at 300 rpm, meanwhile you're doing the worst possible thing you can do to the cam which is running it slowly with no oil. Get it fired up, hold it at 2000 rpm for 10 - 15 seconds, if the oil pressure doesn't come up by then switch off and prime the pump before you fire it up again.

I do agree with the suggestions to replace all the fuel hoses and flush the brakes before you drive it anywhere. Personally I would want to hear the engine

I can see the sense in getting fired up ASAP. I think the time dragging the new fuel to injectors wil be enough lift the oil presure, god I hope it fires up!!!

[yellowgriff]

What ever way you try.. All ways keep your fingers crossed,,,,,,,,,,,,,Aways helps

[Bodmin]

I take you are going to check that the engine turns over by hand before cranking it at approx 400rpm otherwise you may end up with a lot of broken piston rings

To reduce the risk you really should remove the plugs & add some Redex to each bore & then leave to sit overnight before trying to start the engine.

After this amount of time the oil will have drained down from around the piston rings so you are unlikely to have any compression. You will need to add some oil to the bores to create a temporary seal, as Yellowgriff has mentioned,until the engine starts.

Add approx 10ml of oil to each bore, cover the plug holes with cloth etc & then crank the engine over, this expels any excess oil so that you do not end up hydralocking the engine.

The amount or Redex/oil you put into the bores is very unlikely to affect the cat but if you have close neighbours best warn them to get there washing in & close their windows

Bodders

[blitzracing]

GreenV8S said:

In terms of starting the engine and getting the pump primed, your best bet is to actually fire up the engine as quickly as possible and not sit there grinding it over on the starter. It will take an absolute age to get oil round the engine at 300 rpm, meanwhile you're doing the worst possible thing you can do to the cam which is running it slowly with no oil. Get it fired up, hold it at 2000 rpm for 10 - 15 seconds, if the oil pressure doesn't come up by then switch off and prime the pump before you fire it up again.

I do agree with the suggestions to replace all the fuel hoses and flush the brakes before you drive it anywhere. Personally I would want to hear the engine running before doing that just because I'm impatient, but you might be more patient.

Fair comment, but you cant really win either way, its either combustion pressures on potentual under lubricated big ends and main bearings, or high cam lobe pressures on the starter. Having said that I thought as long as the initial bedding in of a new cam was done as you describe, then once the cam lobes have bedded in and work hardened, then less lubrication would not be so much of an issue. You could always chuck an extra pint of oil into each rocker cover and hope some dribbles down onto the followers. As for bore corrosion, this can depend of how hot the engine was when it was turned off ( i.e. if it was simply run into the garage and turned off, or given a good run first) A cold engine will be full of acidic condensation when you leave it, not good. The rest will be down to the humidity during storage and how contaminated the oil was during storage, as the oil itself holds the acididic contaminants and fresh oil stops these damaging the engine, but old stuff looses this ability. Id certainly agree about hand cranking firsts, or put it in fifth gear and give it a push to make sure the engine turns. Clutches also corrode and wont disengage, and you will find out when you try and put it in gear to the sound of grating teeth. The trick here is pretty brutal, but you need to securely jack up the rear of the car on axle stands and remove the rear wheels. Get the engine warm, and then stop it. Then put it into fifth gear and start the engine. The rear hubs will now be spinning freely, so raise the rpm a bit (say 2000- 2500 rpm) and hold the clutch down and then snap on the hand brake repeatedly so the engine slows under the load, but keep the power on so the rpm is maintained. Hopefully the clutch will free up under this abuse, but as said its brutal on the drive train, and do make sure it wont drop of the axle stands with the general movement. Otherwise is an engine out jobbie !

[budd]

quick update, the good news is it started first time (amazing really after 3yrs)I did give it the best chance by removing the plugs, squirt of Castrol R into each cylinder, lift it overnight then turned the engine over by hand, poured in a couple of gallons of fresh fuel mixed with a bit of Redex fuel system cleaner, turned on the ignition and was pleased to hear the fuel pump boot up, gave it a little spin over on the starter with no plugs, I then cleaned the plugs and warmed them in the oven for a bit ( don't if this is a good thing or not but I used do it on my MX race bikes to reduce plug fouling so I thought it couldn't do any harm) refitted the plugs fired a good shot of easy start into the inlet and bingo it atarted first time.
Bloody loud too as it hasn't got the Y piece down pipe fitted yet, (I didn't refit it after removing the de-cat Y piece) I thought it wise to leave it off for the first start to stop the cat copping a load of engine st, just as well too as the headers were full of peanuts!!!! yes peanuts the bloody mice that chewed my roof have been living in the engine!!!
The only problem is lack of oil pressure but I suppose it's to be expected after this amount of time, I'll whip the cover off the oil pump and pack it with grease and at the same time refit the Y piece, does anyone know the size of the exhaust clamp?

[yellowgriff]

GOOD JOB YOU HAD YOUR FINGERS CROSSED>>>>>>>GOLDIE

[budd]

having your fingers crossed always helps, they're crossed again hoping no damaged occured in the few seconds it was running with no oil pressure.

[yellowgriff]

Dont want to tell you what you already know, But hear goes if not run for to long or not to higher rev range fingers crossed again alls well....................CHEERS GOLDIE