Better Luggage Lighting
The luggage compartment light is rather weak, especially considering how much area it is expected to light. I upgraded it with a pair of LED strips. I also had to slightly refurbish the switch.
DeLorean Repairs, Maintenance and Upgrades
The DeLorean needs routine maintenance and the occasional, more significant refurbishing. Beyond that there are also a number of customizations and upgrades to improve performance, reliability and functionality.
Stuck in Park: Transmission Linkage Bracket
Just a few days after my MegaSquirt connector came loose and I had to get towed home, the transmission linkage came apart and I had to get towed home. After figuring out how to get the car back into the garage, I installed a new bracket with a 3D printed block nut holder, which has been working just fine since then.
Stuck at the Store: Building a MegaSquirt Sled
After getting towed home because I didn’t realize that the MegaSquirt DB37 had come loose (because I didn’t screw it back in), I built a mount to secure both MegaSquirt and the cable without screws.
Automatic Transmission Reseal
My automatic transmission has been leaking since I did my engine swap, and likely before then. To fix it, I’d have to remove the transmission and reseal it. It’s a big project, and while not trivial, it’s not too horribly difficult if you’re careful. It helped that I didn’t have to delve too far into the transmission, and was able to avoid anything that required special tools.
3D Printed Louver Striker
The old engine cover striker bar doesn’t fit the louver brace notch on my car for some reason, so I just printed a new one.
LED Taillights
A common upgrade, I put LED tail lights in my car. The third brake light bulbs were a bit trickier to find, but I eventually got those too.
Tail Light Terminal Strip
After years of adding a slew of accessories that tapped into the passenger tail light harness, I went about cleaning that up with a custom 3D printed terminal strip.
Engine Bay Lighting
I’ve had to check the oil or do quick engine fixes at night with poor illumination, and holding my phone up as a flashlight wasn’t working very well as I juggled dipsticks and cleaning rags, so I installed a new set of lights in the engine bay.
Digital Speedometer
Angle drives break after five miles in my DeLorean, so I haven’t had a speedometer in years. Instead I built a clip-on digital one that picks up pulses from a Hall sensor passing by a VSS ring mounted on the rear axle, an Arduino, a 3D printed case and an Adafruit seven segment LED display backpack.
MegaSquirt A/C Idle Up Modification
The A/C compressor can put a lot of load on the engine, which can be an issue when your car has idle stalling problems like mine does. I did a common MegaSquirt II modification to add A/C idle up support to my DeLorean.
Door Strikers and an Oil Change
Adjusting my door striker pins so that the doors no longer rattled and latched properly was actually pretty easy. The oil change should have also been easy, but a bad oil filter and a lost oil vapor separator got in the way of that.
Converting the A/C from R12 to R134a: Reassembly and Installation
Putting in the new A/C system, fixing the problems with it, and filling it up. Finally I have cold A/C again.
Converting the A/C from R12 to R134a: Parts and Disassembly
My old R12 system is very likely completely original, but after 35 years or so it developed an unknown leak, most likely at the evaporator. Since I had a new engine that required a new compressor, this seemed like a good time to replace the entire system and convert to R134a. Step one: getting the old system out.
Yet More Issues: Alternator, Water Pump, Fuel Pump, Sway Bar and Coolant Temperature
A bunch of parts all failed within about a week and a half, and all had to be fixed. I got most of them figured out, at least.
Exhaust Noise, Transmission Leaks, Spark Plugs, IAC Adjustment, and Blower Motor Replacement
I did another once-over of the car and found a few more issues that needed to be addressed: a failed blower motor, a confused coolant temperature gauge, more exhaust noise, more tuning, and more transmission leaks.
Coolant Gauge, Fuel Light, Bad Wiring, Power Inverter and Battery Tender
This time I had a few electrical issues to deal with, and some small updates to make.
DeLorean UK's Big Brakes
Upgrading from the stock brakes to DeLorean UK’s Big Brake System.
A Few Weeks of Driving, Small Issues To Fix
A few weeks of driving revealed a variety of small issues, and a massive coolant leak that required a tow to repair.
TunerStudio Settings and Tables
This post is the rough sequence that I used to get the car idling with TunerStudio, and then getting it driving. Something like this would have helped me a lot when I was trying to figure this out myself.
Fixing First Drive Issues
My first drive uncovered a few issues — stalling on acceleration and deceleration, excessive exhaust noise, bad brakes, TPS issues, a broken key, a squeaky belt, trouble starting in Park, a broken oil pressure gauge sender, fixing closed loop idle, replacing a leaking fuel line, fabricating a bracket for the oil dipstick tube, and running out of gas. Here I get all of those fixed, and finally bring the car home.