Re: [DML] How do I determine engine overheating damage?

[Martin Gutkowski <webmaster@xxxx>]

Hi Jaap

I guess the simplest test would be to let the car idle and keep an eye on the temp guage.
Do the fans still cut in correctly before the needle hits the 220 mark? I'm not
suggesting you keep the fan fail module, but you might just be lucky to find it still
works. My car takes aaaaages to get up to temperature (>10 mins at idle) which is a good
sign of a healthy cooling system

I read a while ago someone pointed out a plastic screen somewhere in the oil system (?)
that if melted shows the car's overheated at some point.

When all's said and done though, what will fail are the head gaskets and maybe the heads
themselves. This will give you a good excuse to knock the price down and you can spend
the difference having the engine rebuilt (and having just replaced one head on a friends
car, I can say that it's not all that difficult). The heads are identical to those from a
Volvo 760 which are pretty common in scrapyards over here. We got a replacement head,
complete with valves, machined flat (only a few microns mind) and checked for £40.
Swapped the cam and took the opportunity to change the timing chains. Bingo. You can also
replace the water pump, hoses, cap and rotor, all while you're in there

Martin
#1458
#4426
(and working on #2292 with a friend)

"sansuivintage " wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I'm going to look at a DeLorean I'm interested in buying next week
> (for the second time). But as far as I could see the previous time,
> there are no updates done on the car, because there are no red dots
> and more importantly the original fan fail module is still in place.
>
> Now I'm worried there might be some engine damage, as a result from
> this (overheating). The car hasn't run much, just 24k miles in the
> Dutch climate (fairly cool), but still....
> Is there a simple way to find out if there might be engine damage?
> How can I go about this? And maybe you have more tips and things to
> check when buying a car like this.
>
> Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
>
> Thanks!