Add Delorean to the list

[spittybug]

I've been remiss in not posting this success sooner.
A stock Delorean is a V6, 90* odd-fire PRV engine mounted "backwards" in the rear of the car. The stock intake is a giant boxy plenum with long intake runners that cross to the other side of the block. It's big and boxy.

Several of us have substituted Peugeot 604 (or other) manifolds that also fit the PRV and made custom throttle body setups. We've also been successful in keeping the stock setup and simply replacing the CIS fuel injectors with modern day injectors. In either case, the Bosch K-Jet mechanical fuel injector system is yanked (frequency valve, warm up regulator, cold start valve, fuel distributor and hoses, ECU unit, pressure control regulator) and replaced with MS. Our narrow-band O2 sensor replaced with a wide-band (and Lambda O2 ECU removed) and in some cases, the distributor advance disabled and VR signal fed directly into the MS unit (car's ECU removed) to control spark. The VR circuitry in the Delorean has proven to work fine with 3.0 MS boxes but the 3.57 boxes had impedance issues that have only recently been rectified by DIYautotune.

I'm not aware that any Delorean owner with the PRV engine has yet gone to coil-on-plug, but I'm about to try. Space is tight, so the logistics of getting toothed gears and sensors in place may be challenging. Cleaning up the engine bay, bringing back reliability (K-Jet has rubber parts, moving parts and relies on pressure differentials and with time these get worse) and getting more control over engine management are all benefits of the conversion. With such a quick engineering and production time frame the Deloreans were never truly optimized for performance and this gives us the opportunity to better "Live the Dream" in John Z. Delorean's words.

[77nomad]

Any trouble getting it up to 88mph? All jokes aside I thought they came with a 5.0 Ford. Where did the elbow on the TPI throttle body come from? I need something like that for my motor.

[spittybug]

There are many misconceptions on Deloreans.... and lots of BTTF jokes we must endure. The movie certainly helped to make the car iconic, but also left us with a legacy of jokes.

The 90* elbow was welded by my friend based on my mockup. It is ~1/4 thick aluminum and serves no purpose other than allowing me to mount the TB backwards facing for ease of connecting up the linkage. If I wanted to, an adapter plate could have done the job and I could have mounted the TB facing upwards with an air filter on it. It would have been tight under my cover however and I would have had to run a different setup for the throttle cable. My IAT sensor screws into the face, below the TB. I think I'm getting heat soak into it, so I need to insulate it or move it.

[Trev16v]

How absolutely cool. I love these cars. Seems that MS has seen its way into almost everything.

[spittybug]

How absolutely cool. I love these cars. Seems that MS has seen its way into almost everything.

I was in your neck of the woods a couple of weeks ago visiting my Godmother in Radford Semele, Leamington Spa. I had the opportunity to visit the Heritage Motor Center in Gaydon. I was surprised that their collection did not include a Delorean. In fact, the only Delorean bit I could find was in one of the little vignettes surrounding the staircase; a Back to the Future little matchbox car with a Doc Brown character. Disappointing.

I had tried to meet up with James Murray (Birmingham), but our schedules didn't sync well. James was very helpful in debugging the odd fire code to finally get me up and running when I first made the plunge. I would have like to seen the German Christmas market too. The little one in London down by the London Eye was pretty sparse.

[77nomad]

Funny a I type I'm watching an episode of "wheeler Dealers" they are working on a Delorean. Anyhow, I wasn't asking about the adapter to get the TB on the intake. I could fab that. The intake side of the TB. That goes to the air cleaner has a black plastic elbow. After looking at it again it looks like it would choke my motor but I like it. I was looking for something besides silicon rubber to adapt my TB to the cold air set up I plan. Yours looks like about 2 1/2". I like it none the less though.

I'm sure you deal with some jokes. Honestly I like the car except for the windows. I'm 6'4" as well so that would be the only other downside for me. Tell me more about the engine. It looks like a 2.8 from a Buick Grand National would be right at home in there.

[MG David]

How absolutely cool. I love these cars. Seems that MS has seen its way into almost everything.

I was in your neck of the woods a couple of weeks ago visiting my Godmother in Radford Semele, Leamington Spa. I had the opportunity to visit the Heritage Motor Center in Gaydon. I was surprised that their collection did not include a Delorean.

According to my son who sometimes volunteers at the HMC there is a Delorean there over Easter.