Reminder to those with 75-80 EFI to be sure your orings are in good shape

[TJ Hopland]

Just looked at a friend of a friend or a friends neighbors showroom new (except fire damage) 1979 Eldorado.  It had 5,000 miles on it and never looked like it had been outdoors.  The owner runs all his running cars a few times per year and was arranging his toys for winter.  He pulled the Eldo outside, left it running and went back in to get another car.   When he came back out the eldo was in flames spewing smoke all over the car that was next to it.  Looks like most of the fire was on top of the engine.  Fuel rail was pretty much gone but pulling the blob that used to be the injectors out reveals badly cracked o rings so I bet that was the issue.  Insurance wrote it up as a fuel leak.  Looked like a heck of a nice car that will never be the same because of about $10 in parts.

This goes for anything more than about 10 years old.  With our modern cars (with modern materials) we sometimes forget how the older stuff just didnt last.  Its even worse now days for plastic / rubber fuel parts because of the alcohols that are found in much of the fuel.   Besides the alcohol degrading the material itself it tends to suck up moisture which can cause nasty corrosion issues in places like the needle and seat of the carb.   

[bcroe]

That is good advice.  Taking apart some of those old fuel rails shows some pretty scarry stuff in the seals.  Hope he finds everything to put the 79 Eldo back together.  It probably needs a timing chain too.  I have some parts for them, my 79 is running an EFI 403 though.  Its a real tire spinner. 

All the rubber needs periodic replacement, but the high pressure (39 psi) fuel system needs special attention.  Bruce Roe