At long last the Double-Ott is a runner, although not without some struggles on my part. Installing the engine went fairly well even though I had to pick the coldest morning of the season do the install. (minus 15F). Once I had everything hooked up and ready to run it was the Moment of Truth time. I turned the key and there was cranking of the starter but no firing of the cylinders. Hmm, what could be the problem? After further checking of electrical connections and plumbing I determined that I had installed the two fuel lines to the injectors wrong, even though I had marked them so as not to mix them up, in my haste to finish the project they were reversed. I had a 50/50 chance of getting them right and I still got them wrong, leading to no fuel pressure at the injectors, so no starting of the engine took place.
But wait, it gets better. After correcting that situation and in my numerous attempts to start the car and getting out to check other things, I managed to lock myself out of the Double-Ott. In all fairness, its really my first car with a key fob and I didn’t realize that when you pull the key from the ignition the doors will lock. Shoulda kept a window cracked, I guess. Anyway, that little setback took an hour to rectify as I attempted to trip the door lock mechanism with a bent coat hanger.
After getting back in the car, finally, and being sure to put the keys in my coat pocket this time whenever I got out, it still would not start, only crank with an occasional pop. A call to my son, the car expert, was placed. He suggested to check for spark, and then pressure at the fuel rail. I checked for spark at the plugs when cranking the engine: good spark. Next I checked the fuel pressure at the fuel rail; not much there, certainly not the 40psi that he said I should have. Could the fuel filter be plugged? I checked fuel pressure before the filter. Nope, about the same. The problem was elsewhere, further upstream, at the fuel pump itself. Could that have gone bad from sitting for two months? Not likely. Or could I have damaged the pump somehow by reversing the fuel lines? Possibly. After a long and frustrating day, I decided to call it quits and start fresh the next day. It was a dissapointment but what can ya do? Sometimes the best thing to do is just walk away for a while.
A YouTube search the next morning of how to remove the fuel pump from an Outback revealed a plethora of videos to watch. Ten minutes later I had the process down pat and headed back to the shop.
Sure enough, after getting the fuel pump out of the tank and on the bench, the problem was obvious: there was a metal endcap on the plastic housing that was sealed with an o-ring. Reversing the fuel lines had pushed the endcap off the housing allowing the o-ring to be forced out thereby causing a lack of fuel pressure. After re-installing the cap and o-ring, I made sure this little situation would not occur again by installing a hose clamp on the cap. Problem solved! After installing the fuel pump and buttoning up the tank access panel, I tried starting the engine again. Presto! We had liftoff! The little engine purred like a kitten on a farm. After a few minutes of warmup and checking of fluids it was test ride time! The Double-Ott went down the road just fine, heater, cruise control, brakes even the power mirrors, seat and CD player all worked just like new. Next will come the Maiden Voyage to work. If all goes well on that trip she will be my daily driver for the remainder of winter. And that’s what I call a thing of beauty.