Recommissioning a V12 that had been standing

The car came out of dry storage in Scotland and started on the button, which is the sort of thing that makes you optimistic and shouldn’t. A V12 that has sat will usually start. Whether it will idle cleanly, pull without hesitating and hold a steady mixture across twelve cylinders is a different question, and the answer is nearly always in the fuel system.

Fuel first

Everything downstream of the tank was suspect, so most of it was replaced: pump, filter, tank sender unit, filler neck and gaiter, and the return and breather hoses. Old rubber in a fuel system is not something to negotiate with. All twelve injectors came out and went away to be cleaned and flow tested properly. On a V12, a single lazy injector is very hard to feel and very easy to live with by accident.

Induction and idle

The inlet manifold and intake gaskets were replaced along with the cam cover gasket set, and the top end was refreshed. The idle control valve was rebuilt with stainless internals rather than swapped for another period part that would be doing the same thing again in three years.

Electrical

Corroded connections have been cleaned back and remade throughout the car, and the dashboard illumination has been completely refurbished. Electrics are the slowest part of a job like this to put right properly, and the easiest to leave half finished, because a connection that works on the bench will still fail on a wet morning two years later.

Everything else

Rear brakes refurbished, handbrake overhauled, new plugs throughout, new battery, and the emblems and badges renewed. Individually minor, collectively the difference between a car that technically drives and a car you would happily take somewhere.

The result

A V12 that starts cleanly, idles evenly and pulls the way it was built to. None of the work above is glamorous, and none of it shows in a photograph. That is exactly why it is written down here, and why the invoices go with the car.