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1971 142 as daily driver?

F

fred.malmberg

New member
Joined
Oct 3, 2017
Location
Vancouver, BC
I lost my 1984 240 daily driver last night.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5483675/cars-torched-overnight-port-coquitlam-fire/

I've got my 242 project, but its too many hours away from getting back on the road

What do you guys think of a 1971 142 as a daily driver?

My commute is only 10km one way, Vancouver doesn't have much of a winter. It has a B20E with Bosch D-Jetronic and M41

Is it too much headache to keep it reliable as a daily?
 
I daily drove my '79 245 20 miles each way to work for a while. Do a thorough stage zero tune up to make sure you're at a good starting point.

Wash it frequently in winter to keep the salt off, good snow tires, etc and you'll be good to go.
 
fred.malmberg said:
I lost my 1984 240 daily driver last night.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5483675/cars-torched-overnight-port-coquitlam-fire/

I've got my 242 project, but its too many hours away from getting back on the road

What do you guys think of a 1971 142 as a daily driver?

My commute is only 10km one way, Vancouver doesn't have much of a winter. It has a B20E with Bosch D-Jetronic and M41

Is it too much headache to keep it reliable as a daily?
Click to expand...

Sorry about your 240. If I had a chance to grab a 1971 142 with M41 for a decent price, I would already own it.
 
It doesn't matter how old the car is, it matters what mechanical condition it's in. I put close to 3k on my '63 Ford in the span of 2-3 months no problem, but my '82 240 can barely go 1000mi without breaking something..
 
I've only owned one d-jet car now.

In my extremely limited experience, it seems to be like most other injected cars, just open loop and analog. So an exhaust gas analyzer is a useful tool to tell if you're running lean or rich.
The injectors are often ancient and super clogged, even if they work. Get em cleaned.
There's a knob on the computer to adjust overall mixture.
The fuel pumps apparently are a trouble area, as well as fuel relays. I'd replace both preemptively.
Rent a gas pressure gauge, set the rail to 29.8 psi.
Bellows on intake hose often gets cracks.

General B20 stuff to also look out for is cams, pushrods, valve adjustments, fiber gear, seals, etc.

I think the greenbook has test procedures to see if any sensors are faulty if the car acts up.
I bought my D-jet car barely running. But it still ran, impressively.
After much needed attention and diagnostics, it runs good. I'd prefer a carb'd 140 being a mechanical engineer and all.
 
^^

Trust me on this, you would not prefer a carburated 140. They constantly need to be tuned and produce nowhere near as much torque as the fuel injected version does.
 
I loved daily driving my '72 144 (1993-2006) and '70 145 (2006-2015) year round in CT. Both cars were simply unmodified well maintained drivers. CT winters ultimately did them both in due to rust.

They were my favorite go-to cars and I used them as often as possible for any occasion. They were not fast, handled like a typical early '70s car, were noisy, comfortable and reliable.

Both were SU HIF equipped and I disagree with another poster that said they needed "constant" tuning. Did it take some time to get them sorted? Yes, of course. I had to undo all the "fixes" that previous owners and gas station mechanics did. Once that was done, they really didn't give me much trouble.

Ran the 144 from 132,000 to 240,000 miles and the 145 from 99,000 to 198,000 miles.
 
Sorry about the torched 240.
142E will have flurry of arms steering. Lots of front end bushings, balljoints and the like that are forever just itching to wear out.
D-Jet is great when it works well.

I'd reach for a Corolla or Camry for reliable inexpensive transport.
 
“There's a knob on the computer to adjust overall mixture.”

The knob only controls mixture at idle.

142E sounds good, without knowing more about the prospective acquisition you’ll have to check it out thoroughly. The d-jet is fairly easy to get running properly, just takes some time getting yourself up to speed and checking all the components. And yes, they run very well.
 
We have at least a 100 customers with 142E/144E/145E, 164E, 1800E and 1800ESs with D-jet fuel injection that use their cars regularly and a good portion use their cars as their daily drivers here in Southern California.

I call the D-jet system dumb but reliable, but you have to meet it half way by having an engine in good condition. That means cylinder compressions above 140 psi and a camshaft without badly worn lobes. It's also important to use at least a 180?F coolant thermostat.

It can be expensive to replace or repair some of the parts, but all of the components can be serviced or replaced when there is a failure.

I have a lot of NOS D-jet parts, but most of the time my customers cars get parts that are still available new, used or rebuilt.
 
I have no advice, however, you have my sympathy and condolences for your 240. I hope the perpetrators were caught and held responsible!
Good luck finding a suitable replacement.
 
Good news .. I have a new car now

Its a 1971 142E. I picked it up on Saturday and drove home 500km without incident.

Somewhat unique in that it has rally gauge instrument cluster.

It has been repainted, has some rust but not terrible given its age.


Interior; headliner, door cards and dash excellent conditon. Leather seats especially drivers poor.

Mechanical a solid driver, so that's a good starting point.

It came with Virgos with fairly wide tires so handles well when on country roads

Time to dive into DJet and all the other things to learn to bring this to a solid stage 0 for starters.
 
fred.malmberg said:
Good news .. I have a new car now

Its a 1971 142E. I picked it up on Saturday and drove home 500km without incident.

Somewhat unique in that it has rally gauge instrument cluster.

It has been repainted, has some rust but not terrible given its age.


Interior; headliner, door cards and dash excellent conditon. Leather seats especially drivers poor.

Mechanical a solid driver, so that's a good starting point.

It came with Virgos with fairly wide tires so handles well when on country roads

Time to dive into DJet and all the other things to learn to bring this to a solid stage 0 for starters.
Click to expand...

Nice. One thing to note is do not do the seafoam / water / chinese water torture treatment on D-jet cars. The vacuum sensor diaphragm is supposedly sensitive to the seafoam procedure and can get damaged.
 
OK .. here are a few photos.

I barley had time to get home before going out of town for work early Sunday morning, so didn't have time to take more photos.

The first two photos are mine, the last one was from the craigslist add

Note the photos hide a lot of the rust/flaws.

nSliKRi.jpg


jgvY7lE.jpg


CDrjzCN.jpg
 
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