MarkV Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Well today was the day! For the first time since 1997 the sinatra imperial was brought back to life. I got this car for free from San Francisco with a dead efi. Over the last several months I collected efi parts from anywhere and everywhere. I took it to a very knowledgeable shop that specializes in early fi. Dropped the tank and had it cleaned. The in tank pump was very dead so installed a fuel pickup from a Córdoba. Mounted an external pump with new wiring and hoses and filters matching original specifications. they flushed out the lines several times and installed nos imperial efi parts including a hydraulic plate, etc. Then guess what it fires right up! next are the rest of the fluids, brakes and ac as well as a wiper repair and tailpipe. It’s running better and better as it’s on for more and more ! Few Efi equipped Imperials survived and I don’t know of one sinatra running an efi. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Congratulations! That EFI, and it's way of measuring air, was ahead of it's time. Glad you saved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalowed Bill Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Great story! Saving one of these underappreciated icons, will be serve you well as you tell the story of a car that few now remember. You can go to a hundred car events and not see another one. I chased a beautiful example that belonged to an elderly couple but it got away. I thought it had been scraped until a friend showed up with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Luddy Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 I still want a FS Imperial, another bucket list car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkV Posted March 2, 2020 Author Share Posted March 2, 2020 I heard from the second owner today after I sent some videos of it running for the first time since 1997: “Dear Wes, Well, this made my day. I bought this car many years ago from a dealer near the S.F. airport. I used it as my everyday car for years, but then it stalled when I was going over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was very intimidating, and I didn't think I could trust it after that. I had a local garage work on the FI and it ran for a while but I just put it aside and got engrossed in other projects. I am an Imperial collector and a big F.S. fan, so it was only natural to buy this. Congratulations on saving it!!!!!!“ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J3Studio Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 Impressive! I've always wondered how many 1981-1983 Imperials were switched to carburetors simply because mechanics of the day did not understand EFI or were uncomfortable with it. A little Imperial background from the folks at Allpar: https://www.allpar.com/cars/imperial/1981.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesR Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 CONGRATS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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