Thread: Starting & Tuning up 540BBC with Holley DP 750's and B&M 871 Blower

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New to the forum so thanks for the add.

A little about me- Live in Austin and have only worked on new fuel injected motors.

I have recently purchased a Camaro with a blown 540 big block(with Holley DP 750's and B&M 871 Blower.) The car and motor have been sitting for the last three years in a non climate controlled storage unit. The car has only been started once in the last three year and this was 2 years ago. The car fired up but the carbs were leaking(from where I do not know I was not there.) The car was built and tested for around 2 hours before being put into storage.

My first steps-
Drain the fuel tank and lines
Check the oil for cleanliness and level
Pull the plugs and check those (not sure what I should be looking for here)
Put a bit of Marvel Mystery oil in cylinders and turn engine over by hand
Reinstall plugs and see if she will start

Any other tips on first start up?

After this I will decide if the Carbs need to be rebuilt or just a mounting gasket.

Unless you know differently, I'd assume that the fuel in the car was an ethanol blend, and after sitting that long it's gone through phase separation and is nasty stuff. I would consider all parts of the fuel system suspect, with any rubber components likely eaten up. Suspect parts would be the fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel lines, and carbs. Any or all may be OK, but they may also be bad.

Oil sitting that long needs to be changed, too, IMO. If you decide not to rebuild the carbs I'd take a squeeze bottle full of good gasoline and pre-fill the float bowls rather than cranking to fill (assumes a mechanical fuel pump).

From your screen name it's a '68 Camaro? Post some pictures of it when you have time.

What about flushing the radiator?

Can I start it with old oil? Then do an oil change?

Also the car was run on 91 octane ethanol free gas(or at least thats what I was told)

Is it ok to start with old oil then do an oil change after ward?

I was told the car ran on 91 octane ethanol free fuel.

Welcome aboard 68bbccamaro, sounds like a cool build. If the carbs were leaking, then you'd be way ahead if you put a kit in each. Easy to do and will save your new project from possibly becoming a slice of toasted chevy!

The oil?? you "could" probably get away with it.. but why? even if you used a new "inexpensive" oil.. at least drain it into a clean container and make sure there isn't any water or debris in it! Dump the filter also!

My 2 cents - FWIW.. yada yada yada.. ymmv.. rofl..

I have not picked the car up yet. I am picking it up Friday and plan on doing all of this before I leave with the car to make sure things are good to go.

I have decided I will change the Oil to look for contaminant. Does anybody know what oil filter this would take and where I can get it?

Looks like you got a lot to do before you get this started and running-------don't see no coolant outlet from engine --no fuel lines anywhere on carbs------




oil filter probably just standard chev filter but I would use the one for heavy duty truck as its longer(if it fits because of header clearance in that area

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Looks like you got a lot to do before you get this started and running-------don't see no coolant outlet from engine --no fuel lines anywhere on carbs------

It's in what was a running car. Reference the other two photos everything is hooked up. Should I worry about antifreeze that maybe have been left in the car?

Thanks for the oil filter tip.

Sorry, I neglected to say welcome earlier. Glad you're here, and hope you decide to stick around.

I'd visit the local NAPA store for filters in their Gold line, or O'Reilly's for WIX. Should be their standard Chevy filter, which is common across the engines of the era.

If there is any coolant in the car, test its strength to see where it would freeze and compare that to temp the car has been exposed to-----------if good, you are probably lucky it had anti freeze as there should be no rust in the block----all you need to do on the oil is to just take the drain plug a little loose until you get a drip--if its oil there is no coolant in it-if is coolant, you got a problem--

Cool car. Keep us posted.

My game plan tomorrow
1. Visual inspection of the motor (Looking for rust or something to pop out at me)
2. Look under the car for any leaking fluids
3. Pull spark plugs and rotate engine with marvel mystery oil in cylinders (how much?)
4. Open the radiator to look for clean radiator fluid
5. Pull the oil drain plug watch oil drain from car looking for particles in the oil
6. Remove oil filter and inspect for particles
7. Replace oil and filter
8. Remove all old gas
9. New gas and see if she will fire up

Please edit or add to game plan.

In your first post above you said,

Originally Posted by 68bbccamaro

The car fired up but the carbs were leaking(from where I do not know I was not there.) The car was built and tested for around 2 hours before being put into storage.

You're gonna want to be very cautious about lighting off an engine with a known fuel leak, and I'd want to be sure to have a good fire extinguisher in hand, just in case. Like Mike said above, you sure don't want to set that beauty on fire and turn it into a "...toasted chevy". The Marvel Mystery Oil is often used to soak rings in an engine before trying to break it loose, but in this case you're using it just to have some lubricant in the cylinders for that initial crank, right? I'd use one of the lever action oil cans that shoots a nice stream, and give each cylinder a couple of pumps towards the uphill side of the piston, and let it flow down around the rings. No prescribed "right" amount that I've ever heard. If you were trying to free up a rusty engine you'd try to fill them more.

When you say it was "tested" does that mean "driven", or simply that the engine was run to break things in, get it up to temperature and make adjustments like timing, float bowl level, etc, etc? Since you've just bought this car, are we to assume that the game plan is to get it running to check out the engine, then load it on/in a trailer and haul it down to Austin? Are you planning on driving the car any, or just get it fired to hear the engine run? Just curious.