First of all,,without knowing what kind of car or motor you are talking about it's would be hard to give you the complete solution.
Having said that,,4 months sitting isn't long enough to create major problem's, unless you had those problems already.
Firechicken's solution won't hurt your motor as long as you just use a very small amount of transmision fluid,,,you can also quite safely put about a half to a full litre of transmision fluid in your oil as well,,,this will shift any resin build up and unstick many parts,,,and again without knowing the exact type of engine you talking about,,,i'd say check under your dist cap for moisture.
Post more info soon and i'll try help out. G'luck.
Originally posted by 65malibu
my car has been sitting for about 4 months. when i went to start the car the other day, it ran really rough so i shut it down. the local hot rod shop said that it is possible that my hydralic lifter is stuck. he said to change the oil and start the engine and it will unstick itself. is that true. the motor sounds really bad and i dont want to run it too long any sugestions would be apreciated