Thread: I need help starting a car that has been sitting for years

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Ok,,,you said you already had the fluid changes covered,,,but dont forget the differential,,and the transmission.
I'm also assuming you dont want to take it apart first.
Ok.
You need to pull your spark plugs first,,,and i'm sure others will suggest other fluids, but i prefere diesel,,,you need to fill that sucker up,,and i mean fill it up,,the idea is to totaly bath the lower portions of your cylinders with diesel fuel,,,dont worry it wont harm anything,,,,it's cheap and it does a wonderfull job.
Fill your top cylinders with diesel as well,,,,this gets messy,,so you need to have an ample supply of shallow drain buckets.
Once you cant get any more diesel in your motor,,,,it ready to sit overnight,,,,keep checking though for leaking diesel,,cos you dont want to deal with a total mess afterwards,,,maybee purchase a couple of bags of sawdust,,or even floordry,,,,like cat litter, and put about 3inches deep underneath your front end,,this will make cleanup a whole lot nicer.
you can do this in any order you prefere,,,,,,remove your starter motor,,,,,distributor,,,,carburetter,,,water pump,,,in fact ant thing which rotates,,,,,if i were you i'd pull the transmission and give it the same treatment as well.
This will all give you a chance to do some pre-fire rebuilding,,,or overhauling,,of your transmision,,,your starter,,,your generator,,,water pump,,,distributor,,,etc.
once you are ready to try the engine *by hands only* stick a suitable size socket and large ratchet wrench on the bottom pully bolt,,,and give it a back and forward motion,,,not too much,,,you want to break her free gently,,,with each succesfull turn of the pully,,,increase the amount of rotation until you have her fully 360 degrees.
It may be worth mentioning that you should not change any gaskets until you have done all of this,,,,,,get the motor so it will spin over by hand first,,,,there may well be rust in the cylinders,,,it's hard to say from what i know of your situation.
now what you want to do is to spin the oil pump over with a suitable drill,,,it's been too long for me and i forgett how the oil pump is driven on one of those things.
I'm sure others on this site are comming to the rescue,,as i type.
now what you want to do,,is to take your valve cover off,,and get a look at the push rods,,and rockers make sure you can spin the push rods freely,,,and that the rockers can rock back and forth,,,,also worth mentioning is that the valve springs which have been compressed for a great many years my have now become useless,,,,,it's hard to say,,,,i've gotten a 312 ford running fine after sitting in a farmers field for 40 years,,and the damn thing didn't make a fuss at all.
This was after doing to it,,what i'm suggesting to you.

Different strokes for different folks,,,,,I would pull the pan,,,after getting the motor freed up,,and scrape the years of grunge out of it,,,it also gives you the opportunity to get a look at the bottom end.

I would also take the transmision apart and give it a thourough washing out with diesel as well,,,,the old heavy lube is probably like tar now anyway's,,,

After you have gotten the motor turning freely,,you may now drain the diesel fuel from the motor,,,same goes for the transmision after it's nice and clean.

Now if your still not going to do anything further to the engine,,,like rebuild,,,,now you can start putting your new gaskets in.
Your fuel pump will probably be toast,,as will your hydraulic brake system,,,,these will all need to be replaced as new,,or in the case of the fuel pump,,,,rebuilt.
same goes for your carb,,,

so let me assume you already have all your bits and bobs,,rebuilt and overhauled,,,,now you can reassemble,,,once you have done this,,,you need now to put the lightest grade of oil in your motor that you can find,,,the reason is simple,,,,,all or some off the journals etc may be still gummed up,,,and you will need to free up what you cant see.

If you have managed to get a drill to turn your oil pump,,,you now want to use the drill to turn the oil pump and get the oil to the places it needs to go.

now if your ready,,you can put your spark plugs back in,,and your rebuilt distributor, starter motor, carb, water pump, fuel pump, etc. put your cap and leads on and fresh battery and give it a whoorl,,,,and not knowing your situation here,,,,anything may happen,,,from field mice making a fast gettaway outa your tail pipe,,,,or your exhaust system is so shot the muffler blows off.
*Important* do not run the engine for more than 5 or ten minutes,,some would say even less,,,,because you need to drain your oil out and the residual gunk and diesel fuel out of your engine,,,,then put in a nice single grade 40wt oil,,,,and start your engine once more,,,,be gentle when revving,,,the poor old girl probably wont like being ressurected at first.
i'll give it a rest for now and let some of the other boys get there two cents in.