Help - 1st engine start in 2.5 years. (1 Viewer)

[Azca]

I have not been able to wrench on the old girl for at least a year. She has been collecting dust in the garage since then, not happy about it but I have had little to no time to work on her. Now I am up against a very tight deadline and have to get her back together before September and hopefully before August.

She has not started since Thanksgiving 2020. No battery under the hood if that makes a difference. Oil was changed about a year and a half ago when I installed a 90 degree oil filter. No water in the rig as I yanked all hoses to replace them (covered all inlets). Water pump is new, never run. Engine was rebuilt 45k ago.

So as I work towards buttoning this rig up, what should I do?

• I know I need to yank the plugs and squirt some oil into the cylinders but how much?
• How long before I take a wrench to the crank pully to rotate?
• How long before I should I wait before I crank the engine to prime? (pull the coil wire so she wont start)
• Once primed, I will let it sit a day and hit it again. After that, how long should I wait to start it?

 

[Fj80oregon]

I think you’re over thinking this. Buy some fogging oil and pull the plugs and spray some of that in each cylinders. Then pull coil wire and crank for 10-15 seconds. Button everything back up fill Coolant and a fresh oil change. Fire it up and enjoy. I would also fill with premium and run that with a little injector cleaner. Make sure you burp the coolant system to get all the air out. I like these funnels that attach to the radiator.

 

[Kernal]

As above, only thing I might add is change the oil filter before you start it
as filters can deteriorate just sitting IME. And if the oil was old when you parked it, drain out and replace the oil with the filter.

As you already have a 90 degree oil filter adaptor, fill the new filter with oil before you install it.

Also while the filter is off pour oil into the large squarish port in the block beneath the filter, that goes down to the pump and will help prime it.

Then as already mentioned pull the high tension lead off the coil or distributor end, either or, and crank the engine ~ five-ten seconds at a time; reason is so the starter doesn't overheat. No reason to let it sit before starting once you see the oil pressure needle start to move after cranking.

I might add bottle of ISOHEET (red bottle) to absorb any moisture in the gas tank or any of the fuel injector cleaners that absorb moisture.

Did you add any Stabil gas treatment into the gas tank before parking it?? If not, consider adding a couple gallons of Premium gasoline to the old gas.

If you really wanted to be super careful you could buy a pre-oiler and pressurize the entire system before cranking, but that might be overkill.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I agree with above.

But will add, pull the EFI relay and 15amp EFI fuse so you're not pumping fuel while you prime it.

I'd maybe turn it over by hand once or twice but if the plugs are out, there's no real load on anything so cranking it with the starter will be fine.

Watch for oil pressure. I'd make sure to crank without plugs until oil pressure comes up to a normal running level ( more than just seeing the needle move). It may take 30-60 seconds of cranking. If you don't have oil pressure after that you might need to do more to prime the oil pump.

I had an oil pressure issue with a partly rebuilt engine a while back. Needle came up a little, but I didn't realise it hadn't come up to normal.

 

[Azca]

Awesome! Thank you gents, it is greatly appreciated!

 

[ZackR]

FWIW my 94' was parked for a year and a half without running (took forever to find a replacement wiring harness) and I just started it up once it was back together. The fuel was old and it took a good 30sec of cranking to come to life but has run great since.

Once it was running I topped off the fuel tank (half full) with non ethanol premium. I also drove it daily to burn up the old fuel and make sure everything felt right. The oil was changed before it went into storage so I didn't worry about changing it.

 

[SmokingRocks]

I find this comical because I just checked the fluids, provided fresh gas, then turned the key on a 1969 FJ55 that had sat for 10 years....

These arent 9,000rpm Ferrari race engines

 

[Azca]

Thanks guys, I am just paranoid, don't want to hurt the beast.

 

[Nframe]

Watch some Vice Grip Garage videos.