Help waking up Miss Scarlett after sitting in the garage in Arizona for 4 months

[Geezer Cruzzer]

This girl has 112K miles and runs like the preverbal sewing machine. She has been sitting in a hot garage on the west side of the house for four months. The temperature during the day is 120 degrees plus. This will be the fourth year I've had to leave her sit. The gas evaporates completely out of the carb and who know how far back to the tank. The way I have done it in the past is to give her a good shot of ether and have the wife turn it over. When Miss Scarlett fires off which is almost immediately, I use a turkey baster to slowly dribble gas down the carb throat until the fuel pump fills the lines and bowl. After that happens, she is happy.

Anybody got any better suggestions?

 

[Living in the Past]

Toyota originally had option of priming the carburetor. They also invaluable when leaving a vehicle for a while and coming to dead battery. Prime carburetor. Couple pumps on the pedal, pull the choke and turn it over by hand. Using one of these would not have to mount and just hook of the inlet and outlet fuel lines and prime the carburetor. Hook up the lines to the original pump and start the 40.

 

[charliemeyer007]

If it were mine I would pull the spark plugs and give each jug a shot of marvels mystery oil. Use the starter to whirl it over until you build oil pressure on the gauge. Put the plugs in and fire it up. Gas should be primed by then.

I'd put it asleep with MMO in the jugs. I'd also use PRI-G fuel preservative too.

I run a cheap diode electric fuel pump. key on - when fuel pump quits clicking, engage the starter - fire right up with the choke set.

 

[brian]

Sitting for awhile.
Just crank it on the starter.
The extra cranking will give it chance to get the oil moving and parts wet before it fires.

No way would I hit it with ether and fire it immediately like that.

 

[pb4ugo]

What @brian said. Loose the either. 4 or 5 months is no time. Crank the engine till you have fuel in the bowl, and start normally.

 

[Skreddy]

You can get a squeeze bottle that you fill with gas and fill the float bowl through the vent until you see it in the sight glass. If starting it after that, the bowl won’t drain by the time the fuel pump replenishes it.

I’d also probably just crank it until it fires. Good battery and it shouldn’t take long. Have your wife crank it and once you see fuel in the sight glass you can give it an accelerator pump shot with the pedal, if it hasn’t started by then.

 

[Geezer Cruzzer]

Thanks for the replies. I just hate cranking and cranking. It will start that way but don't want to overheat the starter. Since the carb is original, I might try the vent thing. Certainly makes sense.

 

[charliemeyer007]

Use a good oil additive like ProLong. Put an electric fuel pump in line with a switch. Use a good trickle charger - crappy ones will fry the battery. Start your rig once a week and let it run for 15 minutes. If I ever get a low time engine again I going to install a pre-oiler.
More than 90% of wear occurs during start up before the oil pressure gets everything lubed up.

 

[pb4ugo]

Either way works. The beauty of cranking to fill the float bowl is you're building oil pressure at a lesser rpm. It'll probably only require about 10 seconds of cranking.
We start our boat like this for the 1st time every yr. The only difference is we put some stabil in the tank and a little in the carb during winterizing.

 

[Wasatch Jay]

Thanks for the replies. I just hate cranking and cranking. It will start that way but don't want to overheat the starter. Since the carb is original, I might try the vent thing. Certainly makes sense.

Jet engines have starter duty cycles. This is from deep long term memory so it may be incorrect, but I recall one engine had a limit like "one minute on, three minutes off, then one minute on, 30 minutes off".

The point being if you're concerned about damaging the starter due to excessive cranking time, stop after say a minute and let it cool for a while. Then try again.

My technique is to use a small squeeze bottle and squirt some gas down the carburetor throat. Then when it fires, I squirt as necessary to keep the engine running until the fuel pump and float bowl have caught up with fuel delivery needs.

 

[brian]

I would lite a starter on fire, before I used ether.

 

[bhsdriller]

4 months is nothing I do the same here and it's just as hot during the summer.

Just crank it, let it prime while building oil pressure and it's good to go.

 

[Jim S.]

Jet engines have starter duty cycles. This is from deep long term memory so it may be incorrect, but I recall one engine had a limit like "one minute on, three minutes off, then one minute on, 30 minutes off".

The point being if you're concerned about damaging the starter due to excessive cranking time, stop after say a minute and let it cool for a while. Then try again.

My technique is to use a small squeeze bottle and squirt some gas down the carburetor throat. Then when it fires, I squirt as necessary to keep the engine running until the fuel pump and float bowl have caught up with fuel delivery needs.

Your memory is just fine sir!

 

[fjc-man]

Wouldn’t hurt to have non-ethanol fuel in the tank (if you don’t already) it doesn’t gum things up like fuel with ethanol, especially if it’s going to sit for extended periods of time.

 

[anothernz45]

Was running an outboard tote tank for a year or so until I fitted a tank I'd repaired, the primer bulb on the fuel line was magic. Could fit one of those behind the fuel pump.