mattrengers

Hello all,
Hope I've come to the right place. I need some advice. My dad has decided to give me his old mustang. It's a 1986 Mustang LX V8 5.0 5-speed. It's only got 40K miles on it. Here's the problem.. It's been sitting in his driveway for 20 years. Never been started since. Ran great until he parked it and just never messed with it and now he's giving it to me. My question is what do I need to do to get it running again? Would it be a huge hassel or just kind of a hassel or not a hassel at all? Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

brentloftis

20 years..... at least it was in a drive way though. I am building one backup that sat for 4 in a field in the Texas sun and rain with a busted rear curtain on the convertible. I am still finding patches of grass on the undercarriage.

I think one of the first things you should is to pull the gas tank out and have it cleaned, gas does not age well.
Inspect the freeze plugs on the block hopefully they are all sound and the coolant did not freeze in the block.
I would then drain the oil and change the filter, oil becomes acid after a while.
Pull the spark plugs, shoot a little WD-40 in to the cylinders, just a little, and let it penetrate for a day.
With the plugs still out, remove the drive belt, and rotate the engine by hand atharmonic balancer.
Check and inspect the all vacuum hoses, rubber like gas does not age well.

Once all this is done you maybe be able throw in a battery and crank the engine over a few times to get oil moving. Leave the plugs out though, get new ones, and test theirspark first.

Now reinstallthe gas tank, fresh gas, plugs, wires....... and you maybe ready to start the car up.... still not driveable as you will likly need to do brakes, brake hoses, tranny fluid, and rear diff...... oh and tires.