jscotty

I have a 94 5.0 GT convertible that has been sitting on a lot for 2 years. It has not been started or driven over this time and when I look under the hood, this is evident because there is rust on the pulleys and there is this white pasty corrosion all over the valve covers. (I think that they are aluminum)

One thing that I have been told about cars is that if you are going to store them for a long period of time, there are preventative things that should be done as not driving a car for extended periods does the most damage. So in order to minimize any problems or issues, what would be the best way of preparing this car to be started short of changing the oil and getting a new battery?


Also, some additional background on this car- The PO's are all related. The most recent PO obtained it from his brother who obtained it from his other brother who was the original owner. The car was in good condition and well maintained until it was stolen and vandalized. Once it was recovered, it ended up being one of those unclaimed property situations where they had issues with locating the owner so it sat on the lot for 2 years. Fast forward to this month, the owner was located, the car was released and now it's mine.

Due to the nature and details of what happened, I have no reason to believe that the car was neglected or poorly maintained other than the fact that it was abandoned for a long period of time so how should I go about getting this car back on the road? Where should I start?

hiboostwoody

Change ALL the fluids (oi, transmission, coolant, and espescially the brake fluid) and battery, clean the mouse nests out of it that are sure to be in places like the heater box, glove box, under the seats, etc. and drive it. In addition, you are going to want to drain the fuel that is in the tank and replace it with some fresh stuff or at the very least get some additive such as Seafoam and put it in the tank before you start it.Unfortunately, since it has been sitting for so long without running, there is a very good probability that most of the seals and gaskets have dried out and are going to start leaking.

GreyStang

Yah what he said! And, pull all the sparkplugs out & crank it over a bunch of times BEFORE trying to actually start it for real. You might wanna check & maybe change stuff like the coolant hoses & belts, at least give them a hard look. Was the car indoors for the 2 years?

Jfsram

While I do agree with changing all the fluids. I don't agree with changing them before you start it.

Oil pressure right after start up is critical. If the engine is started up with the old oil. You have more chances of instant oil pressure because right now the filter is full, the pump is full, the journals are full and the pump is primed.
Also cranking before starting takes forever to gain oil pressure. Sure you will eventually fill the journals so they are primed before starting but the rocker arms, valve stems, lifters, cam lobes, piston pins, piston walls will all be dry until you fire it up.

The only fluid I MIGHT change would be the fuel but that's a pile of work that may be for nothing. I've stored cars for 2 years without treating the fuel and has no problems afterwards.

jscotty

The belts and hoses appear to be in good shape. They I don't see or feel any dry rotting or cracks. I pulled the dipstick and the oil looks good but level is a little high. I don't know if this is the result of the journals and the filter draining back into the pan or if the PO simply overfilled the crankcase. I suspect the latter because the PO knows nothing about cars and the oil level is right on the word "FULL" rather it being in the crosshatch section of the dipstick.

No, it was sitting on an impound lot. It had cars stacked on all 4 sides of it so the car was somewhat protected from the lateral forces of the wind and rain. The car was also sitting on steep hill slanting down to the left. I don't know if this would affect whether the oil is still in the journals but that's about the only other abnormality of the situation that I can think of.

This is the reason why I initially thought about simply attempting to start the car outright. Many years ago (when I didn't know any better) I bought used car that sat in my neighbor's back yard for more than a year and all I did was put gas in it.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I bought a can of Seafoam and I will flush the fuel line after the fact if I happen to have a fuel related problem. If I keep the oil filter in place and change the oil only, will that maintain whatever oil is still in place or am I better off just leaving everything as it is?

pkwest

If it is not too late remove the plugs and spray in wd 40 to free up the rings. I would let it sit over night afterwards.

jscotty

With the windy cold weather and the snow, I kept putting this project off. And then on the better weather days I was stuck doing other important things so here I was today in the same status as I was a couple of months ago. I couldn't keep waiting for ideal conditions to exist so I figured I would just put a new battery in the car and go for it to see what I got.

I went to Walmart, got the cheapest battery I could find off of the shelf with enough CCA's, (Group 26 with 630 CCA's) and installed it. When I turned the key to the "on" position, I got the little "bing" noise and I heard the fuel pump charge up and the instrument cluster test lights came up and everything came to life so I figured this was good news so far. I put it in neutral, held down the clutch, turned the key... KA-CHUNK! and everything went dead.

At this point several things were going through my head:

1. Is this engine locked up?
2. Did the vandalism on this cause something to short out the battery?
3. Did any of the big fuses blow?

So I disconnected the battery, and reconnected it and the same thing happened again. This was a good sign being that anything that stopped the car from starting (like a relay or something similar) was reset. But again, when I turned the key to the start position, I got the KA-CHUNK sound again. This time the fuel pump and the bing sounds came back but they seemed to have much weaker sounds.

So the only thing that I could conclude is that maybe the battery terminals were not tight enough. My car has clamping replacement terminals on the end of the factory cables and there was some corrosion so it was evident that this could be the problem. Once I cleaned everything out, sprayed the connections with WD-40 and used my large pliers to squeeze in the terminals to give them a tighter fit, I was in business.

This time the engine actually turned over! And thinking about what Grey suggested, (to just crank it before starting it) I pulled off the ignition coil wire and cranked it 5 times for about 5-10 seconds each time. I replaced the coil wire, cranked it again and it came right on!

It started making all kinds of weird and strange noises but I considered it to be "normal" in light of the situation. I came very close to parting out this car today but now I am going to keep it for a while and see what I can make of it.

That's one of the things that happened. I was getting smoke from underneath the intake manifold. I am guessing that this is from the inner side of one of the valve covers.

This was good advice.

There were a couple of wasps nests in the exhaust. As I was warming the car up, one shot out of the left side tailpipe.

I really wanted to do that if nothing else, however, I just got so sick of seeing the car that I was willing to take a chance. Now I want to keep it!


Thanks for your input everyone! I still have not decided whether I am going to drive it, part it, or sell it but today is a happy day for me!