Car in storage, 2 years.. Time to start her up but advice?

[AIRWOLF]

Hi everyone.

I've searched through videos on MotorTrend (YOUTUBE - Goss's Garage) and searched the forums, but just to confirm, it seems like since my car has been sitting awhile, there are several things I would need to do to get my car back in running shape.
NOTE: I put her in storage (outside under a shed, car cover) without the intention of not running her. Unfortunately, time has slipped by and it's been 2 years and I want to get her back up and running.

She has sat for 2 years under a car cover and I haven't started her at all. Terrible i know, but i'm here to rectify my mistake.

Check Items To Perform?
[*]Drain Fuel (no STABIL)
[*]Oil Change
[*]Radiator Fluid
[*]Any other items?

http://www.mossmotors.com/SiteGraphics/ ... orage.html

The link above suggests I do all of this but is this all really necessary?

[jondee86]

There's an ideal world, and a real world. In an ideal world you would have
done all the recommended things before your car went into storage... oil
down the plugs, tank drained or filled to the brim, all four tires off the
ground and so on. But you didn't, so you got a couple of choices...
1) If your storage was nice and dry, and you are not seeing rust on every
exposed surface, check the first three items listed below, check the engine
turns by hand, and then hook up a battery and crank, or...
2) If your storage was damp and you have rust, moss, mildew and assorted
small fungii growing on the upholstery, this is what I would do...
- check you have oil and that it does not look like tar.
- check that the radiator is full of coolant.
- check there is some gas in the tank.
- pull the plugs and squirt a bit of some lightweight lubricant into each
cylinder... 30wt engine oil or similar... about 1/4 of a teaspoon.
- take a socket and use this on the crank pulley bolt to turn the engine
over a few times.
- Put the plugs back in and turn it over a couple more times to make sure
you can feel some compression.
- connect a fully charged battery and fire it up.

If you overdid the oil it will crank for a bit and then catch a cylinder at
a time... and make a pretty impressive cloud of smoke. Let the engine
warm up without revving the crap out of it, and look for coolant leaks.
Try moving the car to see if the clutch plate is frozen... and if not,
make sure the brakes are working, that the tires are not flat, and go
for a careful test drive. Bring it back home with a few gallons of fresh
gas added, and check for leaks.

Now change the oil and filter, drain the radiator and refill with fresh coolant,
flush the brake and clutch hydraulics with fresh fluid, check for leaks.

If it doesn't fire up, the most likely problem will be a dead fuel pump or
gummed up injectors.

Good luck

Cheers... jondee86

[AIRWOLF]

Jondee86,

Thank you for the insightful response. You really took the time to thoughtfully respond, eh?! Appreciate it.

From my situation, it's been fairly dry. Living in So.Cal, we don't get too much rain here. She's currently under a car port with a car cover on her, so i expect her to be in pretty good shape.

Thanks mate,
Airwolf

[totta crolla]

In addition to what Jondee says you might want to raise the oil pressure before actually starting the engine and you can do this by turning the engine over on the starter motor while you have the spark plugs out. It would be as well to disconnect the coil wires and take off the cold start injector plug.
Keep cranking until the oil light goes out.

[Nick94tt]

Well covered above. Don't be surprised if you wind up needing a fuel filter/pump strainer. Gummed up fuel + corrosion in the tank and lines will do a number on them. (I wouldn't worry about it immediately, but if you run into a rough running condition once the car is alive again I'd keep it in mind.)