VegasJen

o.k. so i kind of tricked you. this is about a friends 240z i'm working on but i figure this information would apply to a vette as easy as it does to the datsun.
the car has been sitting for ~3 years and i am rebuilding the carbs now (anybody have experience with these hitatchis?), i will repair/replace the fuel pump and i expect to have to drop the tank. the car reeks of varnish so i believe the gas is totally broken down. once the tank, pump and carbs are clean, what should i do about the gas (varnish) in the lines? is there a way to clean this stuff out without totally replacing the lines? what else would you do before starting this thing up? the plan is to pull plugs and squirt a little oil in each cylinder. once it's running i'll do the oil change, belts, plugs and wires. any other suggestions?

john's '81 mouse

suggest you spray gumout carb cleaner into the fuel lines on the engine end, and blow with compressed air to clean out lines back to where they attach to fuel tank.

Would also check the vapor cannister, if it has one, and spray and blow out these lines as well, and would install a new charcoal filter. Would install new fuel filter, and after 1st 100 to 200 miles, would replace fuel filter with another new unit.

Sharky Guam

Three years is not that long. Drain what gas that you can with a siphon hose and replace with atleast 5 gallons of fresh gas. If you have already cleaned the carbs, I would pull the fuel line to the carb and stick it in a can. Then I would pull the plugs and squirt some motor oil in each cylinder. Leave the plugs out.Then you could spin the motor until you get sufficient oil pressure. By this time, you would have already pumped enough gas to flush the lines.Whatever residual gas there is will diloute itself. Put the plugs back in, reconnect the fule line and start. Run a full tank of gas thru the system and then replace the fuel filter. As a plus, you could add some fuel additive to get rid of any water left in the bottom of the tank.

Juliet

Don't forget to also replace the fuel filter (if it has one). My '70 sat for several years. It actually ran on the old gas. Not well, but it ran. I rebuilt the carb shortly after and ran additives to help get rid of the water in the tank for the first half dozen tanks of gas or so. ~Juliet

RMS73

When I started my brother's Shelby Charger after two years of sitting I rebuilt the carb, filled the gas tank with new gas, changed the oil first, then poured some of the new oil over the rocker arms, springs, cam lobes,etc. before turning the engine over. Put four or five squirts of oil in each cylinder. Turned the engine over without the plugs several times. When I 'bumped the engine over without the plugs connect I left the fuel line open at the carb and left the fuel from the fuel line empty into a bucket beside the car. Put the plugs in and connected the fuel line and it fired right up. Had several other things to due then, especially the brakes.
Roger

VegasJen

thanks for the advice guys (and lady, BTW nice article juliet). this may not be as bad a project as i thought. now all i need is to find someone who is really good on the carbs. off i go to the 'z' forum!

mrvette

Don't have to do a damnn thing...just toss a gallon of paint store/home despot XYLENE into the tank...good octane booster....don't mess with the old gas one bit...leave it...

run as normal, and then refill with gas....

GENE

Big Fish

Got to agree with sharky quam. Fresh gas will rejuvinate the old stuff. Change the filter, and maybe consider an additional filter on the inlet side of the fuel pump. There are many "generic" filters that can be adapted for this purpose. Once you are satisfied the tank is fresh, remove the additional filter.