Advice on Starting my L79 after 11 Months Storage
 

Unfortunately, life events got in the way of driving my totally stock 1965 327-L79 for about 11 months (my wife of 40 years passed away). The car sat patiently in my heated garage after only about 40 miles of driving in early April of 2012 following a fresh oil/filter change with high level ZDDP Valvoline Synthetic 20W-50 Racing Oil, a full fresh tank of Winter Blend Chevron Premium, fresh DOT 3 brake fluid, 40 psi pressure in the tires, fresh NAPA green coolant, freshly rebuilt carb and a new gas filter ..... All this about 11 months ago.

I also disconnected it's new battery and placed it on a Deltron battery tender with Temp compensation.

I topped off the gas tank about 6 months ago with 2 gallons of fresh winter blend from a gas can but never added any stabilizer during the last 11 months (the gas cap is of the vented design). I also would tap the non-power brakes every couple of weeks and would rock the car side to side gently.

Normally, I used to drive it once every couple of weeks for 30 to 40 solid miles (750 to 1000 miles per year) and meticulously changed fluids on schedule.

Now that a new year and Spring has arrived and my mourning and depression have improved, I'm thinking of restarting the car.

The carb bowls are dry now of course after checking them.

Would squirting about an ounce of oil into each cylinder and hand turning the engine a few times plus manually filling the carb bowls with fresh gasoline be sufficient precautions? How about removing the valve covers and squirting a little oil onto the valve train before restarting? Maybe also just an oil change (leaving the filter as-is)?

BTW, all the exact same storage conditions above also apply for my late-wife's 1965 Mustang 289-4BBL GT Convertible .... I stored it the same way and would like to safely restart it also.

Thanks all. :thumbs:

Pour gas into the vents to fill the bowls and fire it up...

Hitch

:iagree:

Have extinguisher handy also....

Just fire it up. I would not pour gas in carbs and merely pump gas pedal during cranking. Make sure you have oil pressure also when cranking. You seem to have taken good care of the car for 11 months most better than others do. My methods for storage on my L79 are slipping but each year fires up. My condolences regarding your wife.

I'm in agreement with Daren. Just crank the engine for 20 seconds at a time till fuel is in the Carb.. Make sure you let it run up to Temp to dispurse any moisture in the crankcase. Al W.

Like Al said, crank it a few times at about 20 seconds a time or less. Check that oil pressure is showing on the gauge.

To speed it up, after you see oil pressure, stop.

Open hood.

Remove air cleaner.

Pour a couple of ounces of gasoline down the carb.

Replace air cleaner.

Fire it up. Bring it to about 1500 - 2000 and hold it for 30 seconds or so, checking all the gauges are good (charging, oil pressure) and then let it idle.

Close hood and take it for a ride.

Remove valve covers? Pour oil down the cylinders? Do you really want to work on it that badly? A used engine will retain oil in those places for a long time. Unless you have the carb open and live on a beach, not much has happened to that engine.

11 months isn't that long for an engine to sit, I've started them up after a couple of YEARS! Just do what the guys have said and don't over think it. I wouldn't put oil in the cylinders at all, you could get a sort of hydro lock and do a lot of damage, and you'll end up with smokey exhaust pipes that will take a long time to burn off. :cheers:

Connect the battery, turn the key and start it. Too much thought is counterproductive to progress.

First of all, sorry for the loss of your wife. It sounds like you are ready to get back into driving the Vette :thumbs:

You took all the proper steps for storage. 11 months isn't that long. I don't think these cars distinguish much between sitting for 3 months or a year. Hook up the battery, pump the gas and fire it up. I bet it starts right up after cranking for a little while.

Enjoy the ride.

Good luck and let us know how it went :cheers:

I am old school, I pull the center wire out of the distributor, and crank the engine over 2 or 3 cycles while using a very light spray lubricant down through the throttle plates. A couple of light squirts is all you need.
That raises your compression as the spray will coat the walls. You no longer are starting the car with steel against steel.

Connect the center wire and give it a shot.

Thanks Everyone
 

Yes, I am starting to get the itch to fire up the car as soon as the weather warms up in about a month and the rains stop.

Since I wanted to change all the plugs last year, I'm going to do that chore first and while they are all out I'll spray a touch of lubricant in each cylinder and hand rotate the crank slowly just to see how things feel (plus I bought a TDC whistler a year ago to verify my TDC marker line-up for #1 .... something I really wanted to do for fun from last year's work list).

A day or so after that, I'll connect its new fully charged battery that's been on a battery tender for a year, disconnect the coil wire and let her crank 20 seconds or so to build up some oil pressure, then remove the 2818's removable bowl sight plugs and make sure I see the bowls have started to fill and the floats are floating up freely (and add any fresh gas as needed to get the bowl levels up the the bottom of the site holes), after which I'll reseat the coil wire and let her rip!

Just like we used to do when starting large gasoline industrial engines in the oil refineries and offshore rigs (the larger diesel engines were almost as fun to recommission but it was the gasoline engines that got the adrenalin pumping due to greater fire risk from unintended ingition sparking of leaking fuel or vapors). My mechanical memories are starting to return a bit after all these past forgotten years in retirement doing things like traveling with my late wife or golfing or fishing.

I was a Licenced Mechanical Engineer practicing for 40 years right out of college in the oil patch, but now at 92 my memory of major equipment recommissioning sequences is not quite what it used to be. I realize I'm over-killing things now on the cars, but it's fun to bring back memories of the good old days before politically charged pollution control issues took the fun out of working within industry in general (I retired about 30 years ago just before EPA and the Europeans began ramping up extra hard lots of requirements on large stationary industrial sources of emissions).

Stay tuned .... Thank you everyone for the engineering refresher course ... the moral of my story is use-it or lose-it when it comes to mechanical knowledge, aptitude and abilities. :thumbs:

:iagree: Use a squirt bottle (like a mustard dispensor) to fill the carb bowl through the vent until it just starts to trickle out the idle bleeds. Then just pump the throttle a couple time and it should hit on the first spin of the throttle and quickly build oil pressure. I hate crankiing on a motor that has been setting awhile.

Not trying to be mean but all that work / effort is not necessary..

At 92 and still playing with cars, you are an inspiration.

Are planning to use Marvel's Mystery Oil (teaspoon) down each cylinder?

RRod,

I'm with 62Jeff...God Bless you! My condolences for the loss of your wife.

Nice to read of someone who has NOT lost their passion for these gems....AND to see you haven't been born too early,:D:

I too think that you are thinking this through too much considering the only 11 month no start on the car.

Good luck on firing that bad boy!

Regards,

Jim
In God We Trust!

Agreed, but it gives me enough reason to get out of bed most mornings ..... at my age, any day I get out of bed for a reason (any reason) is a good day. :thumbs:

I liked DansYellow66's idea of flooding just the primary bowl through the front vent until gas trickles out the air bleeds.

BTW, I just found the smaller right inboard secondary air bleed hole plugged .... this after a so called corvette specialist overcharged me 14 months ago to rebuild the entire original 3-digit date code 2818 Holley. These are the kind of things about "specialist" mechanics that upsets me about paying others to work on these cars as they always seem to come back with some new "added" problem to ensure return business ..... even my late model German luxury models seem to have a new wheel ding or some other issue upon return from routine dealership service.

Almost makes one want to quit owning more than one car.

Good one ... I'll send that into Leno for a laugh ;)

After the day I had in the garage I can relate. I hope in 50 years I can want to hurt the way I do tonight after working all day on the old girl.

The experts are frustrating as they know enough but then again they don't deliver most of the time...