Advice or procedure for starting a ZR-1 after storage
 

Hello guys, I just bought a 1990Z that has been sitting for approximately 5 years. Some of the storage was outside but has been inside for the past 3 or 4 years. Looking for specific procedures for the LT5, it comes with many new parts including fuel pump, fuel filter, clutch and related components. I have a shop and have drag raced forever so I feel comfortable doing the work myself. I figure I will clean fuel tank, change oil and do something with the injectors. Looking forward to making a nice driver with it, it needs and deserves some love! 👍👍🏁

Welcome to the madness that is LT5! Since you have your own shop and access to tools, this should be pretty straight forward.

IMHO.... you have the right Idea of concentrating on the fuel system. Clean the tank, fuel filter, blow out the lines and swap fuel injectors will dial you in.

For the rest, just change the fluids and see if you can spin the engine a few times to circulate the oil. These are pretty tough engines.

Others will chime in but you really need to do less than you think. Try this link from Marc Haibeck, LT5 guru on how best to start a engine after dormancy.
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http://www.zr1specialist.com/HAT%20W...0Awakening.pdf

Starting procedure
 

Hi Bill, thank you for your reply and the link. The car has been sitting for around 5 years so just trying to pick the brains of guys in the know. I may be crazy for trying to bring her back from the brink but I have made up my mind and in my brain I'm already cruising down the street! It's dirty but nothing has been ripped on, it's completely intact. I am nervous though 5k is a lot of money for me so I'm all in, first I'm going to clean her up, the guy has many new parts I'm getting with the car including fuel pump, starter, clutch and associated parts among other parts, just not sure about the injectors, I have been looking and I see sets for around 400 bucks and SS sets for like 729 bucks, not sure if I should buy the expensive ones yet not knowing if the engine is good, another dilemma. The owner said his friends uncle bought it new and then the nephew got it and the fuel pump died and it was parked. The current owner traded a jeep for it like 4 years ago and he said he works too much to have the time to fix it. He told me the engine and tyranny were fine, he seems like a straight shooter and I believe him. Anyhow, I'm excited and scared at the same time, sorry for rambling on, thanks for the link, will post pics of progress and videos on my YouTube channel, thanks.

If the starters good the first thing I would do is put a battery in it and crank it over just to have piece of mind that the motor is OK then the fun starts. Accel fuel injectors is what I put in mine,I’d get the plenum off and work towards the fuel tank. Get the car up on jack stands and go from there. There is not a single question you could ask and come up blank. If you get stumped send me a message and I’ll send my number. Let the madness begin!

Z51jeff
 

Thank you ,Z51JEFF , I turned the engine with a ratchet and socket , felt fine , the cylinders are filled with marvel mystery oil clear to the plug hole , I will take you up on your offer , this engine is a different beast , but I'm looking forward to getting her going. Thanks again 👍

All good advice here. Plan on new fuel pumps. They are cheap insurance, available for ~$25 -$75 ea. Just look on Rockauto.com or JerrysGaskets.com. Airtex is well respected as is Performance Electric. I have used the later in several installations with great result. You don’t need expensive pumps unless your doing a high hp mod.
H
:cheers:

im subbing to follow along. ill have a z like this one day soon.

Too bad you missed the one in SR. If I had the room I would have bought that one after you passed. I wonder who picked it up? You would think they would surface here or over on the Registry. Could have been a dismantler I suppose.
H

it went to germany.

it took me too long to sort out the title issues with the rest of the stuff going on at the time.

Even if it went to a dismantler we’d still find out about it,ain’t nuthin getz by the Z crowd. OP,as far as parts go you might be looking at less than $1500 in parts to hear it run,that would be injectors,coils,GM plug wires,fuel pumps,maybe a sending unit if it’s rusty and gaskets and a few small things I’m forgetting. Have you had a chance to look in the gas tank for rust?

Haibecks presentation on waking up the beast: http://zr1specialist.com/HAT%20Web/p...0Awakening.pdf

I'm in the same boat. Resurrecting a '91 that has sat for 15 years. Pulled the fuel sender and it was like rustpocolypse in there. Never seen a tank so bad. Already have the replacement pumps and getting injectors, but my question is about the sender. Will the stock 91 and up sender work for our cars? Is there a way to make the double pump system attach to the single pump sender? I don't see any ZR1 specific senders anymore, and this sender will take some serious work to refurb. Don't mean to hijack your thread, but we are at similar places.

Here is some recent discussion on that subject for the Registry forum. Lots of other good information there too. Since I have removed my secondaries I plan the move to the L98/LT1 Setup with a single high output pump eventually. But folks are finding other work arounds.

http://www.zr1.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30334&page=2

H
:cheers:

Ive seen them for sale on eBay from time to time,what you can try is soaking it in EVAPORUST and get some of the rust off or give Jerry’s Gaskets a call,he might have one. You pay shipping I’ll see if I can salvage it.

Ah, but there's comfort in redundancy! Both of our Zs have that jumper that "Gold Ceylon" had made up a while back. Actually I used mine (as you recall) last summer in the Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park when my Z got a little over heated. Turned out not to be the pump(s), but having the two of them - one to swap for the other (electrically) gave us the clue to what wasn't the problem (at least!).;)

Thanks for the reply, guys. Here's some pictures of the carnage.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...5773317ea2.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...5ef521f235.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...4e5a14b1b9.jpg
Don't even want to know whatever that is growing on there.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...d78ff1e244.jpg

There’s one on eBay now but the guy wants $450. As mentioned above, if you do a secondary delete you can run an L98/LT1/LT4 Single Pump unit with a high flow pump.
H
:cheers:

Thank You to all
 

I want to say thank you to all that have replied. I really appreciate it, picking her up Saturday morning at 10am, owner said he has a lot of new parts so saving some cash right off the bat. I'm not even going to attempt to start till I clean her up. My neighbor does full rotisserie restorations and is going to help with body/paint when that time comes.
I will be posting updates and this project moves forward, also have a YouTube channel where I Wil be posting videos. The vast majority of feedback has been positive and I'm under no illusions, I know everything hinges on the engine being in good condition. Reckon we are going to find out together in the next month or so, thanks everyone. 👍👍🏁