There is a website I frequent called Quora where people post questions and others answer them. For some reason this site has attracted many high profile and top experts in many fields who regularly answer questions.
Today I ran across a question about whether it was safe to jump start an old car that has been sitting: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-safe-to-jump-start-an-old-car-that-has-not-been-started-for-many-years Now that our cars are getting long in the tooth, there are bound to be more and more of them that have been sitting. One person's summary seems like a useful starting point. I wish I had known this when I tried to start my 16V which was sitting for a few months - if I had drained the old fuel - I might have saved myself a world of headaches since then on my journey to get her back on the road. In any case, here is one of the answers to the question: There are some universal truths: 1) you can't just start it and run it. The gas is not useable, the fuel hose is very likely going to crumble and explode as soon as you get it under pressure, there is unimaginable corrosion in the electrical contacts. 2) bring a trailer. (In fact, there's a whole web site called Bring a Trailer<http://bringatrailer.com/> just for that reason) 3) prepare to spend a large amount of time and modest amount of money getting it to the point that you can drive it enough to figure out what else it needs. Last time I did this ('62 Porsche Cabriolet, not shown) here's what I did: a. drained the fuel tank, pulled it, had it cleaned at a radiator shop, discovered leaks, had them fixed b. replaced all the rubber fuel hose and fuel filter c. pulled the carbs and mechanical fuel pump, cleaned and rebuilt both (technically "all three" since there were two carbs) d. pulled and tossed the plugs, plug wires, points, condenser, distributor cap and coil, replacing them with new e. made sure the brakes weren't stuck in the "on" position or rusted to the drums (very common) f. pulled the wheel cylinders, rubber brake hoses, and master cylinder and rebuilt or replaced as was necessary, then reinstalled and bled the brakes g. replaced the dry-rotted tires and valve stems h. figured out if the car had been converted from 6V to 12V (it hadn't), got a 6V battery, hooked it up and started chasing electrical shorts i. drained what was left of the oil, cleaned the strainer, suctioned out the oil filter can (hard body, with replaceable paper cartridge filter), filled with 30w high-detergent oil, and cranked it for a while (5-10 min), checking oil pressure with mechanical gauge as I did so. Drained oil, replaced oil and filter. j. connected the ignition electricals at the engine k. primed the carbs, shot some starting fluid down the barrels, and fired it up. It still spat nasty black smoke, part of a mouse nest (maybe some mouse parts too) and was generally unhappy for a while. I stopped it, facepalmed for having forgotten to adjust the valves, waited until it was dead cold, did that, and re-started. After that, it was fine. Well. At least, until I decided to restore it.... And that's pretty much how you need to approach your "old car, hasn't run in a long time" car. Doing otherwise will eventually put you back on exactly this path, perhaps with an intervening engine rebuild or hospital visit. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MK2-16v" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mk2-16v. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mk2-16v/9c7152ea7ece4efc9446e8183c51c3b9%40MBX082-E1-VA-2.EXCH082.SERVERPOD.NET. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
