yet another reason for me to stick to old vw mechanical diesels :) if there was fuel left over i will just crank them and run them. if not i could bring an electrical pump in a bucket of fuel to force some new fuel/atf into the system, maybe sit for a day if the fuel system is crusty and then run it. i brought back a few to life this way including a couple that had a bad incident with some waste vegetable oil cocktail and were very crusty inside.
On Monday, April 25, 2016 at 8:32:26 AM UTC-7, Larry Velez wrote: > > 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 mk2-16v+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to mk2-16v@googlegroups.com. 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/2ea6ce2f-8b86-42cc-a116-d1ab8c0ac61b%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.