Day one!!!!

[wyatt_k]

Starting with the motor (360/390). going to go get it from my parents house. It was runing when it got parked, but kinda worried about how well it sat for 4 years un touched in the arizona heat. I'll be getting pics of it today, as well as my parts truck. As I said in the welcome mat, im doing a full body off resto on my late brothers f100 swb custom cab. If anyone has any tips or tricks on getting a motor back in shape after such a long sit time let me know. Oh ya, it was rebuilt about 6 months before it sat for 4 years......

[craftsman]

What I like to do on an engine that sat a long time is pull the spark plugs and spray wd40 into the cylinders, then turn engine over by hand. If it's not frozen I leave plugs out, disconnect coil and spin engine over with key, that will get oil go through the engine.

[junkyarddave]

Make sure the valves aren't stuck. My yard truck sat for seven years and I bent three push rods by running it hard. Those three valves stuck. I dont know if they all went at once or one at a time. When I pulled the intake the push rods and lifters were on the valley pan. What I did was to use Mopar combustion chamber cleaner. I sprayed it on the valve springs and let it soak for a week. Before I reassembled I simply tapped the valves with a hammer to make sure they were loose. Put it together and it runs great on all eight. They also say you can pour trans fluid down the carb while it is running at high idle to help clean the valves off. This will smoke like mad though.

[wyatt_k]

all good ideas. I pulled it out of the truck allready. Its coming out of my parts truck. I pulled the valve covers and much to my suprise it looked just about new. pulled the spark plugs and they were clean. It turns over by hand. Still havent decided if its worth tearing apart to look any further or just leaving it alone and chancing it.

[ximy]

you really should start it up and see how it runs... might be ok..

[Fordtastic]

long as you wd-40 the cylinders and crank it by hand a bit it should be fine..
Change the oil and flush the coolant...

Prepare to need a new heater core and likely a water pump as that is ussually my experience with cars i have purchased that have sat a long time.

I got my 1978 280z running after sitting in someones field for 10 years.. 5 years later and it still runs great.

my 91 sentra sat for most its life.. I got it with 30k on the clock at 8 years old.. I slapped a battery in and swapped all fluids.. I have had it 10 years now and have 165k on the clock.. runs perfect and get 34mpg.. tops out at 126mph .. not bad for an econobox.

My truck had sat for around 4 years.. after battery, heater core, water pump, I drove it two years before my partial rebuild now.


So IMHO i would give it a shot.