Spitzfiya

I recently bought a Red 1987 GTA Trans Am, T-Tops, Digital dash, the works with a 350 TPI 5.7L

The person i bought it from said it ran "awesome" before he parked it and bought a minivan for his family.

I got it towed to my place and the first thing i did was top off the oil.

Then me and a buddy parked are cars infront of it to jump it (My 1985 Firebird S/E and his riced out Cavilier ) well it turned over slowly but no spark so we put a few gallons of fresh gas in it, turned it over again but still didnt start.

Now we didn't do the whole take the spark plugs out and drop in some oil because we eithier forgot or were to excited and wanted to know if the ignition switch still worked

What im wondering is if we could of potentially scratched the cylinder walls from dry cranking it like that? and if i should be concerned at all....I would think there would be a little bit of oil still on them and not totally dry...I would also presume that there wouldnt be rust in the cylinders?

And also is there a checklist i can follow or any sort of method to starting a car that has been sitting for awhile?

Thanks guys...this is my dream car and i still can't belive i own two thirdgens.

ljnowell

if didnt fire right off, so there were no real stresses put onto anything, not fast and forceful piston movement, 200-300rpms max. I dont think you have anything to worry about. If it were me though, I would hook up an oil pressure gauge and crank it with the ign disabled until i built up some oil pressure before I tried to live fire it. Check the coolant, trans fluid, etc before you fire it, make sure everything has some of what it needs. Fire it up man, see what happens. Keep a good eye on gauges, make sure it doesnt overheat and maintains oil pressure. It probably wouldnt be a bad idea to flush the coolant and replace the thermostat. There is a good chance if it sat for five years the thermostat could be stuck closed. I have seen them stick from sitting in a junkyard for 6 months. 5 years is pretty extreme.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

I'd still put some oil into the cylinders.
I think all gas in the tank is bad, and you just added good gas, so you probably have 50/50 useful fuel in there. I might siphon it all out.
Prime the fuel pump with it disconnected in the engine bay, and let it drain the fuel lines - into a bucket or something.
Then put in fresh fuel.
And of course flush the coolant and whatnot.

The plugs probably need to be replaced as well. Or at least clean 'em up. They may very well be the reason it's not firing. When it's ready to go you can check if you're getting spark right at the plug.

Spitzfiya

ahh good stuff guys...so freakin excited to work on the gta tonight hehe

Looks like ill be working on both of my birds tonight...selling my 85 Firebird S/E soon to my best friend so it will never be to far away! and she shares the same passion for these cars as i do...looks like we gunna go crusin sometime soon and do some syncronized donuts whaaaat, haha already taught her how to drive it



Ive never acctually taken out the spark plugs before, so i have no idea what im doing...is it like a 15 min job?

Also what do you mean by priming the fuel pump? just disconecting the fuel line and pumping the gas pedal while the ignition is off?

Thanks again!

IROCWPB

Pumping the gas pedal in modern cars does nothing unless the engine's running. If you unhook a fuel line in the engine bay and turn the ignition to ON, but not start, the fuel pump should run for a few seconds, getting rid of that old fuel. you'll have to turn the ignition off for a minute, then on again for this to work. Wash, rinse, repeat. Good luck little ghetto guy.