Hellllllllllllllo you lucky people. First post EVER! I've been following the boards and such here since I was in high school and bought myself a 1988 IROC-Z 5.7L, which has a nice story to it. I'm primarily seeking any advice as to anything special I should be doing for the first start of an engine that has been sitting for 5 years (along with the rest of the car) and any other upgrades/things I should do while I have it apart that are within my budget. Or close to it...

Bought it in my senior year, and I managed to drive it for a few weeks and then broke it, then took awhile to fix it as I was trying to be responsible with my money and pay what I needed to pay instead of fixing my toys. About a week after my fix, my water pump pulley wobbled off on the freeway, badly overheated my engine. Suprisingly everything was still in the engine after getting off the freeway, finding somewhere to park, and shutting off the car. I had a friend bring me some tools and spare bolts, I slapped the pulley back on, and off I went for about 2 weeks longer....Then I developed a rather severe fuel leak which I will assume was caused by the extreme temperatures damaging the seals on the fuel injectors. I parked it, started tearing apart the engine, and it's been sitting in disarray in my yard for the last 5 years. Well, this morning I decided to put it back together, enough is enough!

I kept waiting to put it back together because I said I needed this, or that, and this, and I'll just do it all at once. Well, I'm going the bargain route, not doing any performance upgrades, I just want her to move under her own power and have everything work. My budget is about $1500 and here is the current state of the car:

135k miles (4k of which I put on it after I bought it)
New radiator
New water pump
New windshield
New tires
New heater core
Faded Victory Red paint for sitting outside for 3 of the 5 years
Removed factory exhaust manifolds (had AIR)
Removed intake baseplate, plenum, radiator, all drive accesories
Removed front seats
Destroyed t-top seals when I decided to try to see just how bad the rust was under the center plate, then discovered it was a plate I could just unbolt, and I destroyed my perfectly good seals for nothing! Doh!
Needs a new alternator
Needs a battery
Needs a drivers side front wheel bearing
Will need an exhaust as I just cut into mine to install my Hooker Headers I bought back in the day for it
A few wiring things here and there are slightly cracked in the engine bay, so I'll need a few misc connectors
Brakes were really weak when I bought the car, but they were suppossed to be "brand new." I hope it was just cheap pads or a poor bleeding job.

Stuff I have on my list or have already done:
Reinstall driveshaft & torque arm, fill rear differential
Install B&M kickdown cable (700R4) & fill transmission
Oil change
Bosch Platinum plugs, cap/rotor, plug wires, fuel filter
Ordered a new coolant tank & AC delete. Trying to cancel my order for the smog pump dead pulley since I discovered you can just use a different belt.
PROM from TPIparts.net ($65). I need to get my cooling fans to turn on sooner, and I'd rather pay $65 for a plug in chip that can disable/change a few other basic things I'm doing and take care of the cooling all at once vs. a $40 relay I would have to cut in and disguise and probably screw up anyways.
Hooker Headers (used, don't know which kind. They are shortys)
Flowmaster 40 series exhaust
K&N filters & stock intake for now (to get her going)
T-top weatherstripping kit
T-Top metal divider thingy
Headliner
Hood louvers (hopefully used)
LeBra

What I am hoping to do is just get her all back together, make sure everything works and works correctly, and slowly start fixing her up. After she's going I intend to start with some sort of intake system that involves a cone filter setup/velocity stack, mild cam, and upping the fuel pressure. I dunno what kind of results people have had grinding their intakes at hope, but I may try that as well. This is not my daily driver, just my plaything to tinker with and drive when I feel like and use alot of gas.

My car has been sitting with about 2 quarts of oil, no tranny fluid, open brake lines, open power steering lines, open gas lines, and rags stuffed in the cylinder ports since I've taken it apart. For the most part everything stayed clean and dry, but I live in washington, and there is alot of moisture here. The engine is NOT frozen, still turns over nice and easy. However, certain intake parts/sensors did get wet, etc. Do I need to worry about any of the sensors on the intake manifold not working correctly? Are there internal seals on the valves, oil pump, whatever that could have/will have deteriorated to the point my engine won't run? My primary worry is that there is rust that has formed in 2 places I cannot reach and will be picked up and carried around when I add fluid and fire it up: my gas tank, and my transmission. I am by no means a mechanic, just a weekend hobbyist, there is alot I need to learn, and any help would be appreciated as to any steps I can take up to firing her up and getting everything nice and lubricated again that would avoid problems from prolonged storage.

When I get closer to starting it up, I am going to need help routing the emissions/vacuum lines, because those are a complete mystery to me and it has been too long...

Thanks for any help guys. I'll take pictures and deliver updates on my progress as I have time.

 

Alrighty then, nobody seems to care so far, but I've put it back together, sans pictures. She fired right up despite sitting for 5 1/2 years with all the manifolds off and misc oddities popping up, but she died and won't restart and now I'm going to need help.

I have no power to the injectors, good spark, checked the pickup coil & EST module (2x). I am thinking I did something to fry the ECU. Others have mentioned the tach not moving when cranking to indicate a problem...all my gauges did move when cranking before (when it was running). Now none move at all. I've tested the injector impedence & the wires with noid lights. Good fuel & oil pressure, fuel flow. Car was running as good as could be for sitting so long, needed to adjust the timing. I put it back on the ground after bleeding the brakes, restarted it, drove it out of my garage so it could idle & I could time it without killing myself. I turned it off, opened the hood and loosened the distributor bolt, and can't get it to restart. The only thing I haven't checked is the wires going from the EST to the ECU but I'm not sure how I should check those....is there any good test to directly tell if the ECU is bad? Of note I was running a basic TPIPARTS.NET chip to remove emissions & EGR which I installed before first firing up the car, it seems to work ok. I put the stock PROM back in to see if that would help but it didn't (I only tested with the NOID lights).

Interesting things I've found/done when putting it back together that may or may not help:
Engine oil had 6-7 quarts of water in the bottom of it? Drained before any oil came out
Removed oil cooler
Running straight headers at the moment
Fresh O2 Sensor
Ported the plenum just behind the throttle body
Removed EGR
Removed AIR
Don't have the temp sensor on the passenger side head hooked up (waiting for the correct temperature one to arrive)
May have put the TPIParts.net chip in backwards. Looking into that now.
Wondering if my car has POS....I cannot verify which ECU I have, the inspection sticker is worn off. Is there another way?

 

BINGO! Found the problem, quite by accident. I was fiddling with the heater blower controls, and when I turned on the blower, all the lights (SES, Brake, etc.) came on on the dash, then died. I started punching things and eventually got to the fuse box and gave it a good whack and everything came to life again. I have to go to work now but I'm willing to bet that fixed my problem. Will have to clean up the wires going to the fuse box tomorrow. Yay!

 

Ya, that could possibly be the problem, haha.

Glad you finally got her back together. Post up some pics.