The engine I bought recently hasn't been run in a while, potentially at least a year or so, I dont want to mess anything up, but before installing it, I want to see if I can crank it all the way around smoothly. Couple of Q's about that.

1. How much oil/tranny fluid do I put in each spark plug hole?
2. Should I take off the valve covers and pour oil over everything inside"
3. Timing is most certainly off (timing belt installed but distributor just sort of stuck in there). Will i break anything to take the dizzy out and just turn the crank?
4. Anything else I should do before holding my breath and turning the crank?
Thanks!

When i did mine i didnt worry so much about the spark plugs.. as long as they're secure to the wires and dizzy. I did however take my valve covers off and poured oil on both sides enough for it to read accurately on the dipstick. If the timing is off it will still crank but you just gotta time it accordingly. And be sure your starter is secure to the block and wiring so that it wond grind.. good luck. It should be fun.

Well, I have it pretty much tore down right now. I figured the valve cover thing would be a good idea so I did that. Would it be a problem if i didn't have the starter attached?

if you dont have the starter attached??
well, yeah cuz thats how you start the engine.
ensure that it is the proper starter for your engine/flywheel.

Well, It's not in a car, so I figured, why bother attach the starter. I didn't think it would mess up the engine for me to crank it with a breaker bar while the starter was sitting on the shelf

Pull all the spark plugs and spray some wd-40 in each whole. Wouldnt hurt to pull the valve covers off and put some oil on the push rods & rockers just to be safe. Leave the spark plugs out get a breaker bar and use the crank bolt to try and crank the motor over by hand. If it dosent spin free with the spark plugs out you got issues.

Thanks for all the advice! I pulled the spark plugs, Pulled the valve covers, oiled the rocker arms and put a little bit of oil into each cylinder, let it soak and whipped out the breaker bar. It clunked a little, but it spins! How hard is it supposed to be? it's not bad once you get the bar started, but it's not as easy as loosening the tensioner

Should be pretty easy. You should be able to rotate the motor over with one hand. And a cluck dosent sound good. Does it do it in the same spot when you rotate the motor ?

if your going to take out the distributer, then go ahead and make or buy a dummy distributer and hook up a drill to it and pre-lubericate the engine. you dont HAVE to, but just a good idea if your already gonna have the distributer out.

No, it's not the same spot and it started to get quiter the more i cranked it. i think maybe the oil wasn't on those particular parts yet being the pan has a slight leak and oil hadn't been pushedthrough there in a while.

Trust me your not getting any oil circulated by rotating the motor by hand. Sounds like you had some rust on the cylinder walls and it came off. Only good way to get the oil circulated with the motor out of the car is get this http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-901010/ and throw a electric drill on it and let it spin away.

So I just pop the end onto the oil pump below the dizzy and spin it clockwise?

Yup

Nice. I love easy jobs that get things done. Good news, no more clunking, just the sound of air being forced around this way and that by the pistons. still not as easy as i was thinking it should be but then my hands are greasy now. I'm taking the serp. set-up off and also the intake today and I'll give the innards a once-over