Greetings!
I have an 89 2.8L RS that has been parked in my garage for about 5 years. The original problem was a clogged catalytic converter which was stuck on the Y-pipe. When I went to remove the Y-pipe from the manifolds, I snapped a bolt and my project screeched to a halt. My wife got a new car and so we left the camaro alone until now.

I did not prepare the car for storage as far as fuel stabilizers or anything else. At this point, I am pretty sure that all of the gas has evaporated or at least turned into a goopy varnish. I have read all kinds of advice on starting a car that has been sitting for years and this is what I was planning to do:

1. Take out the spark plugs and pour some "Marvel Mystery Oil" into each cylinder, then turn the mainshaft by hand a few turns to make sure everything is turning freely.

2. Drop the gas tank and clean it out completely.

3. Replace the fuel pump while the tank is out (might as well, seeing how I have had to have this done 2 times already during the car's life and the 3rd time is bound to be around the corner).

4. Blow out the fuel lines with compressed air.

5. Replace the fuel filter.

6. Add 5 gallons of fresh, low octane gas

6. Replace the battery

8. Put one end of hose on fuel feed line at engine and the other into a container then apply 12 volts to terminal "G" of ALDL to turn on fuel pump and purge fuel lines of air

7. Squirt a little engine oil in each cylinder

8. With plugs still out, crank engine over for 20 or so seconds until oil pressure is built up.

9. Replace plugs

10. Cross fingers, start engine, let idle until warm then turn off and check EVERYTHING

11. Once I know it will run, replace ALL fluids.

12. Replace tires.

Obviously, I need to replace the converter and either extract the bolt from the manifold, or if it is too much trouble, I may get it running (loudly) and then install headers once I know it runs.

If this seems like overkill to anyone, I only have ONE shot at this and I don't want to think "what if".

If anyone thinks I am leaving anything out or has any suggestions, please add to this thread. I will be updating my progress.

 

Great list there! I'd also check all the vacuum lines as much as you can, as they like to crack when ignored. Might run some seafoam thru it when it gets running too.

 

I have seen this "SeaFoam" at the auto parts store and am willing to give it a whirl. How exactly do you do it? I saw a mechanic at the place I used to work run a can of something into a vacuum line and it worked wonders, but which vacuum line? Do you just pick any line that you can find?

 

brake booster line. half bottle in crank case. half bottle in vacuum line after the car is warm, then shut off for 10 minutes. start up and drive or idle it around 400k rpm's. untill it stops smoking. then change oil. (some say to change oil, the bottle doesnt say to. i did)

 

I dunno about you but I could never gett it to suck seafoam with the brake booster. The car just stalls as soon as I move my finger a little to let the seafoam in...

 

When I bought my GTA, it had sat for two years. I drained the oil and changed filter. Also, did a major tune-up (plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc.). I ran a couple of bottles of injector cleaner through and also changed to catalytic converter. No problems after that.

 

Really, i couldn't get mine to stall when i put my finger opening for the vacume line (i read somewhere that the car would keep runnning if you shut of the ignition and thats how you would have to kill the engine) the computer compensated and the car kept idleing.

 

backgammon7- that's called dieseling when the car keeps running after shutdown. If the combustion chamber's hot enough and there's enough cleaner left in the induction tract it'll auto ignite without the ecm running. Happens all the time at my shop.

I don't think that's overkill at all, although I'd skip putting oil in the combustion chamber- Marvel should sufice. It'll be VERY loud and annoying without the rest of the exhaust, put it back on. Put a 1/3 of the seafoam in the gas first (I'm certain your injectors are gummy), suck a 1/3 through the booster line once it's warmed up (it will smoke like crazy and you need to run it at 2k until the smoke dissapears) and a 1/3 in the oil and idle it for 1/2 hour, empty and refill. Change the oil again soon to make sure all the seafoam leaves the motor. You might consider throwing a can of restore engine restorer as well. Once you're sure everything's solid, of course.

 

thanks, i needed term for that, i would put a smiley face but my computer doesn't comprehend them

 

Well it was an eventful Saturday. It took me about 3 hours just to "unearth" the car from all of the crap piled on or around it, jack it up, & clean all of the cobwebs/dog hair from underneath it. I removed all of the plugs and poured a bottle of "Marvel Mystery Oil" amongst all six cylinders which turned out to be TOO much. I turned the crank over with a breaker bar and it turned quite freely as it shot the "Mystery Oil" all over my garage floor. Nice mess to clean up. I'm glad that there was no resistance in the engine, though. The plugs were pretty gross which kinda surprised me because I think I had changed them not too long before I left it idle. Could be due to sitting for 4 years, I dunno. I removed the gas cap and was surprised to smell gas fumes. My buddy was questioning how much fuel may be in the tank and I told him it was probably close to empty. Turns out that after we wrestled (and I do mean WRESTLED) the tank out from under the car and I removed the sending unit, there was about 5 gallons of clean-looking gas inside with no sign of crud or water. Oh well, had to check to make sure. I dumped as much of that out and will have to siphon/pump out the rest unless someone knows a better way to remove all of the fuel. I'm going to replace the pump while it's out. Back later . . .

 

Whoops! I never closed this out. Update: Car is back on the road. I did change out the fuel pump and before I put the plugs back in, I turned the engine over a couple of times to make sure everything was moving freely (Be careful, though: Gas fumes + spark = BAD TIMES, so remove the pickup coil wire) I put the plugs back in, crossed my fingers and started her up. It fired up instantly, and there was a loud hissing from the air pump for about 3 seconds and then it just purred like it had never missed a beat. Funny though, I thought I was in big trouble when smoke started POURING out of the engine bay. I was like, "Noooooo! It's ruined!" Turns out that it was all of that Marvel Mystery Oil that had spurted out onto the exhaust manifolds. It burned off after about 30 minutes but my wife thought that I was trying to catch the garage on fire! I also didn't turn the radiator cap all the way, so after it fully warmed up I noticed antifreeze trickling out from under the cap. Instead of grabbing a rag and turning it closed, I shut the car off - BIG MISTAKE! It shot the cap off and puked up half it's contents all over the garage floor. Oh, well. Thanks to everyone that helped me out and here's to showing all of the "debbie-downers" that said I couldn't revive it after it sat for so long!