Steve Wike

Well…am about to see if the 72 Cutlass will turnover, or at least try…and need some input from the seasoned ones, PLEASE. It has NOT run since 2001…and been sitting covered (tarp only), not inside. Sounded like it wanted to turn over when I went to check it out and buy. No cooling fluid lines hooked up. Needs four intake manifold bolts. Alternator disconnected. Carburetor has seen better days. Here is what I plan to do this FRIDAY…Prayers are appreciated( I beleive in prayer...)Items are not in any particular order as far as listing them here:

• Install the Crank seal…carefully.
• Install the harmonic balancer…carefully.
• Prep the cylinders with some Marvel Mystery Oil, say Tuesday (how much? and how many times? or none at all?)
• Clean the existing plugs (or get new ones?) Overall , they look good and not oily.
• Hook up a temporary electronic fuel pump and line directly to carb.
• Hook up battery. Could there be too much juice with a regular battery?
• Disconnect coil line from the distributor.
• What else am I forgetting to do or should I do

Please let me know ASAP…I value all insights. Will send some pictures in the near future. Thanks!

cutlassgal

Welcome to our site! What's the story with the car?? How come she hasn't been started in so long? Poor thing. How's the interior? After being outside for so long, I imagine the mice have probably been busy? Some of the knowledgable guys will chime in and answer your questions.... except Jamesbo..... he's probably tucked in for the night already! Well I'm glad you are rescuing her!!

Eric Anderson

What does your oil look like? Is there evidence of water in the oil? A little oil in cylinders never hurt. Why unhook the the coil wire are you just seeing if it will turn over without starting it? Too much juice in the battery for what? Are you drawing the gas with your temporary pump out of a container to avoid cruddy gas in the tank? Spark plugs are cheap wouldn't hurt to change them if you wanted. If it were me I'd try firing the sucker up after giving it a good going over which it sounds like you are doing. Good luck with it.

Steve Wike

Eric:
Thanks for the reply. This is my first try on the car. Like I said, it has had little done to it. When I hooked up the battery the day I looked at it, it wanted to turn over. I don't think it's locked up, but... The oil in it looks good-black, no moisture that I can see. I have read other sites that you should pull the ciol wire, not sure why...and you might do damage to the starter?? Thanks for the tips!

66ninetyeightls

Pulling the coil wire in a case like this will allow you to crank the engine over for a while in order to build up oil pressure. This will protect the engine when you actually fire it up. When I fired up my engine that hadn't started in 9 years I made sure to change the oil & filter before doing anything. Cranked the engine over multiple times to build oil pressure. Fired it up and let it run until reaching operating temperature. I then performed another complete oil change to get rid of all the crap that would have come loose after running.

OLD SKL 69

Some suggestions:

1. It is good to squirt a little lubricant in the cylinders before trying to turn it over. Marvel mystery oil should be fine.
2. Change the oil and filter
3. Pulling the coil wire before cranking(about 10-15 sec) would allow the oil pressure to come up before it turns over.
4. If the plugs look clean then I would just leave them in there for now.
5. Check the points, inside the distributor cap, rotor contact etc, if any look corroded from sitting, replace them too.
6. If it sounds like it wants to turn over, then I would spray a little starter fluid down the carb and then try again. (You'll probably need to rebuild the carb from sitting, but you might get lucky.) Of course, I would not trust the stuff in your gas tank as I am sure it is bad. (I would definitely drain and clean the tank). Just for testing purposes, you could hook up a piece of fuel line and run it into a gas can and the other end hooked up to the fuel pump.

Good luck.

Eric Anderson

Right like the above post said about turning the engine over to build up oil pressure, the starter damage could come into play if you cranked it too long. You could pull the distributor and spin the oil pump that way of you are concerned about it, it would take alot of bumping the starter to get oil through the whole engine.

Lady72nRob71

OLD SKL 69 gave a nice outline. Starting fluid / carb cleaner is great for getting it to run sooner. 1-2 second blasts inthe primaries should do the trick!
I like the "run the fuel pump intake hose into the gas can on the floor" trick.

Do use a regular, fully charged battery. A weak one can actually cause more damage from low voltage, increased current.