Trying to bring back my 74 911 Carrera from a 6 year hibernation!

[Fred FT]

Hi everybody, I’ve enjoyed reading and learning from these forums for more than twenty years!
Now I need some expert advice, I’m trying to restart my 74 911 Carrera 2.7 targa, it was parked 6 years ago in my garage in Las Vegas with no storage preparation and because of ‘many’ reasons I never got to restart or even crank the engine. She has a little less than two gallons of rotten gas in the tank, ran good when parked. I can drain the old gas from the bottom of the tank but some people are telling me it’s better to add more gas to it to dilute the old fuel, but what about the fuel pump and filter, the accumulator and CIS fuel distributor etc.?
Can I please get some advice on a practical approach to at least get the fuel to pass through the pressure accumulator and beyond?

Any guidance is very much appreciated!

[fanaudical]

I'm assuming you have a CIS car. Here's what I did when I got my '75 many years ago and it had a little rotten gas in the tank. The plunger in the fuel distributor was "sticky". The car hadn't run for years. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but it worked for me:

- I drained everything from the tank - and did it ever stink.

- Once drained, I poured in ~quart of fresh fuel and let it drain out the tank again (to try to flush anything solid).

- I removed the fuel sender unit and looked in the tank. I was lucky and had no rust. I could see a varnish line where the fuel had sat.

- Cleaned the strainer in the bottom drain plug and reinstalled the drain plub.

- I added 2 gallons of fresh, non-ethanol supreme plus a can of SeaFoam and 4 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil.

- I cracked the feed line at the fuel pump and made sure it had some fuel dribbling from the tank and tightened that fitting.

- I charged the battery, disconnected the CDI box, made sure the air plate was all the way down, and then ran the fuel pump to recirculate fuel through the system. I let it run for about 10 minutes without lifting the air metering plate and shut if off.

- I let it sit for a day.

- I pulled the fuel injectors and put them in jars. I ran the fuel pump another 5 minutes with the air plate down to recirc fuel. I shut off the fuel pump and raised the metering plate a couple of times. The plunger was less sticky. I repeated this a couple of times (ran fuel pump, shut off, moved air plate / plunger up/down).

- Once the plunger was free, I ran the fuel pump for a few minutes and then raised the metering plate so the injectors would squirt. I ran some fuel through the injectors and shut it off to sit for a day.

- Next day I ran the fuel pump, cycled the metering plate up/down several times until the injectors were squirting mostly OK.

- I then put things back together and tried to start the car (after putting in fresh oil). I found several other issues at that time that necessitated a full tear down. Had I not found those problems, my plan was to drain the remaining "clean out fuel" again and replace with more fresh fuel.

[PeteKz]

Ditto what fanaudical said, plus: there are several recent threads about resuscitating cars that have sat for years. Search for those too. I'm too lazy to provide the links.

One other thing that almost certainly needs replacement at this age, unless you know it was already replaced: The fuel accumulator (FA). After you get it running, check for leakage in the FA. After running it, let it sit for an hour, then loosen the bottom line of the fuel filter. Fuel should squirt out a few ounces. "Squirt" under pressure, not dribble. If so, then the FA is holding pressure.

[Otter74]

Don't run that gas through the car - do what fanaudical suggests. I had a car that sat for about 7 years and then I had to get it back together in a hurry. Cut a corner and added good gas to the tank, and I spent FOREVER chasing fuel issues because I didn't drain the old gas.

[Discseven]

Reading this Fred, I think of my '74 Carrera. Now I wish I had kept it... of course! I had a starting problem that a number of Miami Porsche shops could not solve for me. Sold it because of the money being poured into it at the time. Back then I could manage an oil change and that was it. The pain of selling it drove me to learn.

I hope you do well with yours!

[HarryD]

Fanautical gives some great advice.

Also, Check posts 20 and 21 of this thread. Winter storage checklist?

Ignore Grady Clay (RIP) at your own risk.