Bringing Engine back to life after 12 years of storage

[beech33pilot]

Planning to re-start the 72 911 after 12 years in the garage. I have Webers which are dry. I drained the oil and replaced with fresh. I plan to flush the fuel tank and lines by carefully running some fuel from the tank and out at the entrance to the Webers. Replacing the fuel filters that are located at the inlet to each Weber and looking for leaks. The cylinders are NikaSil so I don't think they will be oxidized but the rings might be cast iron or some type of ferrous material which might be rusted.
Should I treat the cylinders with anything? If so, what works well?
I could drive the engine on starter power with the plugs removed to get the fresh oil circulating.
Anything else?

[Porboynz]

Spin it up with the plugs out until you get oil pressure, then reconnect the ignition and fuel pump, check for fuel leaks and start her up and check again. I prefer to run an engine that's been stored a while at about 1500-2000rpm once it starts to throw a bit of oil around the cams, easy with a hand throttle.

[HarryD]

Check Grady Clay's posts 20 and 21 on this thread: Winter storage checklist? for what one expert says.

[Joe Bob]

Oil replacement, how much out and how much back in?

[haycait911]

Originally Posted by Porboynz

Spin it up with the plugs out until you get oil pressure, then reconnect the ignition and fuel pump, check for fuel leaks and start her up and check again. I prefer to run an engine that's been stored a while at about 1500-2000rpm once it starts to throw a bit of oil around the cams, easy with a hand throttle.

before doing this I'd pour a half cup of oil down each carb throat, then with plugs out, turn over by hand half a dozen times. and rebuild the webers first. after running for ten of fifteen minutes, change the oil and filter. be prepared for oil leaks that may or may not get worse or better with more run time.

[beech33pilot]

Great stuff! Thanks.
Joe Bob - didn't measure the amount drained but it was full and it came out at a normal rate. I put 7 back in.

[HarryD]

Originally Posted by beech33pilot

Great stuff! Thanks.
Joe Bob - didn't measure the amount drained but it was full and it came out at a normal rate. I put 7 back in.

Did you drain both the sump and the tank in the right fender? You should have 10-12 quarts between the two.

[beech33pilot]

Drained both. I've owned the car since 1983 and have done the maintenance ever since. I didn't build the engine but was there for the dyno runs and Weber tuning. Love the quickness.

[Porboynz]

Originally Posted by haycait911

before doing this I'd pour a half cup of oil down each carb throat, then with plugs out, turn over by hand half a dozen times. and rebuild the webers first. after running for ten of fifteen minutes, change the oil and filter. be prepared for oil leaks that may or may not get worse or better with more run time.

That's a lot of oil you are proposing to tip into the engine, 3 cups of oil in the exhaust system is going to treat the entire neighbourhood for mosquitos when you fire it up. That is if the plugs don't foul. I suggest that if the motor turns easily with the plugs out then adding oil now is not going to achieve much and I would not bother. Certainly a few squirts of oil in each cylinder before long term storage is a good idea, but a teaspoon full would be plenty. Bit late for that now though. I do agree with changing the oil after 100km running. The carbs probably will have dry gaskets and will maybe seep fuel and require a rebuild, but who can resist firing up a 911 engine as soon as you can? Check for major leaks and make sure the float valves are working OK so that raw fuel is not flooding into the intakes, have a fire extinguisher handy and go for it. Once its running you will have extra motivation for replacing gaskets etc. I made a video of my start up, its just the best moment:
Its Alive!!

[Evans, Marv]

I agree with Don about pouring some oil down the carb throats and turning it over by hand. But I think I might use something like Marvel Mystery oil and only pour two or three ounces - maybe a couple of shot glasses worth. I also don't think it would be necessary to rebuild the carbs as long as the shafts rotate OK and other moving parts function alright. I would, however, check out the diaphragms for the accelerator pumps since there is a chance they could have dried out.

[beech33pilot]

Thanks to all!. I will try to video the start and post it here for all to see if some of you are interested. It will be a few days before I can get to this project.

[haycait911]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

I agree with Don about pouring some oil down the carb throats and turning it over by hand. But I think I might use something like Marvel Mystery oil and only pour two or three ounces - maybe a couple of shot glasses worth. I also don't think it would be necessary to rebuild the carbs as long as the shafts rotate OK and other moving parts function alright. I would, however, check out the diaphragms for the accelerator pumps since there is a chance they could have dried out.

there's 8 ounces in a cup so 4 ounces of oil isn't too much. prob OK to fire with the carbs as-is, just be very careful and watch for a stuck valve. have a hard plastic handled screwdriver nearby to rap the carb body to free a valve. take off the air cleaner so you can see what's happening. a stuck valve and a pop through the carb and you won't have to worry about it anymore.

I'd still rebuild the carbs before any driving. easy to do and a couple of hundred dollars worth of kits will save you all kinds of headaches. the chances that the diaphragms will remain intact if you disassemble the accel pumps after 12 years of sitting approaches nil.

and have an assistant to turn the key while you fiddle the engine. or rig a remote starter.

[haycait911]

Originally Posted by Porboynz

That's a lot of oil you are proposing to tip into the engine, 3 cups of oil in the exhaust system is going to treat the entire neighbourhood for mosquitos when you fire it up. That is if the plugs don't foul. I suggest that if the motor turns easily with the plugs out then adding oil now is not going to achieve much and I would not bother. Certainly a few squirts of oil in each cylinder before long term storage is a good idea, but a teaspoon full would be plenty. Bit late for that now though. I do agree with changing the oil after 100km running. The carbs probably will have dry gaskets and will maybe seep fuel and require a rebuild, but who can resist firing up a 911 engine as soon as you can? Check for major leaks and make sure the float valves are working OK so that raw fuel is not flooding into the intakes, have a fire extinguisher handy and go for it. Once its running you will have extra motivation for replacing gaskets etc. I made a video of my start up, its just the best moment:
Its Alive!!

that's a lot of cranking, a full 30 seconds by the clock.

beech33pilot, if you're not getting firing sounds in the first couple tries of 5 seconds crank time, stop and check for wet carb throats. with webers should you should fire in the first few engine revolutions. have a can of quick start around so if you get a non-firing condition you can quickly diagnose it as fuel or spark.

[Steam Driver]

For what it's worth I just pulled down my SC engine which had set for at least 15 years and was parked with zero attention to pickling. (Torn down for broken head stud.). There is no internal rust anywhere, and a good oil film on everything. The P/C set (Alusil unfortunately) was also in great shape and you couldn't see any marks on the cylinder walls to indicate where the pistons had been "parked" all that time. Don't know what kind of oil the P/O used but it hung in there!

The fuel system was, unfortunately, another story entirely!

[beech33pilot]

I started the 72 today for the first time since 2001. Here are the steps that I took:
1) Checked Webers and found them dry
2) Drained old oil and replaced with 7 quarts of 5W 30 Castrol conventional oil
3) Pulled the plugs - I had anti-seize coated them the last time they were changed -Bosch Platinum's came out easy and looked good
4) I ran about 3 gallons of fresh fuel from the tank and into a collection tank using electric fuel pump - it was off color at first then cleared to normal color
5) squirted about an ounce of of the 5W 30 in each Weber
6) I turned the engine over with the starter 4 times for about 30 seconds and saw about 20 psi on the oil pressure. It turned easy.
7) Added 5 gallons of non-ethanol premium gasoline to the tank
re-installed the plugs with anti-seize
8) ran the fuel pump to fill the Webers until the accelerator pumps worked
And Then!
1972 911 w 2.7 RS spec engine - YouTube

The muffler was not installed as you can tell. It blew out a mouse's stash of sunflower seeds from the right heat exchanger and most of the 6 ounces of oil went all over the place when I revved it to 2000 rpm.
Overall and good first run.

[haycait911]

[Ayles]

Great stuff! I have an engine that has not run since it was built and dyno'd back in 2000. Thanks for posting your process and video.

[Deschodt]

Clearly there is no smoke alarm in your garage ;-) No longer any mosquitos either... I hope it's all good, very exciting !!

[HarryD]

Very nice!!

To ensure a long, happy engine life, I would get rid of the low ZDDP, light weight oil and put some 15W-40 or 20W-50 with lots of the good stuff.

[beech33pilot]

Thanks for everyone's help Another oil change is coming up before I put a load on the engine, I'll get some VR1.
Has anyone tried an Aviation product called CamGuard?
Aviation