Hi there, still pretty new around here, but was lurking for a while. Want to say this is an awesome site! With your help I'm planning on turning a turd into a beauty. I've always wanted a 70-73 and now I got one! :)

What I have is a newly acquired 71 Sport Coupe with 307/350. It has been stored for a long time, over 20 years.

The car was driven into a garage, shut off and left for dead. Long story why.

So, this is what I've got to work with: Car is of course a little rusty, but not real bad. Most everything needs oiling, what I really need advice on is getting it running again. According to stickers on the car it has less than a thousand miles on the last tune, done at the Chev dealer. It also has only a few hundred miles on the oil change. Oil is clean and topped off. Transmission is topped off and has clean fluid too. Radiator is dry. Not sure why, but doubt if it was due to lack of anti-freeze. This car was well taken care of it seems. Gas tank dry, and maybe leaks. 2 barrel carb is very clean. Car has low miles btw.

Any advice on a smart plan of attack for getting this thing running again?

Also anybody know of a good source for a new gas tank? I looked at AZ and NAPA and they wanted like 3-400 bucks. Seems a little high. :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance for any help increasing the number of cool old Camaros on the road by one more. This one has been in the dark for so long I swear it blinked at me when I hauled it out! :cool:

welcome,,
i'd start by checking every piece of rubber on the car,, and replace as needed. like vacuum hoses, belts, water hoses, rubber brake line hoses, any sections of rubber fuel line hose like under the frame at the rear of the subframe attachment point and at the top of the fuel tank,, etc......anything that looks like it's dryrotted.

also the vacuum pod diaphram on the distributor. and the block mounted rubber diaphram fuel pump. those 2 probably won't last long after sitting.

also,, what i've seen on cars that sit is that the master cylinder/wheel cylinders/calipers can rust from not being used. so watch out during the first month's of driving it. you might end up without brakes when you really need them. wouldn't hurt to bleed a quart of brake fluid through them to get rid of all the old brown looking stuff that's probably in there now. it's rust.

squirt some wd-40 in all the the cylinders with the spark plugs out. crank her over by hand with a breaker bar on the damper bolt a couple of times to be sure she's free. then disconnect the coil 12volt wire and crank it with the starter till you see oil pressure. might have to charge the battery once or twice!!!

you're on the right track by digging into the fuel tank/lines first also. the cooling system was probably drained to avoid freeze cracking the block by the previous owner. maybe you got lucky and they antisipated storage and he squirted some oil in the cylinders before they parked it. pull the oil dipstick or drain the oil and see if water comes out first. it's heavier than oil and will be the first to hit the drain pan. that'll tell you if it had a freeze crack for whatever reason.

the carb will most likely have lots of white chalky looking residue in it too. basically a form of rust. will maybe need to come apart and be cleaned out internally first. new fuel filter too.

there's a starting point. hope it helps. good luck with it.

X 2 to what he said...except the white stuff in the carb is 'varnish' as most older fellas like to call it. Just the residue from gas evaporating from sitting so long. It scrapes out, but you might be better off soaking it in gas or a jug of carb cleaner prior to attempting to clean it. OR just replace it first. Depends on what you have anticipated for the car - resto to stock or modded as time goes on.

I'd also go thru the ignition system as well - new plugs/wires/cap/rotor/points (or add a HEI dizzy) cuz for sure they're bad from sitting so long, even if they might have lo miles.

Sit in it and make sure everything you can touch works. Put it up on stands and get underneath and inspect the suspension and driveline. Plus it'll make it easier for that gas tank swap if that is the case.

Good luck, and post up some pix :)

All that said!!

Then if you still just wanna start her up before touching her, just remove all the plugs and squirt several shots of good old MMO into each cylinder and turn her over using the battery to pre-lube all the cylinders several times!

Install the plugs and fire her off!!

And bring her up to about 2500 rpm FAST so's she will splash oil the cam.

Blip her and let her sit like this blipping her every so often until she get's warm and shut her off.

And I'd have a water hose handy and leave the rad. cap loose just like starting a new motor just in case she starts to get hot...

Shut her off, drain all her liquids, let her cool and start R&Ring everything like said earlier..

And I will bet a dollar to a donut hole that you will have to do a complete brake job..

pdq67

PS., and fwiw, I go COMPLETELY through ALL my old beater drivers before I start daily driving them b/c after I do, they are good for like at least 5 years w/o anything major needing to be done to them, therefore they sure become reliable old cars!!

Thanks for all the good suggestions. What about the gas tank? The gas all evaporated. If it doensn't leak is it worth trying to clean? Seems nobody knows where to get a reasonable replacement, so might have to work with it.

I'm pretty much thinking the carb will need a cleaning, but there are no white deposits, it looks like new actually. I did have to spray it down with WD-40 though to get the throttle to move. Linkage and all was seized up.

With brakes, I'm thinking new lines, maybe master, and rebuild calipers and cylinders. Rotors appear brand new. Drums look fine.

This is a very odd case. This car was in very good working order, new brakes, new tune, new oil, then it was parked in a garage. Basically weather tight for all but the last couple years or so. That's it. I doubt it anybody drained the radiator or put oil down the plug holes. It belonged to a young lady who loved it and took it to the dealer regularly. She isn't so young any more, but still loved her "baby" and hated to see it go, but the city condemned the garage. She was very particular who got it, but eventually she decided I would give it a good home. :D

Never mind about the gas tank, I found this Tamraz place on ebay that is actually not far from here. Probably just head over there for a new one. Seems cleaning that old one out would be a hassle at best and maybe a complete waste of time.

Not if you just put an in/out "can" gas line filter in the gas line. It's about the size of a big flashlight battery and one fit's fine vertically in the line right on the front of the engine..

That is about the first thing I do to a car is install onna the big can gas line filters to keep the carb clean.

pdq67

welcome,,
i'd start by checking every piece of rubber on the car,, and replace as needed. like vacuum hoses, belts, water hoses, rubber brake line hoses, any sections of rubber fuel line hose like under the frame at the rear of the subframe attachment point and at the top of the fuel tank,, etc......anything that looks like it's dryrotted.

also the vacuum pod diaphram on the distributor. and the block mounted rubber diaphram fuel pump. those 2 probably won't last long after sitting.

also,, what i've seen on cars that sit is that the master cylinder/wheel cylinders/calipers can rust from not being used. so watch out during the first month's of driving it. you might end up without brakes when you really need them. wouldn't hurt to bleed a quart of brake fluid through them to get rid of all the old brown looking stuff that's probably in there now. it's rust.

squirt some wd-40 in all the the cylinders with the spark plugs out. crank her over by hand with a breaker bar on the damper bolt a couple of times to be sure she's free. then disconnect the coil 12volt wire and crank it with the starter till you see oil pressure. might have to charge the battery once or twice!!!

you're on the right track by digging into the fuel tank/lines first also. the cooling system was probably drained to avoid freeze cracking the block by the previous owner. maybe you got lucky and they antisipated storage and he squirted some oil in the cylinders before they parked it. pull the oil dipstick or drain the oil and see if water comes out first. it's heavier than oil and will be the first to hit the drain pan. that'll tell you if it had a freeze crack for whatever reason.

the carb will most likely have lots of white chalky looking residue in it too. basically a form of rust. will maybe need to come apart and be cleaned out internally first. new fuel filter too.

there's a starting point. hope it helps. good luck with it.


Hey Rat, sounds like you have done this a few times or two...eh?

I threw away a perfectly fine 71 Camaro gas tank a year or two ago, no one wanted it for free.

Put some fresh gas in the tank and a big filter before the carb.
See what happens.

I would get some Marvel Mystrey oil squirt it in the cylinders let it soak in.
go easy on it when you first start it,dont wanna risk cracking a ring it its stuck. and watch for leaks. Check the brakes.I'd reccomend new brake hoses, master cyl and wheel cyls maybe calipers too.Along with a full tune up

welcome aboard and good luck

welcome neigbor im in ill south subs speaking of tamraz i was there 2 months ago bought a steel cowl hood for my 73 got a great price and saved on shipping just to let you know though when i looked at tamraz on the net it looks like this big whare house i dremt i would be walking the iseles picking threw stuff loading a cart with crap (real world) me and a buddy get there and they have a fraction of the a whare house you see on the net we walk in and me and my bud both start laughing there is 3 guys sitting behind desk with a counter between us you tell them why u are there a guy disapeers threw a door and came back with my hood dun deal good price... just make sure they hold a tank for you if your going there....tell them your name and when...

Hey Rat, sounds like you have done this a few times or two...eh?

well,, uhh,, there have been more than a few times when doing a full engine pull/r&r/machine work on cars that sat,, and had to deal with some or all of that. old gas/corrosion in the tanks can be very problematic when starting new engines in a "field car". it's one of the first questions asked these days (how long it's been sitting). i'll usually run them from a gas can on the ground next to the car and let them deal with "the car". customers aren't happy when the added expenses start compounding from say,, dropping the tank for cleaning,, and changing out all the rubber & brakes. today,, i gladly offer for them to complete the (restoration) job. can be very time consuming chasing it down over time vs just changing it all out. most come into the situation thinking a new engine put into a "field car" they bought will get them going. it's not usually the case. usually don't get that lucky.

also,, you can chase those brake problems from wheel to wheel over a 2-6+ month time frame. that's alot of risk for me today to think about each wheel caliper/cylinder/rubber brake lines,, that may go out one at a time,, and each of those that will create a potential "no brakes" situation.

sometimes easier to change it all out before hand like pdq said,, then you know it's good for years. sounds like he's been there before too!!! couple of them that come to mind that scared the crap out of me: one was an old ranchero w/289. got it going and couldn't stop it. was on back roads with no cross streets. then my own personal 70 chevy "field" truck,, lost brakes right though a 4-way stop sign. luckily nobody was comming. couple of hundred bucks later,, they were stopping fine.

that guy with the ranchero is starting a 396 chevelle now,, and called me up to help. this time i declined,, knowing what i'm getting myself into!!! although,, he does find some very straight "field cars",, they usually involve pretty much of a full rubber/brake/gas tank/gas line-change/cleaning.......or chassis/steering/bushings/ball joints type restoration,, for the most part. there can be good money in it if it's agree'd on before hand,, so they know what they're getting into. flat labor rates don't cut it with that kind of work. only hourly for me. doing it for yourself can be very time consuming for a "first time" project. don't be in a hurry,, and expect to see the old "time and $$ x 2" estimate to come into play.

also in humid climates,, the lamp/light bulb sockets and electrical spade connections can get really corroded. i've had to scrape/sandpaper inside them all to get the lights and other switches working again as well. the old school sockets and pigtails,, without weather pack connectors is what i'm refferring to,, like our second gens. my 2 cents. hope it helps.