When I bought my '70 two years ago, it hadn't run in ~5 YEARS. Before we started it, we removed each spark plug and put a squirt of Marvel's Mystery Oil in each chamber. Then we manually turned the engine a few times. When it started up, things went really well (besides all the initial smoke that cleared after a short while).

It has now been 5 MONTHS since we last started the engine. Should I be able to just start it up without worrying about lack of lubrication, or should I do the Mystery Oil procedure again?

I just don't know if 5 MONTHS is enough to worry with. Thanks for experienced suggestions. :bowtie:

If it was fine b4, it should be fine now.. Ideally, I would pull the distributor and put a oil pump priming tool in and circulate the oil manually for a minute or two, make sure all your bearings are prelubed.. then it would be good to go..

but if the MMO worked b4, i cant see why it wouldnt now, being it has sat for 10x less the amount of time than b4..

i would definitely prime it at least. not a lot of work and at least you know there will be some oil circulating.

If it were me, I would prime it with a drill 1st. Takes 20 mins to pull the dizzy. Put a drill on it for a couple of mins. Then put the dizzy back.

(Make sure you mark the rotor and the position of the dizzy before you take it off so you don't have to time everything again)

Following that I would take the middle wire from the dizzy and turn it over for about 30 seconds. Taking the middle wire will cause it NOT to start.

The put the middle wire back and let her rip.

aside from that, you didn't mention changing the oil... if you haven't, you might as well, a few bucks of clean oil never hurts. ;)

It would be nice to prime it again, but I really wouldn't worry about it that much. Sitting for 5 years is one thing, 5 months is totally another. I'd disable the ignition, spin it over for 5-6 seconds with the starter, enable the ignition and start it up. Look at it this way, many people don't prefill the oil filter and it takes a good 3-4 seconds to fill the filter at startup after an oil change. Your going to be WAY kinder to the motor than that.

Don't worry about priming it. If it has been sitting 5 months, there is no gas left in the carb, fuel pump, or lines. That means you will have to crank it a while to get gas back where it needs to be to make the engine run. By the time you get gas to the engine, the oil pump will have it completely primed, and you will have oil pressure when it starts up.

What Gary said. I would definetely still do an Oil Change. I do an oil change once or twice every season - once before starting it up the first time and depending mileage once again sometime later before storage. Oil life depletes wether you run the vehicle or not.

Thanks for all the great input, guys. I'll change the oil first (I hadn't thought of that), then I have options. Since the gas is all evaporated by now, as Gary S pointed out, I may try his approach to get things lubed before it starts up (I like easy).

I just took mine out last Thursday,had not been run since October 06. Change the oil check all the fluids and crank, No problem oh put some good fresh gas in it and check for leaks