My 68 is in the body shop right now. It has been sitting for 2 months without running. Should I do any prep or try to start it up to prevent rust and condition the seals etc... what about the tranny?

2 months is not a long time at all.

Where it comes into play is if its cold outside and they keep pushing it in and out of a warm garage. you get condensation in the cylinder bores. The residual oil should protect it at least this long

My 406 that I pulled out sat for about a year under wraps with no problems. It was kept dry! pdq67

I am going to attempt to start my fresh built 350, 4 bolt main .060 over for the first time this week end. It's been back from the machine shop assembled and sitting in the car since summer of 01. I'm not worried. I don't think you should either.

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Dean

Racer#00

67 Camaro (Almost done!)
76 Trans Am Stock Car
68 Dodge D-100 P/U

I would say after an engine sits as long as a year, then I would prime it. If the engine sits as much as ten years, I would take it apart because the rings might stick. Sitting for a few months won't hurt anything as long as it has been kept inside out of the weather.
Just my two cents worth.

My motor was built in the summer of...'99. It wasn't installed until this fall. So it sat for a little over 2 years, granted it was oiled and what not. We turned it over by hand to make sure nothing was bound up. Rechecked the torque on head/main bolts. Swapped the cam(my dad put a .510/.533, 244/254 duration @ .050"; I felt this was a little BIG for my daily driver) and installed her. 2,800 problem free miles so far.

-Joe

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79' Z28 4-spd- built 355, TRW 10:1 forged flat tops, WP SportsmanII heads, Crane Energizer 230/230 duration .480"/.480" lift, Edelbrock Victor Jr., Holley 750cfm, Dynomax headers, dual 3" flowmasters :) 3.73 Posi 10-bolt

I fired up a 69 camaro the other day at work for the first time in 15 years. The owner said he forgot about the car in his barn and found it the other day. After droping the fuel tank, blowing out the fuel lines, changing oils and a set of points and plugs it fired right up. It ran like crap for a few minutes and made some strange noises but its doing good now.

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70 Camaro 307cid(350soon) /350th ex. dark purple (dark blue soon) in. black
74 Trans Am 400cid/th400 ex. red in. red power windows

He, He!! Marvel Mystery Oil does a good job of lubing stored engines. Just put some down each sparkplug hole and and a schosh down each barrel of the carb. and put the rest in the tank for top end lube and fire her up and let her smoke for a few minutes. Any stuck rings should pop loose, but don't hammer her right off the bat, but rather let her warm up and start running smooth then bring her up on the pipe slowly! Imho. pdq67

Last summer I put a 327 in my camaro that had been sitting in a heated garage since the mid 70's. I turned it over by hand to be sure it cranked turn O.K. new oil,ignition,and carb.

the motor didnt seem to turn a full revolution before it fired up.it ran rough for a few minutes but smoothed out and ran fine fine since, she'll turn up 6500 rpm and still pull,not a puff of smoke out of her.

I did a search on this topic, and this was the best one I found. My dad is giving me a 1974 Chevy truck that that he bought new. It has been sitting in a barn, and has not been started in nine years (350 ci). I saw pdq67's reply about Marvel Mystery Oil; I've heard about that stuff from other people too. One of my friends has what he calls "2 cycle fogger" which is some kind of oil that you spray into a jet ski cylinder while it's being stored for the winter. Would this be something good to spray in the cylinders of this motor before starting ? The engine has just under 100K miles on it, and used to burn a little oil, so hopefully it's not stuck. Thanks, Ron

How long can an open block sit w/ out rust starting? I'm going to have my engine open for a few months and I fear it may start to rust in the cyls.

The link below show show it will be stored. http://www.rmfsys.com/rmfracing/images/camaro/tear_down/engine_tear_down/engine.jpg

Any thoughts?

In some cases years. A friend of mine George bought a 70 Corvette in 85. It had been sitting for 8 years untouched. Owner sold it to him for 3 grand because it was "siezed up". George sprayed some WD40 in the cylinders let it sit and we got it to turn right over. The car uses no oil and runs great to this day. I passed on buying a 67 SS396 that had the original engine in it. It had been sitting for 6 years without ever having been started. The guy selling it thought it needed rebuilt. I changed my mind and called on it the next day and it was gone. My brothers friend bought it and got it running. Just needed a battery and carb rebuilt. The car runs fine with no problems.

I'm starting to feel better. I thought about asking the same question. I got my 350 short block from the shop 2 weeks ago and its been sitting it the back of my truck in the garage. We covered the top with plastic and I covered the whole thing with a quilt and lots of weights to keep it down (just to keep the mud daubers out). Hopefully I'll finish the assembly in about 2 more weeks and then drop it in.

I've had a block on a stand in my garage for 2 years.... wide open and bare. No rust yet.
I didn't clean it when I disassembled it so maybe that makes a difference.

Well, I finally started that old truck today ! All I did was put in a new thermostat and hoses, changed the points (wasn't getting any spark), and checked the oil (black, but looked OK). That thing fired up and idled smoothly for 30 minutes on 9 year old gas !

I am going to fire up the 307 that was rebuilt in 1994 and never turned over...If it doesnt work, I have a 350 block ready to build, but I am hoping to get a few miles out of the 307 first.

Bob