Restart after 16 years in the barn...

[YellowTransit]

Dear all,

Coming tuesday, my friend Wim and I plan to fire up my old Transit (V4 1.7 petrol) after sixteen years of vacation... Anyone with experience with this? Should we just change the oil, or remove the sump and clean it out? What about old fuel - does it harm or should we clean out the system entirely before fireing up? Any other things to be aware of? All tips and advice welcome!

Very best,
Hans (with the yellow Transit - 1975).

[FredTransit]

dont know if or how often you turned over the engine. First trx it by hand to check its not siezed. Piston rings can gum up and snap if you shock them! Yours has been laid up a long time so fresh petrol is a must. Traces wont hurt

[FredTransit]

dont know if or how often you turned over the engine. First try it by hand to check its not siezed. Piston rings can gum up and snap if you shock them! Yours has been laid up a long time so fresh petrol is a must. Traces wont hurt

[blue estate]

dont know if or how often you turned over the engine. First try it by hand to check its not siezed. Piston rings can gum up and snap if you shock them! Yours has been laid up a long time so fresh petrol is a must. Traces wont hurt

Also a fresh set of plugs wouldn't go a miss and a fully charged battery

[Neil]

get a gallon of new fuel in a container and pipe it direct,/ bypass the tank , new battry and i reckon it will fire after a few cranks

[FredTransit]

Dunno how or why l managed to quote meself??

[Luke]

take the plugs out and squirt a bit of light oil into the cyls then turn it over by hand a few times - that should coat the bores then fire it up - it'll smoke the oil out but it's better than it picking up on the bores

[DodgeRover]

The fuel might still be OK IF it was filled with proper 4 star at the time not unleaded, it tends to last a lot better, however I would go with what other people have said and try it on a can first.

[FredTransit]

I dont know where in the world the OP is, but leaded fuel has been gone from europe a long time. Back when we took a Mk2 to Germany in the late 80s there wasn't even LRP at the pumps. When did it go in the UK? LRP was still at the pumps during the fuel strikes though.

[FredTransit]

Hi there,

My name is Hans and I live in The Netherlands.

ah, thought Hans wasn't in the UK

[YellowTransit]

Thanks guys, for the good advice!!! About the fuel - as I remember I did indeed fill it up with leaded fuel ("Super" leaded) at the time I actually used it - somewhere 1993. Tomorrow is the big day... will let you know what happened.

Very best,
Hans

[baconsdozen]

I like to take the plugs out,pull the feed off the coil and spin the engine on the starter untill the oil light goes out.
Best of luck,hope it all goes well for you.

[whitemice]

I like to take the plugs out,pull the feed off the coil and spin the engine on the starter untill the oil light goes out.
Best of luck,hope it all goes well for you.

Agree with that, like Luke said too some light oil would not go amiss, ATF/MMO through the plugholes and left a while will free any gummy rings.

[YellowTransit]

Hey chaps - we only had some minor setbacks yesterday - messed up the ignition leads first (we were a bit in the dark what connection on the distributor cap should lead to cylinder 1) and we did not get a spark instantly (braker points looked fine but still needed a touch with sand paper, so it appeared) but then... sunshine! It started as ever before. Cylinder 2 seemed te be a bit less active... I will check the combustion pressure tomorrow - then perhaps will decide to repeat the treatment with thin oil if the compression is less than normal...

Best, Hans

[FredTransit]

erm after 16 years you charged straight in and turned it over? Damn you were lucky!