Thread: Engine start up advice

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I'm starting to work on a '51 Studebaker Champion I bought during the summer... today I bought a battery, finally! The car has sat for the better part of 10 years, and I need some advice on the best way to fire her up. I was told by someone to remove the plugs, squirt some oil into the cylinders, put the plugs back in and crank it. Is this sound advice???

I'm trying to remember, but I think the Champ was a flathead six good for economy? So it should be easy to squirt oil down through the plug holes around the sides of the pistons on the cylinder walls? What about the old oil? It should be a simple matter to change the oil first. There have been quite a few comments on this Forum about starting old engines and some people have revived engines that would not even turn at first with various combinations of soaking with kerosene or very thin oil like 5W/20. I have not done this, but if your engine already turns freely I would at least change the oil and squirt some in the plug holes. Probably some folks will soon comment on their favorite recipe for starting old engines, but I will keep your thread going till they chime in.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Somebody has given you bad advice!!!! if you squirt oil into the cylinders and then put the plugs back in, then try to start it, the engine will go into a hydraulic lock and damage the engine, the starter, or the flywheel. Oil is a fluid, and consequently can not be compressed. If it has sat for 10 years, pull the plugs, squirt a mixture of light engine oil and fuel oil (about half and half) into each cylinder, (were talking 8 or 10 good squirts here). Let the engine set overnight, pull the coil wire off so it can not possibly fire. then without putting the plugs back in, try to roll the engine over with the battery. If it rolls with the starter, crank it over untill all the oil has cleared from the cylinders.---then drain the oilpan and put new engine oil in it. Then reinstall the sparkplugs. The carburater gaskets may have dried out, so there is a big potential for leaking gasoline at the float bowl. ----Have your fire extinguisher handy, and do the next step outside your garage.---If you are getting spark at the coil when the engine turns over, reconnect the coil wire. Put about a tablespoon of gasoline down the air horn of the carburator, and crank it. If it starts, then great. if not, you may have to start tearing things down.

OK, here is a clarification. A few suirts of oil, say up to 5 cc into a combustion chamber of 50 cc or more should not lock up hydraulically, although it could lead to some smoke when the engine eventually fires up. Those folks who recommended filling the entire cylinder with kerosene or some other light oil let it soak for a few days to just get the engine free before turning the engine with the plugs OUT to squish out most of the fluid before putting the plugs back. The point about carb dryout is a good one since gaskets can shrivel and dry out and leak gas initially posing a fire hazard. So far you have not said whether the engine turns freely and whether this is a hot rod with a V8 or the original engine.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally posted by brianrupnow
Somebody has given you bad advice!!!! if you squirt oil into the cylinders and then put the plugs back in, then try to start it, the engine will go into a hydraulic lock and damage the engine, the starter, or the flywheel. Oil is a fluid, and consequently can not be compressed. If it has sat for 10 years, pull the plugs, squirt a mixture of light engine oil and fuel oil (about half and half) into each cylinder, (were talking 8 or 10 good squirts here). Let the engine set overnight, pull the coil wire off so it can not possibly fire. then without putting the plugs back in, try to roll the engine over with the battery. If it rolls with the starter, crank it over untill all the oil has cleared from the cylinders.---then drain the oilpan and put new engine oil in it. Then reinstall the sparkplugs. The carburater gaskets may have dried out, so there is a big potential for leaking gasoline at the float bowl. ----Have your fire extinguisher handy, and do the next step outside your garage.---If you are getting spark at the coil when the engine turns over, reconnect the coil wire. Put about a tablespoon of gasoline down the air horn of the carburator, and crank it. If it starts, then great. if not, you may have to start tearing things down.

Also, he should also Change the points and condensor, more than likely, the condensor will be bad and the engine won't run because the bad condensor won't let the charge through the points, condensor is about 10 bucks, ya just gotta know your engine make and size, and any good parts place, should have a listing for the part. Make shure your engine is still set up for 6 volt, and that you do have a 6 volt battery, more than likely, it is still 6 volt.

The Studebaker has the stock flathead six... wish it had a Ford flathead V8 though! I haven't checked if it'll turn by hand yet.
I appreciate all the excellent advice!

I just remembered another possibility of a problem. The MG Midget I restored had a small tree growing up through the floor when I bought it and after I replaced/rebuilt just about everything on the car I found that I had to replace the filter in the fuel line MANY times. It seems that old gas in the bottom of the tank will get gummy and can probably be drained out if there is a bung/plug in the bottom of the tank, BUT (!) after ten years the inside upper surface of the gas tank may have rust that will fall down with vibration and clog the fuel line. I removed the fuel tank and had it soaked in a hot tank like a radiator but that did not cure the problem. Then I removed the tank again and put a few handfuls of 1/2" gravel into the tank along with a piece of chain and shook it around, up and down for about 15 minutes. Hopefully the chain will not get stuck in the baffles! Then I flushed it with a garden hose for an hour or so to get the gravel and chain out and then washed it out with about a gallon of gas to try to get the water out. Even then I think I changed the fuel line filter three times after that and in fact I carried a box of fuel line filters in the car and that was the first thing I checked if the car stalled. Eventually after a few thousand miles the rust flakes stopped clogging the filter. Of course a new tank would solve this problem if you can find one. Even so the bullet nose Studie is a neat car and when I was a kid we used to call them "frontwards-backwards cars" because the rear deck looked like the front of other cars. It may be fun to restore it as original or maybe find an AMC V8 for a major update and I am sure there have been enough Chevy V8 transplants to this body that the necessary motor mount and driveline changes should be well known if you look through/research old rod magazines.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

probably tossing in the obvious here, but also be sure the tranny is in neutral. A buddy of mine was so eager to crank his new toy over, he forgot tranny was in gear, and... well, not pretty to say the least, since the engine fired right up.

Saftey...

Matt
www.34k.com