My 79 sat in a field with 3 freeze plugs pushed out for 3 years. Replaced them and went to a fuel cell (gas tank rust) and I was rolling. Rebuilt carb a few months later and now it purrs like a kitten. Just finished installing 3.73’s and an Eaton Detroit TruTrac yesterday. No whine, howl, clunks, or leaks so far! Go for it.
I started a 89 6.2 diesel after 15 years of sitting. I put fresh batteries in it and it started . Put fresh gas in it so there is something new in it . And of course fresh batts and tru
Sorry it’s been a while. Finally dug it out of the garage and cleaned it up. Try to starry it this week.
About 20 years ago in high school auto body class. Painted the whole truck. It’s held up pretty well, garaged most of the time.
@B1075 after reading your post, I go to thinking about the paint on my cars....Nova was painted in 1998 by my son just before our Hot August Night trip to Reno and the Chevelle is about 8 or 9 years older......Wow time flies, but indoor storage helps A LOT!!!!!
Hey All! Happened upon upon this thread as I too am trying to get a sitting square on the road. And yes, you will RARELY see a square on the road in Socal..someone said that when China was completely booming scrap metal was at $200 per ton and quite a few squares met their fate. Ironic that China's infrastructure is being supplied by US cars..haha I just bought a 1981 Suburban K1500 (I had to drive 200 miles to find it!) that sat for 4 years outside. I'm having a hard time getting it to turn over and I have pulled the plugs, oiled the cylinders with Deep Creep and am trying to rock the balancer with the bolt on tool they sell. I've gotten it to move maybe 1-2 degrees back and forth but it doesn't seem to be moving much more than that. I did take off the valve covers and it looks like some rust had gotten on the rockers/pushrods on top so I yanked those off and they don't appear to be rusted the length of the pushrods. I put a camera in each cylinder and they actually look pretty good (no rust) with a bit a carbon in a couple...my next guess was to pull the starter as thought it may be binding? OP- did you get yours going?!
Get a flexplate tool and use it, you can go both ways and get good leverage on it. You take a chance of snapping the balancer bolt or screwing the threads up when trying to turn a partially seized engine over. Once you have the tool, you will wonder how you ever got by without it. Beats hell out of moving 2 teeth at a time with a screwdriver. Chances are that once you get it to move a little bit, it'll roll through the entire 360 degrees. Back and forth and unless you have some major rust, you'll get 'er broke loose.
i do hope you mean diesel fuel rather than gas, in that case it wouldn't have started XD i've seen it happen though
let me know how it goes, i'm in a similar situation. truck is at original owners house, still working through official titling to then get it towed to my house to actually start on it. been sitting for 4-5 years
