Spitfire Starting Spit engine after sitting a few years

[Guest]

Okay, now that my bumper question has evoked a plethora of informative posts I wish to move on.
It's a long weekend for me and I would like to start the Spit 1500 engine that has been sitting for about 4 or 5 years.
Is a little Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder all I need before turning it over?

Thanks,
John

 

[YankeeTR]

I'd say that wouldn't hurt..just about any light oil will help...I'd crank the engine without the coil wire connected (but do ground it) and get up a little oil pressure before you fire it.

 

[R6MGS]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif to be safe you can check autoist.com for a checklist of stuff to do when awakening a sleeping B(it's the same stuff for a spit). Usually I like to drop in a fresh battery and crank her over just to see what happens. You'd be surprised how many times it just fires right up. Course doing this can cause other problems - so do so at your own risk. Also it might be smart to get some fresh gas in the car...after 4-5 years your gas had definatly gone sour, it will be good enough to fire the car up but it won't run right on old gas. If you don't want to drain the tank you can just dump in a bunch of fresh gas and then let it run dry.

 

[DougF]

While cranking the car over to gain oil pressure, if you leave the coil connected and pull the distributor cap, you can check for spark at the points. If no spark, new points and condenser could be needed.
I would test these things first before cranking the engine over needlessly. You will probably want to remove the old gas out of the carbs and clean any varnish that may have accumulated.
The more modern gasolines are not as stable as they once were and shelf life is very short.