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Starting engine

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M

Mac

Jedi Hopeful
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I have an XK140 that has been sitting in a garage for 25 years without being started. I'm looking for suggestions on preparation for starting the engine. Such as, should I put a little oil in the cylinders, etc.? Mac
 
I would definitely put a bit of oil or better... some sort penetrating oil such as Marvel Mystery oil. THere are perhaps better things to use. I've heard ATF can work well also. Let it sit in there for a few days before you crank it over. And crank it over a bit without spark plugs first... if you have too much oil in there and try to crank it, it could do serious damage...

Change the oil too of course.

And don't count on all that helping... my 120 sat for about 25 years before I got it, and with all my best preparations, it did start up right off, but had very low compression in one of the cylinders... Upon disassembly I found the rings in that cylinder to be in little chunks about 1/8" long at most. Rings were broken in 2 other cylinders as well...

-Matt
 
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