seized bro not ceased. that aside i'd really recommend an oil change and a coolant change before you turn the engine over... after 12 years standing there could easily be water in the oil, and that could totally bugger the engine. If its not a sealed unit i'd also change the gear box and transmission fluid too
Gosh, I wish I knew enough about cars to be able to fix them. I only know enough to be able to check the oil (and put more in if needed), check and replenish the water, and so on. I have a good mechanic, so I've never tried to fix a car. I don't know what I'm doing, so I'd probably do more harm than good. That's OK. I know my limitations, and I won't pretend otherwise. That'd be hypocrisy. Kudos to you, ps102, for knowing all these things. Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestions again! I'll change all the fluids. They are old. But before I invest a lot of money, I want to see the engine running. A friend who helps me out with all this said that the engine is sealed so its unlikely that the oil has any water in it. I cleaned the fuel pump assembly today. It took a long time wipe the gunk from the old fuel off. Tomorrow, I'll check whether the spark plugs actually do anything. If they don't, I'll have to fix that before I do anything else. My best friend helps me out with all this. We've been friends since we were about 14. It's really funny because we'd run all over the village doing all kinds of crazy things like making capacitors explode. Now we're older and we're doing more 'practical' activities like fixing cars and bread maker machines. Things that will, you know, help with every day life. He knows a lot about cars so I'm learning a lot from this. I'm the one who's done most of the dirty work so far but he is the one that provides the knowledge and experience. It is a lot of fun! The car has a high chance of starting tomorrow. It'll be a cause of celebration. But then I'll have to spend 300+ to get a new gas tank. The old one is Chernobyl levels of screwed.
Welp, after a long day, the engine did start! It took two whole minutes of cranking though. The first ten seconds, the engine wasn't doing anything. After five more seconds, the engine started to occasionally kick itself frontwards. Only occasionally though. That meant that combustion were happening inside! But not anywhere near enough to keep it moving. We took breaks between cranks to let everything settle. But there was visibly more movement with each cranking cycle. We did this until it eventually started. It was misfiring a lot but it did settle into something much smoother. We even revved it to 7k RPM and it went there no problem. To my absolute shock, even after at least a decade of not moving, no engine light. No engine light at all! At one point, the engine suddenly stopped and we heard something you never want to hear: A lot of liquid dripping down from somewhere. Thankfully, it was only the secondary fuel filter. One end slid off the clamp and fuel flow stopped. We tied everything better and the engine started again. This is where the good news ends though. The engine runs fine only when its isolated from the transmission. As soon as you let go off the clutch, there is rattling. And the engine has a super hard time pushing the car body. It gets stressed and shuts off. So, something is wrong. We'll take a look but if the transmission is bad, it needs a mechanic. It might also just need new transmission fluid. At any rate, some fluids need changing... especially the coolant. We'll flush the whole system tomorrow.
I'd suspect its the clutch, its not unusual in a car that's been standing for a long time for the springs to have lost their bounce... that bad news is that its not cheap (although scrap yard parts are an option if you can get the car up on ramps), the good news is that its cheaper than the transmission. if its a seized transmission or a new shaft the chances are high that its an uneconomic repair
I don't think it's a seized transmission because it does work and it does move. It's just that you need to give it more power than normal to do so. The car was moving perfectly fine on the starter alone (reverse and everything). So, I think the transmission is good. I hope you it's nothing serious. I guess I'll find out soon. It'll be such a shame for a 25k km engine to go to waste.
thats why i think its the clutch , if the springs arent pushing the plates together firmly enough you'd need a lot more power to move the car.. did it smell of fish at all? clutch plates (and brake linings) smell fishy when they get hot if it is something serious you could look for a newer one in better nick and drop the low miles engine into it (or build a kit car and use the old one as a donor)
Like the time I left 5# of branzino in the car overnight? I knew it must have been the clutch plates!
I didn't smell anything fishy, no. Everything about the brakes on the wheels is gross and rusted though. Those could cause the trouble... or the springs you mentioned. I'll have to clean that up to find out. I don't think I'll have the time to work on it for the next two days after all. That's okay. I might get more ideas meanwhile.
Today, the weather was good enough to flush the cooling system. It was just a necessity because the coolant had gone all brown. There were also chunks of something soft and black floating in there (mould...?). We flushed the system six different times and filled a bucket six times with this disgusting brown liquid. It's still not completely clear but it was clear enough to fill it with a green coolant solution. We also let the engine get super hot (still outside the danger zone of course) so the system's liquids boiled. That really helped to get even more gunk out. At the same time, we noticed that by doing this, the engine wasn't vibrating anymore. It was butter smooth. This was completely unexpected. So, after we're done with the flushing, we think it's worth trying to drive it again. We didn't have any hopes because we were convinced it was something in the transmission. ...but it actually moved. Not only did it move, it moved perfectly. Zero strain on the engine. I couldn't believe it. We were screaming like kids on the morning of a Christmas Day. I was convinced that I'd have to take that thing to a mechanic but nope! We took it for a test drive and it was basically perfect. It did something weird where it would occasionally bounce a little but that's probably nothing serious. Not as serious as a busted transmission anyway! Happy! That car has been sucking my time for the past week. But it has been so much fun and I learned a lot!
Yay! Congratulations, ps102. We know how hard you both worked on this car, and now the engine works. Kudos to you!
I have been hurrying around for managing things that are needed. Once I am back and try to get comfortable, my back bothers me a lot. It just does not handle me doing things as well now. But then I can get busy with writing which want to be doing much more.
Good luck, Link! Wishing you a speedy recovery. It's Australia Day here, mate! Come on down and we'll chuck another prawn (Aussie word for 'shrimp') on the barbie for ya. Seriously, though, I'm having a quiet Australia Day. The whiplash pain I received from a fall 16 months ago is still bothering me, falling on your back is never fun. So, I went out for a long walk in the park until I felt tired, and I'm taking the rest of the day off.
