hey guys Chris fix here and today I'm
going to show you what you should do
before you go to start a car that's been
sitting for a long time and by a long
time I mean the car has been sitting
without being started or moved for at
least 4 to 6 months or longer in this
case I got this Mustang from an online
auction I'll be turning it into a drift
car the problem is I don't know if it
starts but I do know the car has been
sitting for a while so even though I
really want to see if the car is going
to start up before we do that I want to
go over a couple important things to
check so we don't cause any damage to
the engine when we go to start it that
being said the first thing to check was
this key was really hard to get in and
out ends not too
bad but getting it out is a little tough
but luckily a sticking key is usually a
quick and easy fix so to fix the
sticking ignition lock we're going to be
using one of these dry lubricant sprays
but instead of me just fixing it real
quick I wanted to show you guys how a
lock actually works and why it's hard
for your key to move in and out so there
are two main reasons why your key might
be hard to move in and out of the lock
and the first reason is every time you
put your key in your pocket you have a
chance of getting lint on the key and
then when you go use the key in your
lock you force that lint in here and it
just gums things up the other reason is
watch these pins right here you can see
when you push the key in the pins move
out of the way and become even so that
you could pop the lock open or start the
car so if these pins aren't lubricated
it could be difficult to move the key in
and out so what we're going to do is
we're going to spray a dry lock Lube
it's a dry lubricant it goes in wet and
and the liquid evaporates and provides
lubrication so the key could slide in
and out without getting hung up so you
can see how well the lubrication worked
in here now let's go try this out in the
Mustang so make sure you roll down a
window or leave a door open or something
so just shake this up and you really
don't need a lot just a little
burst work our key in let's
see all right now that is a lot
better and that's the first fix on our
Mustang in this video I'm going to show
you tons of little tips and tricks just
like this and at the end of this video
we're going to go try to start this car
and see if she runs cars are not meant
to sit around they're meant to be used
so when they sit around one of the
biggest problems is Parts get rusty and
the fluids in the engine and
transmission and all that start to break
down so with the car off the ground I'm
going to show you how to get this car
ready so we could safely start the
engine all right the first thing to do
is get under the hood and check the
engine oil actually before we even do
that when a car sits animals like to
make your car their new home so they'll
build nests out of straw and leaves
which could easily catch fire with a hot
engine so take a look around and make
sure you don't see any nests from
animals anywhere in the engine the other
place to look is in the grill and also
down below the grill not only for
animals but leaves and debris starts
getting stuck up here which will cause
your car to overheat when you first
started and actually you can see right
here it looks like we have a bird of
some sort actually it looks like a
hummingbird that kind of got wedged up
here and stuck so real quick just look
for stuff like this and nests from
animals so the first fluid we want to
check and probably the most important
fluid to check is the engine oil because
it's the lifeblood of your engine
imagine if we went to start the engine
and there happens to be little to no oil
in there or if the oil is old and broken
down and provides no protection you
could cause some serious damage and you
can see here we're very low on oil
actually I wonder if there's even any
oil in this engine so let's drain it and
find out I want to catch an oil sample
to get analyzed which could give us some
useful information on the condition of
the engine so just loosen the drain plug
and drain the oil got to catch some oil
for the
sample good and with the oil completely
drained screw in the plug and tighten it
down not too much just so that it's snug
wipe the remaining oil off and let's
remove the oil filter now this filter is
mounted sideways and I hate when they
design it like that because it makes it
a complete mess to remove to combat that
mess a tip I have is to use tin foil
right underneath the filter to fun the
oil as you remove the filter see what I
mean look at the oil getting everywhere
but luckily the tin foil trick works
pretty good now we can install the new
filter remove the foil for a quick and
easy clean up and only hand tighten the
filter there's no need to get it any
tighter than that and I always write the
current mileage on the oil filter so I
won't forget it now all we need to do is
fill the engine with oil grab a funnel
and an awesome tip is to pour the oil
from the container sideways just like
this when you pour it sideways notice
the oil pours out smoothly and it isn't
coming out in waves which usually makes
a mess I'm using full synthetic high
mileage motor oil which is perfect for
this engine and the stresses we're going
to be putting it through as a drift car
all right so checking and changing your
engine oil is probably one of the most
important things you could do before
starting an engine that's been sitting
for a while the next very important
thing that we're going to do is we're
going to be using some fogging oil in
each of the cylinders to lubricate the
cylinder walls before we start the
engine so when an engine sits for a long
time all the oil drips down to the
bottom of the drain pan even the oil
that's supposed to be coating the
cylinders slowly makes its way down so
the cylinders are completely dry and
that's where the fogging oil comes into
play to fog the engine remove the spark
plug wire and then remove the spark
plug and since we have to take the spark
plugs out to fog the cylinders now's a
good time to inspect the spark plugs you
want to make sure that there's no cracks
in this ceramic here if there is you
have to replace it and you want to look
at the area that's in the engine and
Sparks you want to make sure it's not
gummed up with oil if if it is clean it
off or replace them and you also want to
check the gap on this mustang the Gap is
supposed to be
055 of an inch so we take our gapping
tool we take our spark plug and we
gently move it across until it kind of
gets stuck and you can see it's starting
to get stuck around 055 you want to be
careful with these Platinum plugs you
don't really want to rub against them
hard because you'll remove the Platinum
coating the electrode here doesn't look
horrible but these are probably the
original Ford plugs so they really
should be replaced but I think a really
cool video would be putting this car on
the dyno and testing different brand
spark plugs and seeing what makes the
most power so I'm going to wait to
change these until then now to fog the
cylinder all you're going to do is go
into the spark plug hole with the spray
and hold the trigger down for one or two
seconds just like that and what it does
is it puts a thin coat of oil on the
cylinder walls and piston rings because
extra lubrication is never a bad thing
now I'm going to spray this stuff in
each cylinder so there's four on this
side four on that side and that's going
to completely lubricate the upper
combustion chamber all right now with
all the cylinders fed over and
lubricated we have something else that's
very important that we need to do with
any car that's been sitting for a while
and that is draining the gas tank old
gas doesn't burn as good as new gas plus
old gas can clog up the fuel system so
we need to remove the old gas and add in
some new gas so grab a hose and push it
down until it hits the bottom of the
tank now grab a pump and connect the
hose to the pump so you can pump out the
gas then start pumping the gas out and
have an empty gas container ready once
the gas starts running down the hose
it's going to create suction and pull
the rest of the gas in the tank out with
it so you can remove the pump just try
not to make a mess like me and the key
to making this work is to have the end
of the hose below the car's gas tank
like this so now we have gravity doing
our work the gasoline's getting pulled
down by gravity and it's going right
into the tank and once you remove the
hand pump it's actually a decent flow so
be sure to have an extra gas tank just
in case this one fills up all right so
we just ran out of gas which is good
that means our tank is empty and that is
all there is to it so we in the whole
tank empty there might be a little bit
of gas left in there but now we'll put
some fresh gas in there it'll dilute any
of the bad gas that's remaining in here
and it should be good enough to
start and in this case we removed about
7 to eight gallons of gas and you're
probably wondering okay so what do I do
with all this gas your local recycle
center will take the gas because you
don't know if it's any good or you can
try running this stuff in your lawn
mower and if it runs in the lawn mower
then you know the gas is still good now
with the old gas removed and some fresh
gas in the tank the last thing we want
to do before we start the engine is
check the coolant we want to check the
level which you can see on the side here
and the coolant has to be filled to that
line right there and then we want to
open up our coolant reservoir and use
one of these hydrometers and these are
actually really inexpensive and all you
do is you put it inside the reservoir
you squeeze the bulb up here and it'll
take a sample for you you can see our
sample is brightly colored just give it
a tap make sure there's no air bubbles
and then we want to check this
temperature here so we look here this is
Fahrenheit in the blue and we're
protected to 35° around there and that's
exactly where we want to be for a 50/50
mix so combination of bright colored
coolant whether it's orange whether it's
green purple whatever color your coolant
is you want it to be brightly colored
and then it should protect a - 34° F
which this is so our cooling system is
in good shape and I'll wait till later
down the road to change the coolant
after doing the coolant we're
technically safe so we could start the
engine but before we start the engine
there's a few more things that I want to
cover just to be extra safe such as the
power steering steing fluid right here
the power steering fluid is really easy
to check you can see here it says
minimum and maximum so it has to be
between these two lines and it's filled
right at the top which is good the next
fluid to check is another non-essential
for running the engine but it's very
essential for stopping the car if we
take it for a test drive and that's
checking the brake fluid on the side of
the brake fluid there's a max line right
up here and there's a minimum line right
down here so you want to make sure the
brake fluid's in between both of those
lines if your brakes are worn out your
brake fluid is going to be on the lower
end and if your brakes are brand new
it's probably going to be on the upper
end all right this is really exciting
our fluids are changed we have fresh
fluids fresh oil so now we're going to
go see if we could start the car I think
the battery is going to be dead I
charged it up but I think it's really
bad yeah I got nothing so we're going to
go put a jump starter on the battery now
I don't know if you guys have ever seen
these mini jump starters but they are
great you get the cables and then you
get the mini jump starter check this out
that's going to start the car you just
pop that open plug this in and we're
ready to go black to the negative red to
the positive all right let's see what we
got
here come on baby start
up
oh come
on come
on so I'm not going to go diagnose this
now we're not going to go test all the
different systems but what I think it
might be a fuel pump not completely sure
so we're going to test that theory out
with some starter fluid so with the
airbox off we're going to go try to
start the car and I'm going to add
starter
fluid goad start her
up oh
man that is exciting that is what I'm
talking about the car is running this is
[Music]
awesome so right now it is literally
running on the starter
fluid
now if that doesn't get your heart going
I don't know what does I am pumped so
the starting fluid worked I think the
fuel pump is bad I'm going to go do a
fuel pressure test and all that other
stuff that's going to be in the next
video of the series on building this
drift car so stay tuned hopefully this
video is helpful and now you know when
you go to start a car that's been
sitting for a while what you need to do
so when you start it up the engine won't
get damaged now I need to get a fuel
pump and I also need to get a battery
this thing is amazing I love these
little jump starters