Long-term car storage restart record

Factual Questions
1

Every once in a while, somebody gets motivated to start up a motor vehicle thats been sitting in a barn, garage, etc. for decades.

Without doing something major like engine disassembly, what is the longest a car or truck has been sitting in storage and restarted?

Something ranging from picking up right where you left off…to heavilly prepping the vehicle pre-storage:

Frame on blocks to keeep tires off the ground,
Fluids changed to fresh,
Poured oil down the carburetor to coat engine interior to prevent rust,
Fuel stabilizer in gas tank,
Intake and exhaust plugged up to prevent vermin nesting.

Restarting an engine with oil galleies dry for decades is a disaster waiting to happen, so a trick to prime the oil pump is to pull the distributor, and use an old distributor shaft (minus the gear to couple to the camshaft) attached to an electric drill.

Recharce/replace the battery, and start 'er up.

What’s the record?

2

If you don’t have an extra distributor shaft laying around, you can just take the distributor cap off and crank it for a while.

Go ask 'em in Tulsa about how *not * to store a car for 50 years.

3

Unfortunately, that defeats the whole idea: you must pre-pressurize the entire lubrication system BEFORE you start cranking the engine. A camgear-less shaft allows the oil pump to operate independently from the rest of the engine.

I believe wrenching the gear off the shaft you have will irreparably damage both the gear and shaft…therefore, use a spare.

Once the motor is pre-pressurized, pull out the lubing shaft, re-attach the distributor and start the engine.

4

Of course, the next question is “What if the car doesn’t have a distributor?”

People will be asking this question in a few years when they want to revive something that was built after 2005 or so.

5

Didn’t a VW Beetle start right up after 200 years in Sleeper?

6

I saw a show with Jay leno-he had located a 1934 Packard in a garage in Burbank, CA. The car had been stored since 1960. Leno had it towed to his garage, and they pulled the engine (in was an enormous straight -8 block). To my surprise, the pan still held liquid oil-I would have thought it had all congealed.
At any rate, restaring an old engine is probably NOT a wise move.

7

I was thinking of those very examples…Tulsa and Jay Leno’s car resurrection ( though I believe it was a Deusenberg)…when opening this thread.

Like I said, no major surgery on the motor: Prime the oil pump and try to start it.

8

Well, if Battlefield Earth is to be believed…

9

Pull the oil pressure sending unit, plumb in a tank of oil with a pump.
Been doing it for years even with cars that have distriutors.

10

Then there’s the DeLorean in the 3d “Back to the Future.”