Truck left out over winter - should I do anything before I start it?

Factual Questions
1

Hello all. I’m a long time lurker, first time poster, and have a small dilemma that I’m hoping that someone here can help me with.

I recently recieved a truck as a repayment on a personal loan from my brother-in-law. It’s a 95 Nissan pick-up. Now, that’s all fine. However, this vehicle has been sitting outside his trailer unused for the last eight months.

The gas tank was almost entirly empty, and my google-fu tells me that this was a bad thing to happen. Even worse, I live just east of the rockies in Northern B.C. This winter has been very mild, with frequent chinooks, so the temperature has repeatedly gone from just above freezing to just below freezing, so I’m sure there has been some condensation going on.

So, now to the question … is there anything I should do (other than fill the gas tank) before I start it up for the first time? I was thinking of filling it with gas, then getting an oil change, but is there anything else I should do?

2

Things to Consider When Removing a Vehicle from Long-Term Storage

3

I would suggest one bottle of Heet (fuel system dryer) along with the tankful of gas. That should take care any water in the tank.

The battery is likely discharged. You might be able to resurrect it by charging it slowly (2 or less ampere charging rate), but if it is significantly discharged its life has been shortened. Replacing it might be the best bet.

It wouldn’t hurt to take a look under the hood, and particularly at the air filter, for any signs of rodents having made a nest.

As mentioned above, checking basic fluid levels and looking for obvious leakage makes sense. Keep in mind that automatic transmission fluid is checked with the engine running. The level will read high sitting with the engine off. Checking manual transmission fluid is a pain, but I wouldn’t worry about it unless there’s sign of leakage.

4

ASTRO’s article is right on. The near empty gas tank may be a good thing, old
gasoline breaks down and can cause problems. It would be best if you could drain
the gas, but if that’s not practical I would suggest pouring a cup or so of alcohol into
the tank before you fill it w/ fresh gas, this should take care of any water due to
condensation.
Try to avoid revving the engine when it first starts, many of those internal parts may
be dry, w/o lubrication, after sitting.

5

if you are very scientific in your stuff - you might want to wiggle you truck back and forth when in 4th gear …

this will push the pistons up and down somewhat and will be less of a dry start …

but put that down as priority 134 :smiley:

6

Thanks astro for your detailed reply. I haven’t checked the fluids yet, but I will before I put the key in the ignition. According to the little sticker, it had an oil change less than 100 km before it was parked, so I should be good, but I’ll double check anyways. If anyone is wondering, this truck has an automatic transmission.

Which of these two would work better? I imagine that the Heet would be cheaper.

Well, according to my BIL, the battery on it was replaced last summer. There is power there, enough to run the headlights on high with the stereo anyways.

Hmm … never thought about that. Will have to take a look. I did look under the vehicle, and didn’t see any evident of any fuel leaks. They should show up fairly well under the snow, and I didn’t see anything colorful under there.
Wow, thanks for the quick replies. So, if I can’t drain the gas tank (my knowledge of vehicles ends where the key goes in) would the remaining old gas contaminate the new gas I add?

7

I’m no expert, but would WD40 the engine compartment before trying to start her up. If there are any problems do all the tests mentioned above, and do test tire pressure as running on low pressure tyres can be very dangerous.

8

Why would you do that? WD-40 is flammable … wouldn’t that create a fire risk of some sort?

As for tire pressure, my BIL (who is no expert, so I take this with a grain of salt) told me to drive it for a bit before checking tire pressure. Apparently, the tires will be slightly deformed from the sitting and the freezing, thus giving a higher pressure than you would get after running it and evening them out. I was thinking of driving to the gas station, since even if the pressure is low, it won’t do me any good to know that unless I’m somewhere where I can fill them up anyways.

9

If it’s only been 8 months, the gas should be OK, especially if the tank is nearly empty. I always go to the drug store and buy isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol for less than a buck a pint. I think Heet is several buck for a lesser amount. Use about a half pint for a tank of gas. WD40 is good to spray into the cylinders if you can pull the plugs easily, but again, 8 months is not that long a time. You can check the tire pressure where it sits, if they’re low then drive it to the gas station, and then check them again in a couple days.
I wouldn’t try to start the engine before putting in the alcohol/Heet and filling the tank w/ fresh gas.

10

WD40 removes dampness from the engine, just a spray over all the joints and where the spark plugs are. Mind you this is a British thing to do, so maybe UK WD40 isn’t the same as USA WD40. Still there wouldn’t be enough in the engine compartment to flare up.

11

I see no need to drain the gas tank.

Heet is methanol with some additives. I’m sure it’s more efficient than commonly available 50% or 70% rubbing alcohol, but the latter would probably work okay. If you get drug-store alcohol, try to get 95%.

I would not spray WD-40 on anything unless you determine you NEED to because of moisture on ignition components.

Deformation of tires is not generally a problem with modern tires, and in any case will not affect the pressure. Tire pressure specifications are for cold tires - it can rise after driving due to heat build-up. Nevertheless, a short drive is not likely to make a real difference.

12

It’s only been sitting for 8 months. All of the above advice is good, but most of it is unnecessary. It hasn’t been sitting that long.

The battery is almost definately shot. I’d replace it before even starting this adventure.

It will start with the gas that’s in the tank, but it will probably run a bit rough. I’d throw a gallon or two of new gas into the tank, then once it’s running, take it immediately to the pump and fill it up. I would also take Gary T’s advice about dumping some gas dryer in the tank.

Other than that, I wouldn’t do anything fancy to it. It’s going to be a bit hard to start at first, but it should turn over.

The first thing to do once you get it going is to drive it VERY CAREFULLY around your neighborhood. The brakes may be a bit frozen and there’s probably a good layer of rust on the rotors. Do a little go-stop-go-stop-go-stop a few times around the neighborhood until things loosen up. Once the brakes are working fine, go immediately down the gas station and fill the tank up. When you first start it up, it’s going to run like crap, but once it runs for a bit and gets a fresh tank of gas it will run a lot better.

Oil doesn’t go bad just sitting, but the engine does build up moisture inside of it. Make sure you run it for at least 15 minutes or so and get it nice and hot so you burn off all the water inside the engine (yeah, I know, technically water doesn’t burn, but you’ll turn it to water vapor and force it out of the engine).

The tires will have a bit of a flat spot and you’ll notice some vibration from that at first. My brother in law’s truck sat for longer than yours, and I got it started with just a new battery, then drove it down and filled up the tank. The tires went back to normal after a couple of weeks of local driving.

All of the old vehicles I’ve ever had to get started did not have fuel injection. The old nissan truck I had did not have fuel injection, it had a throttle body injector. At some point the nissans went to a more modern type of fuel injector. I don’t know which type yours has. If there is anything special you need to do to handle the injectors, I don’t know what it is. Some injectors rely on gas flowing over them for lubrication, so you may need to make sure gas is flowing before you start cranking the motor.

13

Do NOT use pharmacy isopropyl alcohol; that already is saturated with all the water it can hold.

14

Nitpick/clarification of terms: It did have fuel injection - throttle body fuel injection. What it did not have was port fuel injection (one injector per cylinder).

Seems to be a mix-up here. Modern electric fuel pumps rely on fuel flow for lubrication and cooling. Injectors have no such requirement.