Car has been sitting for 5 years....what should I do before I attempt to start?
 

I have an 82 RX-7 and I installed a 83 engine some 5 years ago. Do to lack of funds and frustration I let her hibernate for 5 or so years. Now I am ready to get her up and running but have a few questions........
First off, how should I go about getting it ready for starting it? I have read up on the ATF method and it seems like a good way of going at it.
Second, the mark on the engine for setting up the distributor is gone but a member of this forum told me to line up the pin and the first notch on the pulley and then set up the distributor by lining up the marks on it and drop it in and it should be ready to go. Is this correct?
I cant wait to hear the ole rotary motor purring again!

Sounds good so far.

I would drain the gas tank and put some fresh gas in it too. You may have to pull the top off the carb and clean the float bowls and needle and seats. Get it running and change the oil soon thereafter (preferably after the ATF has burned off). Also change the plugs and coolant.

Then you have the car to attend to; things such as brakes, tires, belts, fluids etc.

Have fun, getting once dormant cars running again is one of my favorite things to do. :)

Yeah, do what is above. I bought a '88N/A that sat since '95 in a garage. The gas was near full and it amazingly was not all seperated out, I even drained it, but put it back in because it looked and smelled fresh? Never could explain that??? Possibly they put in some stablizer in it...still can't believe it was that fresh. But I squrted oil into the spark plug holes and rotated it several times. All other things were aparrently in good shape, even the orginal A/C continued to work!! Started RIGHT up and everthing worked great.

As for carb being gummed up...I'd definitely would clean it if you know how without screwing it up.

Thanks for the incouragment, I need it.
Any tips or to dos on the carb. I am not too up on my carbs. Are they difficult to work on? I took off the breather cover and all looked nice and clean.
I think that I will do the ATF thing tomorrow, is it ok to let it sit for 5 or 6 days or is 3 days tops?
Any thoughts on the harness(83 engine....82 car swap).
I sure do hope it works.
Thanks again for all your tips and pointers guys, this is one great place for help! I am glad I stumbled across it.
With the minds of many I plan on getting the RX going and restored back to or close to original.

You won't really be able to tell anything by just removing the breather. Although you can wait to clean the carb if you want to. Go ahead and put fresh gas in the tank, and try to start the car. If it starts flooding and overfilling the float bowls, you'll know it. Five year old gas tends to gum up the carb and hang the floats open :)