A friend of mine who cant post yet as a new member is looking for advice on seeing if an SE he may buy can be started or turned over before tearing it apart to see if needs a rebuild . The car hasnt moved for over 5 years and tranny stuck in gear or clutch stuck as well

Anyone done this on a 13B?

 

there is no "tearing it apart to see if it needs a rebuild".if u take it apart and intend on reassembling it, that's a rebuild. put a battery in it, pull the plugs, and spin it on the starter to see if there's any indication of compression. the real question is why was it parked to begin with? has he tried turning the engine by hand?

 

I'm just going to look at an '83 that's been sitting in someone's garage for fifteen years. I'll probably pick it up, but I was wondering if there's anything specific I should be looking for that will have cracked, warped or otherwise broken with the long sit.

 

DO NOT USE THE STARTER. Put a 19mm socket on a breaker bar and attach it to the front bolt. GENTLY see if the motor spins. If it does, then pour some MMO into the motor and spin it BY HAND to lubricate everything. Pull the plugs, dry them off, and THEN try and start it.

If the motor won't spin, then you're looking at using SeaFoam to break up the carbon in the combustion chambers. It'll take a week or so of work (get both DeepCreep and liquid SeaFoam) to get it to turn over on its own. You'll have a TON of smoke (if you want to keep the cats in OK shape disconnect the exhaust before the cat), but it *should* start.

There is a thread in the Archive on how to start a rotary that has been sitting for some time.

 

NAIL ON THE HEAD THERE!

I bought an 83 GS been sitting over 15 years outside Orginally parked a deer ran into her. It hit the front right fender, she ran off the road ripped the exhaust off. She went to dealer, dealer wanted 1100 for an exhaust. She bought it with intention of getting it fixed when she had the money. She had a baby, got married, had another baby. 3 years passed. They tried to start it, no go. So there it sit, result good engine. Over 80-90's on the rotors.

The 82 GSL auto I bought I was told sometimes it would die at stoplights. Its an auto. No one would work on it. Parked it in a garage for 8 years. Body nice, no rust, engine bad. Low compression front rotor.

I have a lot of experience waking these things up lately. Follow the archived thread.