Okay, so my car has been down for just over a year now ever since i blew my built engine (shattered rod/piston/cracked cylinder wall :wallbash )

Anywho, I've been slowly rebuilding the engine for the past month or so (stock, for now) and my car has just been sitting in the driveway. I've got the engine all ready and built to drop in, but before I do so, I was wondering if there are any check points I need to run by while the engine is out? Car has a full tank of gas, a new clutch is going in, along with a new clutch master cylinder.

Don't really think there is much, but just making sure I got all my bases covered before I crank it up again.

Make sure the battery has a good charge. Maybe check coolant levels. Be sure you've got fluid for the clutch system in case you find you have to bleed it. Might be worth having a can with some fresh gas in it as well.

Originally posted by DR1665
Might be worth having a can with some fresh gas in it as well.

if it's been sitting with old gas you definitely want some fresh on hand. I'd even go so far as to mix a 5 gallon can with some Sta-Bil and good fuel system cleaner (not the $5 snake oil shit) and top off the tank with that just to prevent the gumming that old fuel can cause.

Replace your heater hoses from the firewall to the hard lines.

Seems to be the first to go :P

Originally posted by teklein
Replace your heater hoses from the firewall to the hard lines. Seems to be the first to go :P

hell yes replace those bitches. you'll thank yourself. damn hoses...

I never had a problem with my heater hoses but I did replace them for the hell of it when I rebuilt my engine.

when you get it going, idle it around for a minute to make sure you still have brakes. Mine sat for around the same amount of time and my calipers seized, my rotors rusted to shit, and my pads went bad. I needed whole new brakes in the front. The brakes are the only thing keeping me from bringing it home at the moment.

Check all your hoses, they could have dry rotted, I got lucky there and only had one vacuum hose go bad, which was the one right on top of the motor, so it was easy to change. I'd changed my heater hoses like 2 or 3 months before the motor went bad, and they were still good.

They're definitely right about the gas, I had a half tank in mine, and it needed to be diluted with some premium octane gas to compensate for the old fuel. Pump/ciphen(spelling?) some out of the tank into a can and make sure it's still clear and there are no deposits in the can (your looking for signs of corrosion inside your tank). Since you had a full tank, you should be ok on the corrosion since there's little/no oxygen present, but you should make sure anyway. You should mix some good gas in there regardless. You might have to pump/ciphen out more than you need to to check it, since you already have a full tank. I didn't do it because the car didn't have any fuel issues after I got it running, but while your at it, it might be a good time to check/replace your fuel filter. If I remember correctly, they can go bad when a car sits because residual gas will gum up the filter over time. Not 100% there, but it should only take a few minutes to check and can save you some headache troubleshooting later.

Definitely check your fluids. I had two seals go bad in my tranny, so it had no fluid in it the first time the car got started. I'm lucky I didn't screw up something right then and there. In my defense, it was a dealership technician that started the car, not me.

When you get it running, be sure to look for small leaks. The rear main seal went out on my new motor, and no one noticed because it didn't leak until the car got good and warm, so there hadn't been any oil on the garage floor until it got test driven. If the motor is still out, you might want to go ahead and change this anyway, since it's only like 8-12 dollars, and you'll have to drop the tranny or pull the motor back out if it goes bad later. It's up to you.

Finally, definitly spend your money wisely, cause there's probably gonna be several small issues that can really add up after a while. All said and done, I still don't have my car completely back on the road and I've spent about 450 on the motor, 500 having it installed, and probably close to 500 or 600 on sensors, brakes, a new alternator, and other miscellaneous gaskets and what not that came up as time went on. The crank sensor alone ended up costing me around 350 dollars by the time all was said and done, 120 for the part, 50 for the connector to make it work, and 170 to have it installed by Satan.

Oh yeah, your battery could have gone bad too, check to make sure it can still hold a charge.

Most those things you probably already know, but I thought I'd mention them just in case.