Ok... dont laugh too hard. My grandmother had an 81 Malibu and when she died it went to my dad. Well, its been 3 years and it has sat under the carport, out of the weather the whole time. All of a sudden he wants it to give to his kid that is starting Jr College. Now my old man is cheap... trust me. He called me to get me to go help them get it running and he's out of town this week. I'll go get my lil half-bro and go mess with it. What will it take to get it running again?

He went and bought new belts, hoses, oil, filter, gas treatment, plugs, wires, battery, fuel filter, air filter, antifreeze, etc. I havent been out there (its roughly 1.5hrs from me) but I believe they have all the old belts off and the new battery installed. He said it turns over fine. I can do most of the regular maintenance stuff. I believe its a 305, but I havent seen it. I had an 85 firebird and 84 monteSS both with 305s so it shouldnt be too much work.

I would appreciate any info you guys have on bringing this thing back to life. Any tips, tricks, specialty tools I may need...

EDIT: lil bro says its a v6...

Thanks,
Daniel

 

Completely drain and refill oil, antifreeze, gas (flush if possible). Since gas will be harder, you can try water remover in the gas.

Check those tires good, they may have dryrot (go very slowly until you can get a prof to check them).

Replace your belts and hoses, and try her out. Check your alternator as well, wouldn't want to waste a new battery. When connected, and car running, battery posts should show a constant 14.4V, in a perfect world.

Check it every 15 minutes. If there isn't significant loss (more than .2 every 15 minutes), then you should be set to go.

 

Change the oil and filter. MAKE SURE you fill up the new filter completely with fresh oil before you screw it on- you don't want to be cranking that thing on dry bearings any longer than it has to.

The gas is the only other thing you really need to address. I HIGHLY recommend you pop the fuel line off the bottom of the fule pump, jack up the rear of the car a little and let it siphon itself out until it's dry- they put in a few gallons of fresh stuff and again flush the fuel line through a little so you have fresh gas to the pump. THis is easy to do since the fuel line to the carb is just a short lenght of rubber hose up by the engine- very easy to get off to do this work.

Put a fresh fuel filter in the nose of the carb (not sure if you have 2 or 4 bbl carb, probably 2bbl). Then use a little squeeze bulb to add a couple of fresh ounces of fuel to the carb fuel bowl through the bowl vent.

All this will give you the best shot at getting a quick start and a clean run the first time when you turn the key. If you try to run it on the old fuel you will almost certainly plug up the filter or some passage inside the carb with old fuel varnish and then it's carb removal and rebuild time.

Antifreeze, tranny fluid and other stuff should be changed soon after but isn't necessary just to get the thing running to get it home a few miles away.