"crank the engine with the starter with the
plugs out until oil pressure is achieved"

My thoughts exactly.  You may want to change the oil first though...

BTW: Squirting oil in the cylinders of a horizontal engine isn't terribly
effective, however, it doesn't hurt either.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of don spence
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 8:25 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Starting a bus that's been sitting for 6 mos.

Just an addendum to John's basically good advice. I would do the squirt
oil thing but would then crank the engine with the starter with the
plugs out until oil pressure is achieved and then install the plugs and
start it. This way you lubricate the internal surfaces like rod
bearings etc before you expose them to compression and power stroke
pressures. Avoids any metal to metal contact under operating conditions.
On Wednesday, August 11, 2004, at 06:58 AM, Automatic digest processor
wrote:

> Date:    Wed, 11 Aug 2004 07:58:39 -0500
> From:    John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject: Re: Starting a bus that's been sitting for 6 mos.
>
> Pull the plugs, squirt in some MMO, allow to sit a while, then turn
> over
> by hand. Then squirt in so engine oil, allow to sit for a bit, and then
> turn over seeral times by hand. DO NOT drown the the engine wither
> either MMO or engine oil. Just squirt in thre or for shots, that's
> plenty.
>
> After turning by hand the last time. Put in the plugs and start her up.
> It' will smoke for a bit, but allow the engine to warm up some before
> driving away. This will allow oil to wet seals and internal parts
> really
> good, and get tinto all the places it needs to be before a load is put
> on the engine. She should run fine after that, all other systems being
> ok.
>