So I bought a 77 camaro a couple of weeks back. My brother received it as a graduation present 7 years ago. It was a garage stored vehicle before he received it. I watched the car slowly start rotting away at my dads house next to the swamp the whole time he owned it. Now he finally sold it to me.

I'll start with the goods that I know of that are in the car. It has a 350 carburated small block, 202 heads, crane cam (model unknown), 400 turbo transmission, posi-traction, and a B&M pistol grip shifter. Trunk pan is still pretty solid and the floor pans in the cab look good from underneath but i have not removed the carpet so i'm not %100 sure on them yet.

Now time for the bad, the car's developed some rust from sitting, the brake lines need to be replaced along with the brakes themselves. There's rust behind both doors approximately 3 by 6 inches.

The worst part is that I believe the engine is stiff from not being started in over 2.5 years!!

I've put fresh gas in it, a heavier duty starter, ran new wires to and from the battery, pulled the plugs dropped some oil in the cylinders and cranked it a few times to try and loosen it and it still won't start.

It's getting spark, but when it goes to crank it rotates a few times then hits a tough spot and just about completely quits trying to crank.

Any suggestions on what to try next? Pull the plugs back out and lube the engine some more maybe?

 

You are probably going to want to pull the engine out completely in order to prevent damage to it. Then, with freshly milled decks and freshly honed cylinders, you can do a normal break-in process to it.

 

/\What he said.If there ruff spot from the rings just sit an rusting to the cylinder walls you'll end up damaging it trying to get it to fire.
Doesn't take much to rebuild a 350 an make sure every thing is in good shape.

 

If it's rotating a few times before it quits crankng then you probably have a weak battery. Have the battery charged to full capacity, or better yet (if it's been sitting in the car for all those years) replace it with one that has a higher CCA rating. The HD starter you installed requires more amperage versus a regular service starter. Some auto part stores and rental shops have oil pump primers that you can rent/borrow. It wouldn't be a bad idea to pull the distributor and spin the oil pump with a drill motor so you can get some oil to the bearings and valve train before trying to start the engine. It will help to protect them from damage during initial start and also reduce friction so the engine will turn over easier. Putting a teaspoon or so of oil in the cylinders just prior to trying to start it will help build compression until the engine fires and the rings begin to work again.

Edit: One other thing - did you check the starter gear to ring gear teeth clearance when you installed the new starter? Almost all rebuilt (and a lot of new) starters require shim(s) because they usually level the mounting surface (remove material) which decreases the clearance between the teeth. Too tight of a clearance will make the starter work harder (requiring more amperage) and will quickly run a battery down.

 

I'll have to look into rebuilding it, I wouldn't want to damage the goods.

03ssle, the old starter did have two small shims on it but I can't remember if I put those back on with the new starter. The battery only has like 600cca I picked it up from the boneyard when I got the car but I also tried putting jumper cables on when cranking ended up with the same results.

Thanks for the help! I'll try to get some pics up along with updates on the project!

 

Change the oil obviously, and get a higher cranking bat, if it's got big valve heads and a cam there is a good chance the compression has been bumped up a bit,

Remember this is a carbed car it won't POP off as instantly as a fuel injected car