things to check on a motor that has sat for a long time

[truckinwagen]

I recently purchased an 85 GTI to replace my diesel rabbit(too big of  a project to have without a garage to keep it in)

the GTI runs alright, but has 225000 miles on the motor with no substantial rebuild(it had valve seals put on it 100,000 miles ago, but other than that nothing except a few gaskets and seals) and the motor is showing it, burns lots of oil, starting to have problems with vacuum leaks etc... it still pulls hard and starts every morning, but I dont want to put any money or energy into the gas motor as I have no passion for them.

that being said, my buddy(the guy I bought the GTI from) has a complete 1.6na he got for nothing(and I mean complete, including much of the wiring harness still attached)

the motor has sat for untold years in a garage and no one knows how it ran before it was pulled.

I have a compression tester and intend to test the compression as well as pull the valve cover and oil pan to look for foreign objects(mice that moved in etc...) as well as look for rust on the cam etc...

is there any reason to pull a main cap or rod cap to look at the bearings while I am in there?

am I missing anything that should be checked on a motor that has been sitting for a long time?

-Owen

[truckinwagen]

no advise?

do I have all the bases covered with a compression check and starting it up?

[truckinwagen]

I have a spare tranny and starter, so I was going to start it on the workbench before I decided to install it.

if it runs good and has good compression I will definitely replace the oil seals.

[smutts]

Hmm, ancient cambelt ahoy!
Depends how brave you are feeling, but I always keep a used cambelt, but not for trying out ancient motors, but for soap bubbles, tray of soap mixture of your choice, fold belt up, and dip side edge in soap and open up, wave slowly through the air for HUGE bubbles, now the childeren are occupied, get the other used belt and.......
Well I don't know if I would be bothered in your position, but spinning the intermediate shaft to get some lube around the engine would be tempting once the belt is off. But there is probably an easier method? As then you've got to time it all back up. But worth a try.

[Vanagoner]

I like to use marvel mystery oil or sea foam in large concentration (50%) for first fuel when doing that. 

[Rabbit TD]

The most important thing of all is to make sure you use a ratchet on the crank and turn it over a lot to make sure nothing is binding or interference problems from stickinng valves or out of time mechanicly beore you use the starter and have a new belt on it by all means.

[smutts]

A great find for priming the oil galleries was one of those model airplane starters, small powerful nicad and small grunty motor, glue a rubber toy tyre to the "chuck" and use that pressed against the rim of the intermediate pulley to pump oil everywhere. £2 at the recycling centre, (posh name for the totters shed at the local dump ). Small battery drill does the same thing.

[truckinwagen]

I do have a timing belt that is lightly used, I will definitely put it on before I crank it over.

I will spin the IM shaft to fill the oil galleries and then crank it over by hand with a wrench to make sure nothing goes crunch.