1985 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

It's definitely been a while since I've logged a few words on these pages, but it has been quite an eventful few months. I moved house again last autumn to be back in town and closer to my son, but as it's an older property in an older neighbourhood (built in 1958, which is considered historic in Canada) I didn't have a suitable garage in which to park the Trans Am.

I found a local storage place with reasonable rent and my trusted

T/ A enjoys its slumber time there when not in use. The car itself has been running well and I took it for one last drive last autumn before cleaning it, and pouring in fresh fuel and stabiliser for winter storage. I try to turn it over a couple of times during milder days in the winter, but last year, perhaps in a haste to get everything winterised, I left the battery hooked up. Consequently when I tried to turn it over in early March, it was dead. So it was straight to the auto parts store for a battery charger, followed by taking out the battery and bringing it home to charge it up.

In April, with a few quiet days due to Covid-19, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to inspect the T/ A and get it running again. Before putting the battery back in I inspected all the fluids. There was some residue on the floor, including oil, coolant and transmission fluid - yet checking the levels revealed only the tiniest of drops. I put in the battery and the small-block Chevy VB fired up. It took a little for the idle to settle - having 60-day-plus old fuel, even with stabiliser often doesn't help - but the engine soon settled into its rhythm. Backing the car out revealed the extent of the drips and there was a milky substance where coolant and oil had mixed, but there were no visible signs of head gasket problems, so it might be the drips puddled on the tarp on the floor and simply mixed there.

Since it was warm enough and dry enough, I took the Trans Am for a quick spin. It seemed to run well, despite nearly five months of hibernation. I'll be taking it out for a longer run soon but before I do that I'll check for those leaks just to make sure there aren't any serious problems that require immediate attention. I'm also planning to do a transmission flush and filter change, as well as install new plugs and air filter in addition to the customary early season oil change ...