My father had a 1990 Mustang GT that lost some its "guts" or power so my father purchased another car and let it sit idle for the last 4 years. Anyway, I have a 15 year old kid who begged for it and I finally caved. When I asked my father why he thought it lost its power he said that when he took it to a mechanic, the mechanic thought that water may have gotten in through the exhaust manifild and warped the camshaft (he also could have said crankshaft not sure). Does this sound plausible?
I started reading up on working on engines because I thought this would be an interesting, and costly journey, and from a lot of stuff I read it seems that a lot of things can happen to rob power from your engine, and suggestions at minimum were a compression test, and even better a vacuum (leakdown) test to diagnose the issue. I started thinking that maybe I could avoid a rebuild if I did some further tests like vacuum and compression, but now I am afraid of what the inside of the engine might look like after being idle for 4 years. Especially because we live in the Northeast.
Also, what do I do with the old gas that's still in the car? I imagine I could try and siphon it out, but what do I do with it then?
Thanks for any advice.