Got a new to me 96 pathy

[KrisM98502]

She say under pine trees for a year. Changed the battery and she fired right up. Drives great except..... She's gutless as all hell when accelerating, she idles low and sometimes silently dies at stop signs or stopping in tradfic. I haven't done anything but put an stp gas treatment and has in it. I know very little about working on cars but would love to learn to fix my own vehicle. What all should I do to it ? I know I need an oil change also.

[mdmellott]

Hi Kris, The year old gasoline in the tank was seriously degraded over that time it sat under the pines. Residues formed in the degraded gasoline will clog your fuel filter and starve your engine of fuel, which could explain why it dies the way it does and lacks performance when you try to accelerate. The fuel treatment will help a little to break up some of that residue, but not much. The first thing I would have done is to drain (siphon out) as much of the old fuel as possible from the tank and replace the fuel filter. Replace the oil and oil filter at the same time. Seafoam High Mileage Motor Treatment will do wonders to clean up the fuel system, when added into the tank, and about 6oz added into the crank case will help clean up some of the oil residues that have dried up inside your engine. Change the oil and oil filter first, before adding this into the oil. The old oil is also badly degraded so you need to get rid of that as soon as possible.