first question, does the engine turn over by hand? I would at a minimum, pull the plugs and put a bit of oil down each cylinder and make sure you can turn it over a couple revolutions by hand. It would also be a good idea to pull the distributor and spin the oil pump to get some oil circulating before spinning the engine though!
best way to flush tank is to take it all the way out so you can spray inside and dump it out.
All that said, on the last 2 I bought, I just connected a hose to the inlet side of the fuel pump and put it in a fresh can of gas and fired it up. (probably not the easiest on the engine though).
