New to forum, and just getting started!

Hi, I've been searching the web for a while now and am glad to find this place. Looks like a good "down home" place to be. I'm just getting started on my "project", a '63 cj5. Finally found a place to keep it indoors instead of under a tarp in my driveway. I can now start tearing it apart, (what hasn't fallen apart). It is a real basket case and been sitting on my site for three years after sitting in anothers barn for five. The engine was supposedly rebuilt before the five year storage. To what extent, I don't know. When I got the jeep, the engine was siezed a little bit. I poured kerosene down the cylinders and was eventually able to roll the engine with a big ratchet. The jeep has been sitting since then for three years and now sits in my sisters barn. On advise, I filled the engine with the kerosene to preserve it. Hope this was good advise. I am an able wrenchman but have very limited mechanic experience or aptitude. This forum seems the place I can ask a stupid question and get a concerned answer. So where do I go from here? After I drain the kerosene is there something I should rinse it with. It is the original F-134, and I want to preserve it as it was built. I'm not interested in monster trucking anything. This jeep will be my "convertible " for running erands into town or easy drives in the country. Enough said for now (before I start rambling endlessly). Would like to know about the kerosene thing though.

 

Hi Boyink, you'd find me just a stones throw from the Big Lake just south of South Haven in a township called Hagar, referred to as Lake Michigan Beach. I've browsed this site for a week or so and checked your profile. Quite extensive! Any thoughts about my kerosene filled block?

 

Thanks fellas for the ideas, I shall proceed with confidence!

 

Don't try cranking the engine with the spark plugs still installed unless you're positive there's no kero left in the cylinders. Liquids don't compress and will "hydraulic lock" the motor...not a good thing. Can bend rods or blow head gaskets.

I'd also recommend getting a quart or three of Marvel Mystery Oil. Pull the spark plugs, put a spoonful or so in each cylinder before cranking it, and then turn it through by hand a few times to work it into the rings and piston lands. MMO is a very good lubricant, whereas kerosene will break down and wash away lubricants. MMO is great stuff on dry rings, valve stems, lifters, bearings, etc.

So, after you drain the engine as best you can and do the above to the cylinders, refill with cheap fresh oil and substitute one quart of MMO for one quart of motor oil. It will lube the dry areas quicker than oil, and also breaks down sludge and varnish quicker. After it's been ran a few times, or gotten nice and warm, drain the oil and refill it again with fresh oil and MMO.

 

Welcome from central Va

 

Welcome from PA !!! Now where's the pics of this project ???

 

Welcome from Maine

 

Welcome from Minnesota Pictures would be great and I know they cant be as bad as what some of the before pics have been R)

 

Welcome from the other side of the pond. SW Wisconsin. Your gonna like it here.

 

Welcome

 

Thanks to all for the warm welcome. I'll get some pics out. I'm not of the digital world yet. I do get a disc when I get my 35mm film developed and I can use that to send pics on the computer. The jeep is in a barn on my sister's property. I don't get to her house often enough to work on it yet and I'll bet that when I get these "before" pics up, everyone will agree that this is the worst case scenario for a starting point ever!! I have only a dream of what it could become. I will need lots of encouragement and help along the way. This seems the place to get that. It's early Friday morning and I gotta get ready for work. Thanks and 'later.

 

Welcome from Ohio

 

Ditto on RonDog's reply- I used diesel b/c it is touch more oily- Once I drained it and pumped the top of the cylenders off, I filled it with oil and ran it 1000 miles or so before changing the oil again. After you're sure you got all but residual out.. You'll be fine.

MM

Welcome from Alabama! :v6:

 

Welcome aboard!