1970 Torino And Fairlane Builds

I have found that heavy dried and stuck oil and grease deposits can be removed much easier if you have time to allow for soaking. fill a spray bottle with diesel fuel and just spray/ dampen the deposits every time you pass by for a few days. The deposits often soften so that they can be pressure washed away first try. Allow to dry then spray with purple power to finish removing any oily residue.

 

Here's hoping it frees up. I know it turned 30 years ago when I put it in my Dad's shop.

 

That’s genius, I’ll try that out!

 

To be honest I kind of figured she’d be stuck having been stored in this climate. I’m still optimistic it’ll free up and run. If not she’ll be in line for a rebuild, which also isn’t a bad plan. Just not in the budget in the immediate future. One way or another I’m sure these parts will help further these projects and I’m thankful to have them.

 

Well she’s stuck, but for reasons that baffle me. The heads are off. The distributor is off. There’s one cylinder that’s rusty. But the rust is loose at the piston. This is one I’ve not seen. There’s a bit of surface rust at the top of the lifter, and same for the crank counterweights. So everything is soaking now. The good news is the exhaust manifolds came off super easy and the cylinders don’t look terrible aside from the one hole. The heads look killer, carbon buildup aside, without any falling exhaust valve seats.
Lots of sludge, check out the valve cover buildup.

 

Yuck. More sludge than I expected in that. Glad it looks like a viable motor. Curious that'it's still stuck.

 

Must have had Quaker state 30 wt non detergent oil used in it. I remember seeing an old v-8 buick motor that when the valve covers were removed you could only see the sludge looking like the valve cover had moulded it, the valve train was completely covered and invisible. But it was still running and the owner said it didn't use any oil.

 

Ya it actually looks pretty ok inside. There’s some vertical scoring in a few cylinders but this was certainly a viable motor. As far as why it’s stuck? I’m stumped. Never seen one like this. Maybe piston to crank? I have everything soaking in pb blaster though. So hopefully she’ll be unstuck soon. Then the question is do I reassemble and install in the car until rebuild time? Or put it on ice for a few years and look for another viable motor to install?

 

I should mention I priced out what it’ll run to rebuild with the usual regular parts. Aftermarket cam and lifters, hyper pistons, rebuild kit, and $800 for block work at the machine shop and it’s looking like around $2k. Plus headers and another Holley. That’s just not in the budget at this time unfortunately. That said I’ll probably clean it up, reseal and install for now. Assuming it frees up without screwing anything up.

 

Here’s a riddle. What’s black and now turns over?


The Cleveland!!!

Well sort of.

I finally had enough and started popping pistons out. And this is what I found.

If something looks off here, aside from the obvious cleanliness issues, you’re right. Those rods shouldn’t be straight up, or standing up on their own. Every single wrist pin was rust seized. They’ll sort of move if you whack them but they’re all stuck. This made removal particularly interesting. I got 5 pistons out without moving the crank but the last three were still stuck and the crank still wouldn’t turn until I popped the caps loose and popped the pains down a bit. Then the crank would just turn enough to get them out. They’re all out now and she turns freely.
The condition otherwise is actually pretty good. I’ll check cylinder taper but outside of the one pretty rust hole, they’re alright looking. The crank journals look really good save one with sludge plugged oil holes and some slight discoloration, but nothing that won’t polish out. Those wrist pins are a bummer but otherwise it just needs a really good cleaning. If I can find a good used engine for the car, that would be great but freshening this is certainly a possibility I think now.
Here’s the worst rusty hole and another more indicative of the rest.

 

That's bizarre. I've never seen that on an otherwise un-seized engine. With all eight sticking, I can see why it wouldn't turn over.

 

That’s wild, right? I wonder if I’d given them more time soaking before popping them out, if those wrist pins would have freed up? Who knows. I think the machine shop will love me when they press these pins off to change pistons though