Is it possible to do??

Picked up an old Olds engine for free.Trouble is that it's a mess.Anybody think it's worth the time to rebuild,or even if can be done??

 

which olds motor...looks like everything is gunna have to be new...prepare to spend bunches of money at the machine shop

 

Uh...I think you paid too much for it!!!

Olds motors aren't all that rare or anything...unless that particular one was powering the car you first got laid in or holds some other special sentimental value to you, I would consider it scrap iron!

 

I wouldn't waste my time on that motor. It's gonna cost you more in sleeves,alone, then it's worth.

 

take it back to where you found it

 

A counterpoint for the severely disturbed or criminally optimistic rodder: The early Olds, like the flathead, has insanely thick cylinder walls and can be bored past most likely rust with no need for sleeves. Sweat equity combined with primitive tech like battery charger electrolysis and molasses dip could eat the rust away enough to see if it's cracked, and if it isn't go on eating til it's ready for huge overbore, etc. Crank may well be salvageable, rods would be too risky. Insane to go on with this heap of scrap...but that's what rodders do!

 

It is probably rebuildable if there isn't freeze damage.

A normal overbore will probably clean up the cylinders.

The crank journals are probably OK since they are under the bearings.

It looks like you have an excuse to try the vinegar rust removal technique.

 

Rods: Pitted rods are considered scary for performance uses--each pit could offer a starting point for cracks For a low RPM motor on a poverty budget (I assume poverty is needed to justify this!) they might well be fine--or an industious person could even polish them...
Worse hweaps of scrap have been resurrected--but a general derusting dip must be first to see if cracked from frost. Home derusting might also be used as a way to dissolve pistons outtathere...

 

It can be fixed. Seen worse fixed.

Get a plastic drum, ciut the top off so you can drop the engine in and use the battery charger electrolytic method. Works real good. Just pull the sucker out and hose it off a few times while you do it to check it for obvious damage. If its standard bore, or something desirable I would try it.

60 over will probally get rid of the pitting. A few minor pits in a finished bore are not a big deal but it will use a little oil. You can polish the rods to save them, and the crank will have to be turned.

Unless you are looking for a challange though, I would just get another core in good shape. It will cost your more in machine work if you pay someone to do it than a better core will cost.

 

Come pick up the olds motor I got. Its a runner.

 

If it is a 403, don't bother. 403s can't take more than a .0020 overbore, and from the way the bottom end looks the cylinders will be just as rusty and proably pitted.