Hey Guys, My 62 has been sitting for 20 years before I got her. The car has a 62 327 shortblock with 64 Corvette 300 HP Heads, Intake, and Carb. I did a compression test and got 180 PSI on three Cylinders, 175 PSI on 3 Cylinders and 165 PSI on 2 Cylinders. The car would run okay, but the vacuum advance wasn't hooked up and a couple of the ports on the carb were open. She'd smoke a little bit if you reved her up but nothing too bad. The worst thing is the engine leaks pretty good, a hardball size puddle will form overnight. There is a cruise in two weeks that I want to go on and then I want to take the car to back to the 50's which is a five hour drive. I'm debating on leaving the engine as is except for new valve cover gaskets and carrying some cheap oil to top her off, of pulling the thing and putting all new gaskets in and possibly throwing on a set of vortec heads I have. I already have everything disconnected and the cooling system drained to pull the engine. I was just waiting until I go the rear suspension back under the car so I could lower it down a bit. I think that should be done by the weekend. Now I'm having second thoughts. I don't want the regasket to snowball leaving me carless for the upcoming events. What do you guys think? -Scott I'd like to put a fresh engine in the car but since I procrastintated on the thing too long it'll have to wait till winter.
I would pull it and do the gaskets, then you can look it over real good. Would suck to get stranded hours from home for somthing you could have prevented, just my .02
If it was me I would pull it, inspect internals probably put a new oil pump, timing set and waterpump and full gasket kit w/main seals and paint it up nice cheap insurance for a motor thats been sitting 20 years
Another vote for regasket. I agree with doing the oil and water pump too. Do not overlook the valve guide seals. or "umbrellas" An often forgotten piece that becomes rock hard over that kind of time. And a part that will make a good engine seem like its a smoky ass piece of crap.
Drive it.... I bought a '55 F100 that sat in the Az desert for 12 years before it sat in another guys shed for another 8 years. I got it running at noon and headed out to BTTF's at 4PM... no problems except a burnt out condensor in St Paul on Sunday... drove it for a year and never had a major problem. Drive it now... fix it after the show season.
this is show season. fix the car right and go to the next show with no leaks. unless you want to be That Guy who leaks everyware.
No.... I looked everything over and didn't find any problems. i did clean the fuel tank and replaced the fuel pump. Missing a summer of crusing because of a little oil leak is dumb. If you can fix it in a weekend... fine. But he wants to drive it to BTTF's... drive it now... fix it when you can. But I sure wouldn't screw up a good running 327 by putting on a set of Vortec heads... but that's just me. I like old stuff built with old parts.
We just had guy bring a motor in last week that was a similar deal. The waterpump crapped out and cooked it. So now he gets to rebuild all of it.
I concur,,,, i had a 63 chevy w/327 that leaked oil and tranny fluid,,,drove the hell outta it and it was fine,,, besides,, there's a ton of folks in the twin citeis that could probably help you out if something goes wrong,,,,one year a guy was welding up something or nother that broke,, right there by the campgrounds,,,, then again,, if you think you can pull off a regasket in a weekend,,, do that,,, xoxox hootch xoxoxo hotch
Oil leaks suck.... I hate em so I would have to do something... If it were me I would probably reseal it and maybe do a "quicky ring and bearing job".... Cheap, Cheap, cheap... Just for the fun of it I would see just how little I could do to that engine to make a runner... The compression aint that bad, makes me think that you could make do without machine work... which means it is STILL a one day job once you have the parts in hand. (overnight delivery still makes for a two day job...) Say the cheap fix fails, you are only out 1 SBC,,, there are MILLIONS more...
Why not investigate where the oil is coming from and fix that leak?? Before I went to all that trouble, I'd put some Marvel Mystery oil in it a get a few miles on it. My, new to me engine, sat for over 20 years and smoked a little when it first awoke from the dead but the MMO freed up the rings and it doesn't smoke a lick today. It won't cure any leaks. If it puts a puddle on the floor it sounds like a pretty severe leak which should be easy to locate. Valve covers, oil pressure sending unit at the back of the block are possible offenders that can easily be repaired in the car. A rear main seal can be a PITA but it is not necessary to pull the engine. My experience is that a lot of good running cars have morphed into garage multiple year dust collectors when it was only necessary to fix the original problem to keep them on the road. If you want to paint the engine compartment then it's a no brainer but pulling the engine for an oil leak seem excessive to me using the info that you have supplied. JMO
If it weren't for the five hour trip I'd say drive it the way it is. The 283 I just put in my 5W sat for many years before I got it. It ran well on the test stand. It stayed cool, didn't smoke or leak and had good oil pressure so I decided to use it with just a few new parts. We put on a new starter, water pump, plugs, coil and a Pertronics in the dizzy. We had changed the oil before the test run but I changed it again after about 100 miles (it was really dirty). I've put almost 500 miles on it now with no trouble at all so far. Maybe I'm just lucky but I have a lot of faith in those old small blocks.
Alright, looks like the engine is coming out then. The oil leak is coming from everywhere. Front and rear main, valve cover gaskets, timing chain gaskets, and oil pan gasket. Coolant is also leaking out of the water pump gaskets where the engine mount is sandwiched between the block and water pump. If I'm going that far I might be better off picking up a roller cam 355 from a local guy that always has a few freshly rebuilt short blocks sitting around for 600 dollars. Throw my vortec heads, lt4 hot cam, and cloyes timing set on it along with a performer intake and quadrajet. It won't have the same visual appeal as the old 327 but I'm not one to open the hood at a show.
Just a heads up... Before you swap those heads check the bolts-ups for your accessories. I had to replace the motor in my Elky and had a set of them in there. I tried to go back to the older style heads and the bolt holess on the heads are in slightly different positions, so the brackets wouldn't work (I had a serpentine belt system on it). If you are under a time gun to get it done this can be a pisser! Glenn
Yes it is. The short block is originally from a 62 Impalla 327 AC Powerglide Car. If it was the original block I'd keep the 327.
Glenn, the only thing mounted to the engine is the generator. That mounts off the exhaust manifold so I shouldn't have any issues with the accessories.
Beat me to it. that car is too easy to pull the engine out of to not do it. I'd vote for a new set of rod and main bearings while the pan was off. The acid in the oil that was in the engine has most likely etched the bearings that are in it. You can buy a rering kit with rods and mains in it for a good price from several sources including Northern auto parts http://www.northernautoparts.com/ProductModelDetail.cfm?ProductModelId=1598 The kit costs way less than buying the parts individually at the parts house even if you don't use the rings. That may not help time wise but it would save a few bucks. You local sources may have deals on rering kits with rods and mains though.
Alright gents, competition products is half an hour away from me. I think I might run up there and get one of their roller cam shortblocks for $859 and throw all the parts on it that i have sitting around, vortec heads, roller rockers, lt4 hot cam, and a quadrajet. It should give me 400 hp with great drive ability and decent fuel economy. I'm going to think it over tonight.
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