I got the 59 buick home this weekend that I bought for my son.The car is unmolested and will be a good builder. It was supposedly parked in 82 with a bad water pump.The motor is stuck. I pulled the plugs and poured marvel mystery oil down the holes and have let set a couple of days. Today I put a breaker bar on it. Couldn't get a real good pull on it and it didn't move any. It's a 364 with the stock auto ******. i think I remember that you could pull start these cars. Anybody know if thats true. I was thinking that I might leave the plugs out and try pulling it to break it loose. Any ideas? I just want to get it to bust off if I can, if not I'm pulling the motor and putting in a 401 with a st-400. Help! TP
I guess you want to get it going without rebuilding it. But if what you did doesn't work it may have been run without oil and seized the bottom end. taking the oil pan off in some cars is more work than getting the engine out maybe some wd40 or pb blaster would brake it loose.
Yeah, I agree that there may be some magor problems. I have actually sprayed some "soak" penetrating oil down the holes also. My main question I guess is- will I be able to bust her loose by pulling it? Seems like I have read you can do that on the dynaflows. If it's bad, I have a replacement motor and trans. Just thought maybe some one had done this before. Thanks TP]
Might break it loose,or might rip the rings off the pistons. And any valve stuck in the down position wouldn't be happy when the pistons start moving. When in doubt,DON'T.
just let her soak alittle more and use a breaker bar don't pull start it that sounds like a kinda bad move ya could really screw things up.
To free a stuck engine I give it a good soaking of PB Blaster, then I pull the schrader valve out of my compression tester hose and put the hose in a spark plug hole that has both of the valves closed, then hook it up to a air line to push on the piston, works great if you don't have any other problems, I just keep moving the hose around till I get a full rotation and then the starter will turn it over.
I tried every kind of penetrating oil known to man in one of mine, in the end good old CocaCola did the trick. Filled the bores up and kept them topped up for about a week, after a bit of back and forth on the crank pulley it just turned over, the rings survived as well.
cryobug and koppak , those both sound like good ideas. I want to save it if at all possible. I have the 401 but want to get this going if I can. I had thought about removing the trans/flywheel cover and getting on the flywheel also. I'll try the compression guage first, then the coke trick. Thanks guys. I guess I should pull the valve covers and put some pb blaster on the valves also. Thanks TP
I got my flatty unstuck with P'Blaster soak for a couple weeks. Don't force it, let it soak until it just barely moves, then spray it up again and work it back and forth slowly. Knock'er Loose (why do the still call it that? Doesn't that promote violence against women?) from NAPA works almost as good I think.
I second the KROIL. It is in fact the ****!!!!!!!!!!!! I kinda like the smell too.......sometimes I just go into the garage and sniff it...............mmmmmmmm Kroil.......
If you attempt to force the engine, you'll stand a good chance of doing damage to the pistons and/or the valves. If you attempt pull-starting it with a stuck engine, you also stand a chance of damaging the transmission. Be patient and keep soaking that bad boy and trying to turn it without forcing it.. Ok, all that said..........I had a clean 27,000 mile original flathead that was stuck. I soaked it in every kind of penetrant known to modern man, including Coca Cola. Hell, I even soaked it in lacquer thinner and then lit it on fire! I was hoping the heat would help unstick it. I had the crank out of it and everytime I'd walk past it on the engine stand, I'd give it a whack and a squirt. 2 pistons were stuck. After 3 months of ****ing around with it, I came to the conclusion I was gonna have to bore it anyway, so why save the old, stock original pistons? I Broke out the stuck pistons from the bottom side with a long punch and a 3 lb hammer, taking care not to hurt the block or rods in about 26 seconds. There was still dry white corrosion on the pistons where the penetrant had not penetrated........after 3 months of soaking and tapping with a hammer!
Fordbarn is down right now, but a few of the guys over there have a ****tail they swear by...diesel, kerosene, & marvel mystery oil??? Anyone remember? It was brought up again recently (w/in last two weeks)Just let it soak, take your time.
This may sound stupid, (does to me) my old boss swears that WATER will free a stuck motor..... I've never tried it, anyone hear of this??
One thing I like about putting air pressure in the cylinder is that it forces the penetrating oil to go deeper between the piston and the cylinder walls quicker and if your valves are open you get some blown into the valve guides. Good luck
I had a jag six cylinder that was stuck and similar to what Rocky said nothing worked (not even kroil.....mmmmmmmm.....kroil) and I eventually just took an air chisel and busted the pistons down to the pins and took an oxy torch to cut the pins to get the rods out. The only bits of the piston left was the skirt which came out in the hot tank. This thing had been stuck for thirty years according to the guy it came from. Anyway, it was rebuilt and is just fine. It is just important to not ding the cylinder walls with the air chisel. This is an extreme case but where there is a will there is a way.
Back to your original question, the twin turbine trans has a rear pump so it should build pressure to work the trans if you pull it. That said, I'd pull the rockers, pushrods and plugs and make sure no valves were stuck down. If you pull it that way it "shouldn't" hurt anything. With the torque converter for cushioning, it's not as brutal as dropping the clutch with a stick shift. Although I've done it and I'm sure lots of others have too, it's a bad idea to tow something to start it, too much chance of running into the tow car when it fires up. Pushing would be a lot better. ( If I remember right, you've got to go 30 to 35 MPH to get enough rear pump pressure to make it work)
I aquired an old Brut snowmobile that was stuck tight. I used marvel mystery oil. Left it set for months, kind of forgot about it and one day I walked past it, rocked the clutch and it was free. Put gas in that bad boy and thrashed the **** oput of it until the side seals got bad.
Lots of good advice on getting the motor unstuck. Good luck on that part. The next problem you will have is if you can get it to turn over and then get lucky enough to start it it will smoke like a *****. Rings are probably gone and cylinder walls damaged. Time for a rebuild.
I'm not really too concerned about the 364 thats in it. I just want to try a few of the old remedies to see what works. If I save it great, if I don't I have a 401 with a t-400 ready to go in it. I just hate to pull the motor without trying to get it going. It's personal now. I'm on a mission. Next time I may not have a replacement motor. I like tinkering with things that alot of folks throw away. I put a can of pb blaster down each bank last night. I'm going to let her sit for a while. I have tryed the deisel, kerosene, mm oil ****tail before. It works fairly well. How about the mol***es trick? Anybody think that might work? I have nothing to loose.My noisey neighbor came over and ask if I was going to leave this car in the driveway. I told him no- I was going to put it on a pole. He went home. TP
TP=I think I read that GIBBS-the pentrating oil sold here by[ Hamb'r ]ROADSTERS.COM -is capable of penetrating into a much smaller clearance than most any other penetrant can. it also dissoves and prevents rust and corrosion Id try that!
I worked at an oil change joint for a while and we found that a small block chevy will hold about 38 quarts of oil to fill it to the valve covers! Maybe try that, then you would be sure every thing is liberally coated. Wonder how much it would take to fill yours that full?
yep kroil!!!!!!!! the oil that creeps!!!!that stuff has saved my life a few times!!! take tha nail apart and fix it!!!! or get something else
i have used a combo of PB blaster,trans fluid & brake fluid,,top it off every day or so for about a week , has worked on cars that had been sitting for many many years,, ,wouldnt bother trying on an engine that had been laying outside in the rain for the past 30 years though!
I pulled the valve covers this evening. Pretty nasty. I'm going to keep after it for at least a couple of weeks. Where can you get this Kroil? Parts house?The car has had the air cleaner on it the whole time. It's been setting since 1982. The rockers are pretty gummed up and I imagine the pan will look the same. If I pull the 364 I will eventually go through it. The 401 and 400 ****** are on a engine stand ready to go. I need a little time to pull it off. I'm going to make it an open driveline car. I'm going to hunt some Kroil tomoorow at Hi-Lo. I think I may mix me up a deisel,kerosene, mystery oil ****tail up and clean thew rocker ***embly up tomorrow also, flush out all the old oil in the pan. TP
TP- a couple a points, The old oil used back then was prone to produce sludge so it may not indicate that its a bad engine at all. also you may want to want to rig up some way to bump the crank back and forth to get SOME movement initiated...then it can increas from there.... Id suggest IF you can lock on a pair of C clamp vise grips onto the flywheel/ flexplate then slip a flattened pipe over them and tap that with a 2 pound hammer to "get it started' moving.....
Chop, thats a good idea. I have a flywheel turner but it can be hard on the teeth. I agree about the sludge. It was dry as a bone so thats good. I'm going to fill with deisel mix and leave the plugs out when i try and roll it over. I'm thinking about pressure washing the heads after I douse them with the deisel. Pour deisel down the top end and try and drain out as much **** as I can. It's fun messing with it. TP
The Jalopy Journal
