Technical Can this engine be saved?

Yep better to take it apart then to trash it.

A couple of years ago I pulled an engine apart for inspection before it got used. It was one that had been "freshened" in the '60s then stored on its top under the bench. Well it was indeed a fresh motor but for some reason it had surface rust in the bottoms of some the cylinders. The rust wasn't deep and didn't reach up to where the rings scuffed the cylinders. But it had to go so I cleaned it and****embled it again. The guy is still running the engine in his rod.

Funny thing about that same time a couple of the fellas had the same type of engine in their race car and it didn't make it through the weekend of racing. they discovered that it had rust in the bottoms of the cylinders and it took the skirts out. A day with a wrench and the cost of a gasket set would have cured it and they maybe would still be running it. They ended up buying the gaskets anyway and a set of pistons and rings.

 

You are worried about broken rings that were rusted to the cylinder wall? How do you have eyes on the loosening process. I have never been able to see around a piston to check the rings. If it was an engine I wanted to save as much as possible. I would do the ATF and acetone on top to the pistons after removing the heads. I would remove all the rod bolts and see which pistons were loose enough to remove. I would then see if I could remove the crank. I would try to drive the remaining pistons down into the cylinder. It usually goes much better than up, as up is where the rust is. Having gotten the pistons down I then use oil and emery cloth to clean the upper cylinder so that I can slide the piston up and out. By now I don't like the circles etched in the cylinder walls where the rings were sitting so I need to go over size on the bore and buy new pistons and rings to fit. But i monitored it all the way through. The only time I broke off a lifter bore, I used a connecting rod to do it. But it was running real good just before that happened. I bought a 325 Dodge once that the white grease it had been****embled with had turned to stone. Your right, it was really hard to get that engine apart. But I really wanted that engine.