[brian0605]

I was just relating personal experiences, and if you don't call blown head gasket a misfortune that's ok too. I wasn't throwing rocks at what you said. I was just saying what I have experienced through the years. There are so many variables with a car that has been sitting for that long. Unless we were there with the car to make an accurate evaluation as to exactly what to do we are all guessing and just giving our personal OPINION based on our own experiences. That's all any of us has to draw on. And you know what they say about opinions.........and again I wasn't trying to throw rocks or poopoo on what anyone had said. Just trying to give another view. If anyone was offended I apologize that was definitely not my intent. Brian

[73oldsman]

No offense taken Brian0605! You're right, just an opinion, we all got one.
By the way, cool '54 Coupe in you pics! Later!

[brian0605]

Thanks!! 12yrs to this point and still ain't done(are they ever?).It's my father-in-laws, he lives in south alabama. I'm a transplant here to mississippi. My folks live in pensacola area ( saw that you live in NWflorida). Anyway my father-in-law drives this car every day,and 200miles one way when he comes to visit us, sometimes twice a month. By the way you got a pretty spiffy ride yourself!!Seeya Brian

[lanierledford]

I don't understand how you can turn the engine over my hand with a wrench and the moving parts and bearing that are with out oil do not scratch the surface its touching my turning it my hand instead of using the starter. the faster it turns over with the starter, the quicker it'll get oil to the bearings an other surfaces. it'll get oil with the same drag either way, just slower. I'd put on a mech oil pressure gage to insure its getting oil pressure.
I have a friend who won't change oil with out priming the oil filter. Ever watched a gage upon crank up to see how long it takes for the pressure to star rising, you can't count it in seconds. and besides there's going to be as much oil on the surface of bearing after a oil change as there are after it sits over nite. this has been debated for years, but sure are a lot of engines out there with over 200,000 miles that still run good , which have been well maintained with out priming the filter. Food for thought, if we done everything exactly as it should be done, we'd be about 300 hrs a day short of time to get everything done right.

[brian0605]

lanierledford. I can only say why I turn an engine over by hand. The reason is to insure that you don't have a stuck valve or to make sure the rings aren't stuck to the cylinder walls,but mainly to check for a stuck valve. If you turn the engine through by hand and encounter resistance i.e. piston and valve touching then you can stop and find out the problem and most of the time correct it with a good soak of trans fluid or marvel mystery oil. If you drop a hot battery in it and start spinning on it and the valve is stuck open you will rest assured have a bent valve. And of course we all know what that means . I'm not concerned about there not being much oil on the bearings. That's what they are for. What a lot of people don't know or realize is that once an engine is running the crank and rods are supported by a thin layer of oil and the bearings are not actually touching the crank. This is one of the reasons a high output engine requires more oil volume and pressure so as to maintain that thin film of oil at high RPM's. And a final note on the whole prefill or not to prefill the oil filter, I was instructed several years ago to NOT pre fill. Prefilling runs the risk of contamination that will be sent directly to the bearings. I work on a fleet of 74 trucks. We have 4 or 5 2000 gmc vortec 4.3l with 350000 miles plus, I have always dropped the old filter off and lubricated the o-ring on the new filter and spin that baby on dry, fill the pan with oil and fire it up. It usually take about 3 to 5sec to get oil pressure. They don't use or leak much oil 1qt generally in 5000miles and we generally change the oil in them once a month. So the argument to prefill is dead for me. The only time I will prefill is when I have just built an engine and I am going to fire it for the first time, and then I'll use my priming tool and spin it by hand till I see oil on the rockers on both sides of the engine. After that I just change oil as I normally would. I will say this if it makes you feel better to pre fill the filter with oil by all means go for it. Just make sure that you are using a quality brand and use caution to prevent anything from entering the filter. Ya'll have a Great Day.

[stoney 81ta]

My car i bought sat through 15yrs of canadian weather outside,when i started for the first time i pulled all the plugs primed all cylinders with oil got a power bar manually crank engine over,top off coolant fluid,change oil and filter,2 gallons off fresh gas,new battery primed carb and car started right off after a few primes,that was 3yrs ago car is still runnig fine no leaks.Ofcoures since then change all steel lines brakes and gas and new rotor in distribtor.

[techinspector1]

One word of caution. If you pour oil into the cylinders through the spark plug holes to let it sit for a while, turn the motor over by hand with the plugs out to expel all the oil you can before you turn it over with the starter. Even with the plugs out, if there is enought oil in the cylinder and the valves are closed, the motor could hydraulic and bend a rod or crack a piston.

[matt167]

I did kind of that prosess with my '51 Chevy. I changed the oil, added antifreeze ( guy I bought it from drained block/ radiator ), installed a new 6v battery, and with a '51 Chevy, you can crank the engine over with the starter, without the key on ( push button is wired direct, but thru a NSS ) so I just turned the engine over until I saw preassure on the gauge, 30s intervals of course, then I put points and a condensor in, little starter fluid, and fired it up. ran perfect, but died due to a bad fuel pump.

[jrm123180]

Hey, mind if I steal this thread back...j/k

Here are some pics of the car. It needs to be cleaned really bad, but its not in that bad of shape...only minor rot around the rear fenders where the garage roof leaked near it. I would like ot get the engine to turn to I can start it since its parked in a tight spot thats going to make it difficult to remove.

I have the pulled the plugs and sprayed a generous amount of PB Blast in each cylinder. Any suggestions as to what I can put in the engine to try and turn it? I'm afraid if to put a ratchet on the bolt on the balancer bolt because I don't want to snap it off...if theres something I can wrap about the front pulley please let me know.

thanks again,
Steve

[brian0605]

It would take quite a lot to snap that bolt off. The P/B blaster is a good choice as it does a good job disolving the rust. Anyway If you can jack the car up and get it on some stands, you could see if it has a removable DUST/SPLASH pan that you can remove from the transmission or you could possible remove the starter. Then you could try to turn the engine with a large screwdriver or pry bar using the flywheel teeth. You could get 4 of these. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=32052
You could use them at home as well. Then you can move it wherever you want in any direction. By the way is the car in an old body shop? It looks like it's covered in bondo dust and overspray. I have a friend that has an old body shop and his old unrestored cars in the back of the shop look like that.I forgot to remind you to make sure you use a different source fuel tank to the fuel pump till you can drain and tank and inspect it and the fuel lines(flush them too) Brian

[jrm123180]

I have a 4 of those dollys already, unfortunately 2 are being used but hope that if I put the other two under the rear wheels I'll be able to move it out of the spot by swinging the rear of the car around and using a floor jack for the front if need be.

Its in an old community garage. the owner's use to have an oil business and in the bay around the corner theres an old pump for the oil trucks. Unfortunately, the (after years of not being used) somehow ignited and the car is actually covers in the foam the fire department used to extinguish the oil fire.

[FEDDO]

I like cleaning the points, vertigris will form over the yrs. clean top of eng of trash, pull plugs see if it will turn by hand ,don't break the bolt,holding the harmonic balancer. if it turns ,go a couple of cycles. then pour some type of lubricant into the cyls. i like kroil, it works. don't ask where to get it. then go thru the normal procedures. i like the towel idea.

[jrm123180]

I'm going to work on getting the engine free this weekend...I put some more PB in it tonight.

On another note, the bottom seat part of the back seat is missing...do anyone know what other kinds of bucks might share the same back seat?

Thanks again.

[baddbob]

Wow-she's a boat! Good drivetrain to build on though! You might find other fullsize GM cars will have a seat that interchanges with the Buick. Impala, Boneville, Delta 88-98?, Cadilac.

[jrm123180]

So I found out the car has 190,000 miles on it, but the good news is it was rebuilt shortly befor it was parked 20 years ago. The bad news it I am haveing a lot of trouble gettting it to turn. I have spreayed PB Blast in all cylinders, and then sea foam...now with the sea foam I've been able to get it to turn 180* with turning the key back and forth from start.

I tried priming it but I'm not sure if I'm turning the pump the in the correct direction. I have been turning it clockwise. is that the right direction?

I Tried putting a breaker back on the front, but CAN NOT do anything with that; have had better luck with the starter (if I burn it out, then I'll just get a new one)

any suggestions?

Thanks again.

steve