Posted by casebro from 216.55.130.39 (216-55-130-39.dialup.tnt01.san-diego.abac.net) on Saturday, March 30, 2002 at 12:58PM :
In Reply to: Re: Freeing a stuck engine posted by Vaughn from 209.78.78.187 (dialup187.lemoorenet.com) on Friday, March 29, 2002 at 7:28PM :
If it was running when parked, not already seized, It's probably only got 1 stuck piston(the one that had the intake valve open to let in wet air).
We puchased our first FF, a panel truck, in 1975 for $225. It had been sitting with the head off for a year due to a bad headgasket.Everyting had a coat of rust, but wasn't the engine wasn't stuck- just that the valves were so rusty that they wouldn't close. After towing it home, we started spraying the valves and pistons w/ wd40 and and cranking the engine w/ a handcrank. As the valve stuck up int the open position, we would spray some more, and tap them down w/ a hammer. Soon 11 out of 12 were falling by themselves, and the last one popped shut with the merest touch. While my brother put the head on, I slid underneath and pulled the drain plug. When the water ran out and I started getting oil, I quickly replaced the plug.A few minutes later,we had it fired up by hand cranking It! Total cost, $6 for the new headgasket! And it ran for about a year. But when we tore it down , it had 9 burned valves, every ring broken, and circlips that literally fell out- the worst guts I ever saw !
Maybe someday I'll have an excuse to tell about our subsequent '1st trip to the desert' about 2 wekks later!
Thanks for the memories, hope I didn't bore everybody, Chris Case(bro)
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