Bob,I bought a 69 Midget out a garage that had not been run for 2 years
after they gave the engine a good bath with no air cleaners,DPO's,"it ran
great when we parked it in the garage!!"
but now the motor won't turn over?? HUMM!?$200 dollars later it's at my
house under the porch with the head off and displaying a wonderous amount of
rust rivulets on the first and fourth cylinders.It seems that water got in
the open valves and worked wonders.Anyway,scraped the high rust down to the
level of the cylinder walls and then Scotch-Brite'd the walls to knock it
back a bit more.With a six ft cheater on my wrench on the harmonic balancer
bolt,AND hammering the pistons to get the motor to move it would barely turn
over.Now to the point of the story,I got out my can of MARVEL MYSTERY OIL
great stuff!!I put a 1/4 " in each cylinder and three turns later the motor
broke free enough to spin by hand.this is my personal experience,your
mileage may vary.any way I firmly believe in the stuff.my .02 FWIW,BTW the
motor runs great no smoke and 80 lbs of oil pressure,not to bad for a lost
cause eh?best of luck to you Adios Brad
Bob Askew wrote:
> Can anyone suggest what I might try next. I have mostly re-assembled my
> '64 MK III Sprite HAN 8 L 39070 following a bare metal restoration. I
> did not dismantle the engine at all as it had been rebuilt 4,000 miles
> previously and was running beautifully prior to dismantling. I did
> disconnect the transmission and replace the clutch.
>
> Last weekend having finished wiring in the new harness and charging the
> battery I turned the key only to have the starter respond with a single
> "thump". The engine didn't budge a millimeter. I took out the plugs and
> tried to turn the engine by pushing the car in 4th gear. It seams the
> pistons are stuck fast. The engine is being rocked on the mounts by the
> torque but nothing is moving. Over the past week I have been spraying
> copious amounts of "Liquid Wrench" penetrating fluid into the cylinders
> to no avail.
>
> I have removed the starter to be sure it's not the problem and it has
> been suggested to me that I try to lever the flywheel by working a
> crowbar against the ring gear. This sounds a bit iffy to me as I think
> my minds eye sees a ring gear tooth or two flying around the garage
> accompanied by somewhat ripe language resulting from the removal of a
> square inch or two of skin from my knuckles.
>
> The engine was out from the car for less than 18 months and stored in my
> garage with the plugs in.
>
> Has anyone else been in this situation or are there any good ideas out
> there. Thanks
>
> Bob Askew
>
> robert_askew@bc.sympatico.bc
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