I would not be so anxious to spend your money! Condensation rust in a
cylinder can be a mighty force for the status quo, so to speak, and yet
be a relatively small problem. If you can do a couple of other tricks,
you may save yourself a lot of money. #1: Take your air hose with a
blower attached and rig a seal for your spark plug hole. Picking a
cylinder which is partway down, start bumping the piston with sudden
jets of air. Do this on different cylinders, and multiple times (it
gets boring!) and if you have a friend to put pressure on your brand new
1/2" breaker bar, use that pressure as well. By the way, if the breaker
bar broke, it was defective, I think. It should handle the weight of a
small person standing on it......
Oh well, on to #2: If all else fails, remove the head, clean the
corroded cylinder walls with a cylinder hone in your electric drill,
just enough to remove the accumulated junk, and then tap (make that
SLAM!) a vertical block of wood large enough to pretty well go clear
across the top of the piston (spreading the point of impact) with a BF
Hammer (kinda like driving a stake.... Pretend your engine is powered by
vampires!). Once you have any vertical travel at all, clean the
cylinders wall sections that become exposed and oil them lightly, and
tap some more. As you clean and tap, clean and tap, the movement will
become easier and easier. When you have free travel, the oil on the
walls will give you a good indication whether you have broken any rings;
you can also visually check to see if the bores are pitted, worn, etc.,
and then you can take your head down to get it checked....
Good luck,
Bill McLeod
Slightly Classics
Tucson, AZ
Jim Tinkham wrote:
>Took the plunge yesterday and tried to turn the engine. Now this car has been
>sitting since 85 and was not totally buttoned up. The brakes were totally
>disassembled and the plugs were not tight in there holes etc.
>
>I didn't expect it but the 1/2" breaker bar I was using to try and manually
>turn it first broke before the engine turned. We put kerosene in the
>cylinders first and 4 5 & 6 drained out nicely. 1 2 & 3 appear water tight.
>I haven't looked at it this morning yet but don't expect to see a drop in
>level.
>
>Now the question. The engine is obviously seized and needs a rebuild. Is
>there anyone in New England that the list would recommend. I'm about half way
>up the western border of NH and will pull the engine/transmission and take the
>lump to whomever I choose to do it so closeness to Lebanon NH is somewhat of a
>factor but I'll go where ever I neeed.
>
>Jim
>69 MGC GT -slightly deader :(
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