Rebuilt motor out of mothballs.

[Brentwood Bob]

Have several complete motors that were rebuilt, run a very short time, then neglected for years. What protocol would be appropriate?
I am thinking a teardown. The valve train, the cylinder walls, oil pump, water pump, ignition.
Or go the route of fresh crankcase oil. Top oil, turn it over, and run it?
Guess it would depend if the motor turned over, and how lucky I feel at the time.
We will see.

[WHN]

What is your meaning of neglected for years? How badly neglected?

[Brentwood Bob]

Ignored. Stored, one inside, two outside, covered, but in our mild California climate.

[CA Victoria]

Bob,
Unless you can validate the history, your best bet would be to open it up and at a minimum it will allow you to do a visual assessment, measure, and confirm its history. One of the last “running motors” I took apart was said to have been running when parked.......I found cylinders full of mud-wasp nest. Almost all of the engines I have taken apart that have been sitting had partial-fully blocked oil pump screens.
A little time and a gasket set is money well spent.

[Brentwood Bob]

Right on Tim. Was trying to talk myself out of work. Already I have seen several engines lock up in less than a half hour of run time.

[johnneilson]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

FWIW, out here in Cali,
we have opened up motors that have been sitting to find acorns or juniper berries filling a cylinder or port.
The Juniper berry ones always run better than the acorn versions...

J

[California Travieso]

Maybe juniper berries are higher octane than acorns.

David Serrano

[WHN]

Removing the heads, oil pans, valve covers. Will most likely will tell your everything that you need to know.

I have had good luck with engines that have not been run for years. They were in complete cars stored inside.

I would take yours apart.

Good luck.

[dansluck]

I found a frog in one once. It looked like it came out of the LA Tar Pits. I would pull the pan and head and take a close look.

Dan

[31a]

I agree I have always pulled the head and pan and checked the clearance on the rods and cylinder walls

[Brentwood Bob]

Thanks all. We will see.

[Fullraceflathead]

You could try using a borescope camera and peeking in each cylinder through the spark plug hole and through the oil pan drain plug hole and also the oil fill pipe area. That is what I did on my ‘28 roadster pickup that sat for 34 years. Everything looked good inside.

[Fullraceflathead]

I purchased my borescope attachment for my iPhone on ebay for about $10 with free shipping

[Fullraceflathead]

I also have the harbor freight Borescope handheld camera but that one will set you back close to $100 now. Harbor Freight has raised all their prices in the last 2 years that I hardly buy there any more.

[Brentwood Bob]

Thanks, starting a motor without any inspection is a crap shoot.

[31Cabriolet68-C]

Wouldn't want to "Hijack" a thread, but I'm wondering what's the strangest thing any of us have found this way?
In my case (~1969) when I first pulled the head on my Model A (I'm the third owner) I was using a piece of coat hanger wire to loosen what scale was in the block. I was amazed when I wiggled out one single, open, but empty, peanut shell.... It came out of the water jacket of my Cabby's block -- between No 2&3 cylinders.....
How it got there, unless it fell in, or dropped in, when the head was off, seems impossible to imagine.
I can't see how a mouse did it..... Head puller?
Or do ya think maybe it happened at River Rouge, some pre-union malcontent throwing empty shells from his lunch pail as the unfinished engine blocks went by on the conveyor?????

[Brentwood Bob]

Close supervision at that plant. I doubt anyone had time on their hands.

[Bruce of MN]

Yes, if the motor is out, removing the head and pan isn't a lot of work.

[ModelA29]

A friend gave me a 289 that had been sitting outside for a couple years with the intake off. He had it stored under the eaves of his garage and one of his wife's plant hangers had failed and dropped the flower pot and all the dirt into the engine.
I pulled it apart washed everything at the quarter car wash. Bought rings and bearings (still standard) used a bottle brush hone and an old factory HiPo cam. That engine fetched 28 mpg on the highway (4 spd 2.80 rear).

[Dodge]

A gasket set is cheap insurance. These things also tend to rust up inside when sitting it
would be good to give it a good cleaning. You might be lucky with just a weekend spent
and end up with a good motor.