Decided to pull the valve covers off the 292 this past weekend just to see what I was getting into. The original owner drove it every day until he parked it 3 years ago, it was an old daily driver farm truck. The motor turned over by hand, so I was hoping for the best and only doing a tune up. Unfortunately it didn’t look good on the right head. Here is what I found.

<a href="http://s241.photobucket.com/user/mellowgt/media/292.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff207/mellowgt/292.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 292.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s241.photobucket.com/user/mellowgt/media/2921.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff207/mellowgt/2921.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 2921.jpg"/></a>

 

That is a lot of sludge. If it were me I'd pull the heads and either clean them up my self or have them cleaned in a parts washer(maybe have them re-surfaced since they're off).

As for getting the rest of the sludge out of the engine you can drain all the oil then refill the engine with either gas or diesel all the way to the top and let it soak for a few days.
I've done that a few times on other old engines that were pretty gummed up.

 

I would try to figure out why you have a couple of push rods on vacation are they bent or what. Then you can start the clean up if thats all it needs.LOL

 

Yeah, the push rods were my main concern. What would cause that? Flat camshaft lobe or something up with the lifters. I haven't pulled anything else apart yet. The engine still turns over by hand. I was going to wait until I pull the motor, I'm going for a full rebuild now. I was hoping I could get her running and drive the truck while I restore it, but it doesn't look that way anymore.

 

Greg it could be something as simple as sticky valves, that caused the rods to dropout.
If you have the money a rebuild would be best, however if you check the rods and they are not bent.
You might clean things up, put the rods back adjust the lifters, lube the cylinders, roll the engine over good without plugs to get the oil flowing then do a compression check. It could be just a gunked up engine that needs a little lovin.

 

I'll look into it when I get some more free time. The motor/truck has 92k on it so I was hoping it was something simple. i'm going to try and get her running first if I can. Its always more fun to have a driving fixer upper. Gives you more motivation.

 

I agree there is something to be said for driving and enjoying it while you fix it up.
Keep us posted on your progress.

 

I will, I'm going to pull the intake off and see if they just came out of the lifters. I'm hoping it's just some stuck valves and a I can clean and free them up. I did start the truck up when I first got it just to see if it would crank. I poured some gas in the carb. and it fired right up, didn't run long, just until the gas burnt out. I'm betting the valves were stuck from sitting 3 years and the pushrods came out of the lifters. (I'm hoping anyway). I'll keep ya posted.

 

Fished the pushrods out lastnigt, they were both slightly bent. The lifters looked fine, the two valves were stuck on them cylinders. I cleaned everything good and oiled them up while working all of them with a rubber mallet. They seem to all function fine now. I haven’t started it yet so we will see. I want to change the oil and filter this weekend along with a few other things first. I think everything just needs to be lubed good and worked over from sitting. There doesn’t appear to be any damage. The bent pushrod is very slight, almost not even noticeable. I suspect I did that when I started the engine when I first brought it home and the valves being stuck.