I read the other post and this post will cover questions that I have and my progress on getting my '56 292 going again.

So far it has sat since 1983, So far today I have removed all plugs, all of them had a whitish film on them, the film you see when you have your fuel mixture tuned properly. I proceeded to pump three pumps from my oiler can of a mixture of 30% 10w30 motor oil and 70% marvel mystery oil.

So far I put that in this morning and I just now tried to rotate the engine, wouldnt budge at all in either direction. I took the valve cover off on the driver side to check things out, the valves that were fully closed the rockers were easy to move and the push rods were easy to move so a stuck valve I dont think could be an issue. I put three more pumps of plain Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder after I got the valve cover back on and I put my breaker bar on it again. Pressing down on the bar I got the familiar metallic pop as the bolt broke loose and turned some getting tighter. Still hasnt budged, so I have a question I am posting below and in the mean time I will put a little MMO in the cylinders after work every day till Saturday to try it again.

My question is about the starter. Does the starter gear on this setup always stay meshed with the flywheel? I am thinking maybe the starter is frozen and is causing my headache. I know the water pump is locked up and I will remove that to rebuild it but not till I atleast see if the motor will turn over.

If it does and I can get it running I will use the car a little bit till I have the funds to do a frame up restoration on it including overhaul of the engine and transmission.

 

Try PB Blaster in each cylinder. Its thinner and penetrates better.

 

I will give that a try, can bring home a can from work, got a surplus off the stuff anyways.

I just have this bad feeling on this but Ive seen other people get their engines to spin over after sitting and they run just fine.

 

I finally got a little play out of the crank. It is about 4mm worth of movement back and forth. If I jar the crank back and forth I can hear a solid thump. I will be pulling the starter off now as I am thinking the starter might be locked up. If it isnt then atleast I removed one item from my list of possibilities.

 

The starter should not be engaged with the ring gear, if all is well.

~Steve

 

How does that work when the starter shaft doesnt move and the gear assembly is pinned on the end of the shaft?

I cant figure out how the starter drive moves if the shaft stays stationary. if it does move and I just cant figure out how it works on my own then maybe it is still the pistons holding the engine in place. I do how ever have a little play now about 4mm worth of back and forth movement where as before I had zero.



Well I found this video. Looks like the gear spins out as the starter spins then when the engine starts to run it throws the gear back out. If the engine was attempted to start but it never starter just spun over the gear would remain in the engaged position correct?

I wonder if something like that might have been done that I dont know about. Wonder if I should pull the starter just to make sure or keep on the same route im going with soaking the cylinders and working the crank back and forth.

 

Can'take hurt to pull the starter, but don't expect much. Unless something horrible happened to it in 1983, the rings are probably rusted to the cylinder walls. Soaking, working the crank and patience should pay off.

~Steve

 

Hope so, Ive been soaking the cylinders for nine days so far, Havent worked on moving the crank much but have lately though, Saturday I got the crank to finally move but I need to see if I can find a socket that fits the crank bolt better, Im using a 13/16 but will try a 11/16 tomorrow if it fits better.

Down side is I am trying not to put too much force on the bolt, I dont like how it feels but it might just be me being cautious. I dont know if its wishful thinking or not but I swear it appears the pulley has a hair more movement than it did before.

 

The engine has sat for 30 years...? Nine days is like a couple seconds when it comes to rust-busting. Be patient, or you'll be a patient!

 

I can understand that.

I will just take the time by working on listing what I need to get and start ordering parts that would be needed to put the car back on the road.

 

Little update, I havent been messing with the engine much lately due to being tired after work.

But since I was off today I put some more MMO, seven pumps in each cylinder and I was rocking the engine back and forth hammering the pistons basically. I finally got the engine to rotate in reverse but still gets up to the point that it was at and locks up again.

Im thinking the MMO softened up the rust below so I think I will rotate the engine backwards till its completly free. If that doesnt work then I am afraid I might have a hung valve.

So far the mark on the pulley I can rotate it backwards from just past 12 o'clock all the way to 9 o'clock before it locks up again. If I rotate it back foward it goes from 9 o'clock all the way to just past 12 and locks up again. So as of now I went from 4mm worth of play to a good quarter turn of the crank.



I also looked in my '56 shop manual and found the dampner bolt is 85 - 95 ft lbs. Think I will hook up my trq wrench to the 13/16 socket and trq it down to 85 ft lbs maybe it will break past the rust that has it locked up, either that or bend something in the valve train if something has it locked up on the top end.



~update 2~

Well the engine is unfrozen. I went through five revolutions of the crank and no problems, down side is theres two or three areas where the crank gets a little hard to turn and I have to rock it to get it past it. I think i will do this for a few more days before I even attempt to crank it over with the starter, hate to lock the engine up on this stiff spot and break teeth on the flywheel. Rather be cautious since so far nothing seems to be a problem.

 

Good deal!

 

It is, I just ordered a carb kit for a motorcraft 2100 carb (intake was replaced later on in its life with a early '60s 2bbl) I will keep this setup for the time being then order the Holley 4000 kit and rebuild the orignal carb for the car and swap it out which also means having to get the correct dual vacuum can distributor for '56.

I dont know when I will attempt to start the engine, but saturday I will be out of town, Sunday I will get in the trunk and use the access panel to the sending unit to check the tank out and see how much fuel is there. Ill drain from there and add fresh fuel, then get a cheap battery, rebuild the carb and then from there try to run it.

If the engine runs decently I will get a concourse quality water pump to replace the old one, then replace the radiator.

 

Is that the Load-o-Matic distributor? Not up to speed on those iirc it only works with the original type carb, sounds like you're aware of that. Most folks switch to a post 56 distributor that has mechanical advance weights. I would keep the original radiator if possible?

 

Yes the holley load o matic dist. It was swapped out to a '57 and up mechanical and vacuum advance dist when the intake was swapped and a motorcraft 2100 was used instead.

To use the '56 Holley 4000 I would have to go back to the correct load-o-matic dist.

On the radiator theres three cores that are seperated from the top tank. Last time I had damage where the core meet the tank, the local radiator shop told me its not worth fixing due to the age of the radiator. That was on my '78. I will try to have this one repaired by having all the cores replaced, even if it cost me $200 its cheaper than the $500+ for the reproductions.