Well, I was hoping to start a progress thread but "1 step forward two back" as they say. Oh well, it was fun with what little bit I did get torn down. My goal right now is to put a 390 in the car and this block came out of a truck that the husband picked up at an auction some 10 years ago. We got it out of the weeds and what not behind his mother's house over the summer and it's sat waiting to be put in the garage since. Well, yesterday we got a few minutes to do just that.
So, I started taking parts off. I got the valve covers, carburator & fuel line and some of the hoses off. Most of it went pretty well, as I wasn't half expecting to get as far as I did without torches to heat up the bolts a bit. But got a decent start on things till trying to get the distributuor out to get the intake manifold off. That thing was a real PITA and I had to get hubs to help. Took some fanangling and used motor oil since neither one of us thought to grab any pentrating oil. Finally we got it freed up and the intake manifold off as well. WHEW! Alright I'm thinking we're in good shape. Granted the insides look like a diaster with ice and sludge. Then we get looking at things and, wah-la, there is a huge chunk of cylinder wall missing.
Oh well...
(the cracked wall is to the right and a little above there I am pointing)
Who knows how much of the cylinder walls would have been left after we would have been taken down to the engine shop to get cleaned up and bored out? And Joe might have found some other cracks in the block rendering it useless but it's a little disappointing to already count this one out of the game. Ironically, when we tapped the valves to just see how shot they were, one of the valves for this cylinder was quite effed. We have a couple hypotheses why it cracked. Obviously, ice, maybe since the engine was seized it threw a rod or something. We'll never know. So, I'll finish tearing this down a bit and it'll be off to the scrap yard with it. Sad knowing there's one less 390 block in the world.
Now on to Plan B. We have one more 390 block that hasn't been exposed to the elements quite as much. At the very least, it did use to run; the previous owners just stopped using it.. Hubs was going to save it and re-do the 1 ton truck that it's in but hehehe apparently I take precedence.
LOL So, we'll see how that goes and probably strip as much as we can while it's in the truck instead of going through the ass-ache of pulling it all out to find it's shot anyway.
So, I started taking parts off. I got the valve covers, carburator & fuel line and some of the hoses off. Most of it went pretty well, as I wasn't half expecting to get as far as I did without torches to heat up the bolts a bit. But got a decent start on things till trying to get the distributuor out to get the intake manifold off. That thing was a real PITA and I had to get hubs to help. Took some fanangling and used motor oil since neither one of us thought to grab any pentrating oil. Finally we got it freed up and the intake manifold off as well. WHEW! Alright I'm thinking we're in good shape. Granted the insides look like a diaster with ice and sludge. Then we get looking at things and, wah-la, there is a huge chunk of cylinder wall missing.
Oh well... Who knows how much of the cylinder walls would have been left after we would have been taken down to the engine shop to get cleaned up and bored out? And Joe might have found some other cracks in the block rendering it useless but it's a little disappointing to already count this one out of the game. Ironically, when we tapped the valves to just see how shot they were, one of the valves for this cylinder was quite effed. We have a couple hypotheses why it cracked. Obviously, ice, maybe since the engine was seized it threw a rod or something. We'll never know. So, I'll finish tearing this down a bit and it'll be off to the scrap yard with it. Sad knowing there's one less 390 block in the world.
Now on to Plan B. We have one more 390 block that hasn't been exposed to the elements quite as much. At the very least, it did use to run; the previous owners just stopped using it.. Hubs was going to save it and re-do the 1 ton truck that it's in but hehehe apparently I take precedence.
LOL So, we'll see how that goes and probably strip as much as we can while it's in the truck instead of going through the ass-ache of pulling it all out to find it's shot anyway.
The shop I am considering is roughly a year wait list and that will be done before the engine goes in.