Engine Stuck!

I have a 53 Chevy 3100 5 window truck and the '62 235 is stuck after sitting for about 10 years. I pulled the plugs and squirted Marvel Mystery Oil into each cylinder and figure I will wait a few days to loosen the rust. Am I on the right track?

Pictures will be coming soon! It is now in a position, where I can take pictures of it, before it was in the woods.

Thanks,
Howard

Marvel Mystery Oil

Howard, that's a good start. Somewhere on this forum is a question which is identical to yours. Let me see if I can find it!

Man, that was too easy! Here it is. https://talk.classicparts.com/archive/index.php?t-5208.html

?! NO Stuck Engine Thread There....

To free an engine that's been sitting , fill all the cylinders with DIESEL FUEL let it soak for a week , topping up the cylinders that drain every couple days . DO NOT use anything else than Diesel Fuel ! .

Once it's had time to soak , grab the crank pulley and gently rock the engine back & forth , it'll prolly just barely move a tiny bit at first , this is fine , keep moving it back and forth untill it stops and NEVER force it past where it begins to get stiff .

Eventually you'll be able to rotate it 360° , so turn it 360° a couple times and then drain the now contaminated and ruined oil , re-fill with cheap thin oil and try the starter , lay a big old rag over the right side of the block as all manner of dirty , crsuty oil & Diesel fuel is going to spray out of the open spark plug holes and stain the garage wall if you don't .

Now , you can adjust the valves and set timing , make it run .

As soon as it's warm , change the oil again and keep changing it every 50 miles or two hours of running untill the Diesel stink is gone ~ failure to do this or attempting to run the engine before you change the Diesel contaminated oil , will cause rapid bearing failure .

Oh yes , when you first fill the cylinders with Diesel , also squirt thin oil between the valve springs so it dribbles down the valve stems , this will prevent bent valves when you begin turning the engine next week .

Take your time , this works ! I've done it many times over .

Thank you!

Is kerosene and diesel fuel the same thing? I know that there is the kind for heating (which I have here at the house) and it is taxed different and is clear. Then there is the dyed kind for running in trucks. Am I off my rocker with this?

It won't hurt anything that there is already MMO in the cylinders?

Howard

HP53Deluxe said:

Is kerosene and diesel fuel the same thing?

Click to expand...

yes they are


I have had good results with MMO and froze up engines, couple that had sat for 10 plus years

Kero & Diesel Fuel

No , they're not different as many have discovered the hard way after running Kero in thier Diesel powered engines for a few years.....

Farm Diesel (the non taked stuff) will work just fine too .

Anyways , which ever one you can get , don't worry about the MMO(that's good stuff too) just fill the cylinders all the way up .

Be aware that whatever you put in there , will dribble past the piston rings are a while and get into the oil pan .

Not a biggie unless you try to operate the engine with Diesel or Kero in the oil .

Kero vs. Diesel

Being someone who is connected to the oil industry, I have to give a safety message here. Kerosene is a cut between diesel and gasoline and is an order of magniture more flamable than diesel. I've never tried it but I'm told you can throw a lit match into diesel and it will go out. Don't try that with kerosene which is essintially jet fuel. For safety reasons please stick with the diesel, I'd hate to see you or an AD go up in flames!!!

I spent some time in the chemical industry, and found #1 deisel, kerosene, and jet A are all the same stuff, at least the fuel rack in Alaska said they were. Just what i was told, dunno

Kero vs. diesel

There both known as middle distilates but Kerosene is more flammable. The're close but are not the same stuff. Don't get me wrong, I use to use kerosene for cleaning parts, its really good and much safer than gas but for pouring into an engine block, diesel would be safer.

Don't want to lecture, but we all need to be working as safely as we can!

OK, I'm with you so far!

Nate, I'm with you on the soaking and gently turning. Let's assume that we've reached the point where you turn/hand rotate the engine 360 and blown the crap out the side of the head. Now replace the plugs and try to start the engine, right? What about the old "pull it around the block and pop the clutch while it's in 2nd gear" method of cranking it? Good, Bad or Ugly? (Wait for the music!) OK, now answer!

You scared me with the "one drop of diesel will ruin your oil" statement many posts ago, so can you expound on that a little?

Military Sabatoge

O.K. , during the last Great War , our boys figured out the two best and easiest ways to ruin a gasoline engine without tools or special help :

# 1 , get some sugar and pour it in the gas tank , as soon as it enters the combustion chamber it'll weld the pistons to the cylinders .

# 2 , find some Diesel Fuel and dilute the engine oil with it , as one teaspoon of Diesel Fuel will ruin the lubricating ability of a 55 gallon drum of engine oil .

So , you can use it to unstick stuck from sitting engines really well BUT if you leave it in there , it'll cause bearing failure (usually the rods) pretty quickly .

pulling or pushing an engine to start it is a sometimes thing , O.K. once in a while when the battery's dead on a good running engine but doing it correctly puts a serious shock load on the driveline and if there's a weak link , you'll usually find it , no fun when you're first resurrecting an oldie.....

If you must do this , remember to always push the vehicle , never _ever_ pull it as if it suddenly starts , the towed vehicle can acellerate and run into the back of the tow vehicle , often with disasterous results ~ BT , DT , lucky no one lost a foot or leg on my watch

O.K. ? if you're having troubles getting an oldie started , cranks too slowly etc. , you can always run the ignition off the 6 volt battery and use a seperate 12 volt jumper battery to run only the starter.....

I hope this helps .

Caution taken!

I used the diesel fuel and filled the cylinders last Thursday, refilled yesterday. Still not any movement!

Hopefully there are pictures attached to this post.

Cragar S/S mags w/spinners?

Give it time. It'll loosen up!

Nice Old Truck !

I love that Nu-View cab .

Remember to have the tranny in neutral and give the engine a rocking back & forth , the initial movement will be _very_ tiny ....

Awww, Ken

You beat me to it. I spotted those babies too. Classic.

Andy

OK, I need an update, Nate.

It has been 11 days and no movement what so ever. I pulled the valve cover and things look good in there. I am not in a big hurry, just want to make sure it is still a waiting game. It was stuck in gear when we pulled it out of the woods, so I thought maybe it jamped it tighter?? It is in neutral and I also have the clutch pushed in, just to make sure.

Thanks,
Howard

Dang ;

Nothing yet eh ? not even a fraction of movement ? .

I find that they usually loosen up in two weeks on the outside , if you have bog gloves , remove the flywheel cover and try rocking it back and forth , it might just give a tiny bit , once it begins to move , no matter how slightly , justy keep rocking it back & forth until it makes one full turn .

Once in a while one gets really stuck , in this case it'll prolly be cheaper to replace it with a takeout as they're far cheaper than any work you can do on your current engine .

Bog gloves?

Nate, I looked on the net but didn't see anything called bog gloves. What do they look like?

If Howard might have to pull the engine anyway, why not pull the radiator first and put a cheater bar on the hand crank spindle to see if it would move?

...Because a '62 235 doesn't have application for a hand crank IIRC.

Andy