Stuck engine soak it loose

[Crosley.In.AZ]

What would a person use to loosen up on old engine nowa days?

In early days  i've used diesel fuel , trans oil , kerosene  to loosen up an engine. I will give those a try .

I wondering out loud if there may be other ideas.  PB  blaster?

[WZ JUNK]

What would a person use to loosen up on old engine nowa days?

In early days  i've used diesel fuel , trans oil , kerosene  to loosen up an engine. I will give those a try .

I wondering out loud if there may be other ideas.  PB  blaster?

I have always mixed in some Marvel Mystery Oil with keosene and just let it soak.  Every day or two as you walk by it try to move it in either direction until it frees up.  Patience required.

John

[tomslik]

brake fluid

[tomslik]

brake fluid

hey! try some vinegar!
seriously.

[paul2748]

50/50 mix of ATFand acetone.

[wayne petty]

its really stuck...     heads on.. heads off?   4, 6, V8.

engine in the car... on a stand... on the floor???    

fresh out of the river?

there are ways to use reverse   electrolisis??   there was an article a while back about removing decades of corrosion from a P47 motor...  so anything is possible...

if it is really rusted... dilute out some naval jelly.. fill the cylinders.....  it will eat the rust out.. but may also eat the pistons..

there is also available rust away... or what ever it is called. rust dip...  you might be able to fill the cylinders with it...

[Crosley.In.AZ]

its really stuck...     heads on.. heads off?   4, 6, V8.

engine in the car... on a stand... on the floor???    

fresh out of the river?

there are ways to use reverse   electrolisis??   there was an article a while back about removing decades of corrosion from a P47 motor...  so anything is possible...

if it is really rusted... dilute out some naval jelly.. fill the cylinders.....  it will eat the rust out.. but may also eat the pistons..

there is also available rust away... or what ever it is called. rust dip...  you might be able to fill the cylinders with it...

Engine on floor.

No head, Crosleys do not have removable cylinder head.  Only have spark plug holes to work with

[wayne petty]

well i guess the bfh is out...

are the pistons stuck... or the crank bearings seized??  when the pistons are stuck.. the crank will sometimes turn slightly...

rings rusted to the cylinder walls.. cast iron pistons rusted to the cylinder walls...  

they do sell WD-40 in gallon sizes...   filler up....

i do have an option in my bag to tricks... i have a half horse power 120 volt vibco vibrator .. bolt the engine to that .. turn it on... it should shake it loose quick... or completely destroy it...

i got it at a junk yard for 10 bucks.. told them it was a starter motor... been stubbing my toes on it ever since... i have been planning on using it under a parts wash tank ...  place the part inside the tank.. turn it on.. cheep spray wash...   actually i have always thought about bolting it to a 4x4 and placing it against the ceiling...   driving out the noisy people upstairs...   but they moved... bongos at 4 am had to go...

you might do something like that with a air hammer... if there is any where on the soldered together block to attach it too...


there is one more way....     got something the same size as the spark plug thread that you could screw a grease gun hose into???/   pump the grease gun.. push the piston down...   as long as the crank is not at top dead or bottom dead center... it might  break it loose...

when i freed up my dauphene powered dune buggy motor... i pulled the head.. soaked the pistons.. used a wooden dowell i made on a wood lathe.. and hammered each piston...  once that started... some of the other liners started to pop up.. moms friend... who came over to supervise. decided to hammer on the liners with the wooden block and the hammer...  except.. he did it when i went in for a minute.. he did not know about the copper seals on the bottom... had to order new ones from france... lucky renault  had a branch near by...

[Bruce Dorsi]

I had read that a lot of guys restoring old farm tractors used rubbing alcohol to loosen stuck pistons/rings.

I tried it on an engine that sat for 20+ years and it worked for me.

Of course, each job is different.  

If the crank/rods are seized, obviously putting anything into the cylinders will not free it.

[chimp koose]

I unstuck a model t engine with penetrating oil. Poured the cyl. full and let it sit . Every day I would work the crank back and forth but not force it. It took about a week to break it loose.

[C9]

I wouldn't use vinegar, it attacks some metals pretty strongly.

I stuck a pair of moderately rusty Lufkin calipers in vinegar for 48 hours.
The main body cleaned up nicely, the blued spring steel piece at the top broke in two,


Straight and clean kerosene works pretty good.
I stuck a South Bend tailstock in a sealed bucket of it and it freed up after one year of soaking.
A month or two probably would have done it, but I forgot about it.

Interesting part was it removed a lot of external rust and left only patina.

The tailstock had been out in the weather for ten years . . . we looked but couldn't find the lathe proper.


The HAMB had a post on penetrants etc. within the last couple of months.
A 50/50 mix of acetone and kerosene was deemed the best . . . by a test lab I believe.

AeroKroil was near the top and surprisingly PB Blaster was a ways down the list.


I've also poured Marvel Mystery oil down the plug holes of a 1932 Nash six that had been stored in a Modesto, Caifornia barn for 50 years.'
Next day, it turned over easily.
And . . . it may have been lightly rusted at the most.
It didn't want to turn at first, but one day of soaking did the trick.


I note as well that most commercially available penetrants are composed primarily of kerosene....

[C9]

Here's the HAMB article.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=350800&highlight=penetrating+oil



Worth a look.

[GPster]

I have a friend that was approached by someone that was trying to do a 100% restoration on a '57 T Bird. The "Y" block was stuck and he could pin-point the stuck piston by which intake valve was open. He got that cylinder's valves closed and made a spark plug with a grease zerk on it. He had access to a gas stations chassis grease machine and he put the grease to that cylinder to force the piston down. Sometimes soaking things only works on the least rusted place and when it soaks through that place any pressure will be relieved through that space so that you can't pressure against other rusted areas. The grease being more solid than liquid did not run past the rust that way. You may want to pull the oil pan (does it have one?) and decide what cylinder(s) is stuck and concentrate more on it than trying to loosen two or more cylinders by appling pressure on just one. This would mean that the pressure against one to move more than one. Also pressuring on a piston going down might be trying to force another piston up it's stroke. You might also check and make sure any cylinder you try to pressure is not at the top or bottom of it's stroke as you may hurt that piston because the crank won't let it move any further. GPster

[Crosley.In.AZ]

i've been soaking a rusty carb in trans fluid - kerosine mix for 2+ weeks.. still stuck.

Previously it was spray'd multiple times with PB blaster.



it is soaking in brake fluid now.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I will mention , I have 2 of the 3 engines loose (crank spins)


I've been spraying PB blaster into cylinder intakes , exhaust , spark plug holes.