Welp, the prognosis isnt looking too good for the little slanter. I decided to put a crank bolt in the front and try to turn it. That involved pulling the Radiator out and the fan. Well, the frist sign of trouble was when I drained the radiator. Pure water!
No telling how long its sat like that! Strike one!
But, I pressed on. Wasnt able to get it to turn at all with the crankshaft, so I decided to pull the head to investigate. Started with the top heater hose, went to pull it off and it pretty much tore right apart. Looked into the passage, RUST, bad! Strike two!
So once the valve cover was off, it wasnt carboned up, and I've seen them worse, so that wasnt necessarily a strike. More like a foul ball. Pulled the rockers and then went for the intake/exhaust assembly it was loosely bolted on, no telling who did it, or why it was done, one of those things that makes ya go Hmm!
Well I finished off what someone had started and pulled it off, then the head. I was able to then get it to rotate some, the cyls were a bit rusty, the rear one lets out a fingers-on-a-chalkboard type of sound when I rotate it and then it seizes at the bottom of the bore. Rust! No big deal really, I can get it to run probably with a little TLC
But, its not gonna be that simple. When I look at the side of the block, one of the plugs is out, Strike three, yer out!
. I know, the motor might actually be okay but I really dont trust it knowing that yes it likely froze and I dont know how bad it got. Oil is finem but still, I could be playing with a time bomb. I could button it up and have a bunch of issues either now or down the road, which is where I dont want it to break down, with as much traveling as I do.
So, it looks like I'm going to replace it with the '80 motor and put this mid 70s motor to rest in the scrap pile. Yes its not the original motor, its out of some mid 70s car, no spark plug tubes!
So, thats a progress report for now!
