Frozen Engine

Does anyone have any special tricks or processes for freeing a stuck engine? The car has been sitting for at least 10 years.

I have found that Kroil works the best for unsticking rusted or set rings. I pour about 1/2oz in each cylinder through the plug hole, take the intake off and spray it on the valves it will soak in real quick. Let it sit for 3 days then get your socket and a large breaker bar and try to turn it back and forth slowly, as the valves open squirt some more Kroil in the valves until you have them all oiled then let it sit for a few hours and it should turn over.

google thrust ion activated . best stuff i know of.

i have seen it free a V-12 IN 45 minutees

i had a twin industrial engine took about 30 days but it worked.

google thrust ion activated

gene

Thanks for the tips Has anyone used acetone mixed with ATF to free rusted parts? The comparison below was posted on another auto club forum. Interesting.

"The April/May 2007 edition of Machinist's Workshop did a test of penetrating oils where they measured the force required to loosen rusty test devices. Buy the issue if you want to see how they did the test. The results reported were interesting. The lower the number of pounds the better. Mighty interesting results for simple acetone and tranny fluid!

Penetrating oil . Average load .. Price per fluid ounce

None ................. 516 pounds .

WD-40 .............. 238 pounds .. $0.25

PB Blaster ......... 214 pounds .. $0.35

Liquid Wrench ... 127 pounds .. $0.21

Kano Kroil ........ 106 pounds .. $0.75

ATF-Acetone mix.. 53 pounds .. $0.10

The ATF-Acetone mix was a 50/50 mix (1 to 1 ratio)."

I've been having trouble removing rocker box studs in HD shovelheads. Some have been in 40+ years. I've tried heating in the oven to 250-300 degrees then using either WD, PB, Liquid Wrench with limited results. I will be trying ATF & acetone 50/50 tomorrow. This should work on problem RR bolts nuts also.

I use diesel fuel

Two things

Cheap and works

And few animals were harmed in the process.........

Ive only used ATF and acetone on one engine and that was a 48 Packard 288 and after soaking it for 3 days it broke free with the starter and turned over easy. The smoke when it started was like San Fran fog and took 3 days of running to burn off.

This was when I was a lowly Lance Corporal in the USMC and had no money. After the smoke cleared that engine ran strong for 9 more years as a daily driver only using a quart of oil every 1800 miles.

Thanks for all the ideas on what to use on breakinng rusted an stuck things on my old car. Reading thies what to do forums is great reading materal.

I've read a few articles on this too, most have good things to say about a large electrolysis tank.

You just need a large tank - like those found on a farm, or hauled in the back of a pick-up bed for yard spraying - you can also make one from plywood and line it with plastic sheeting. Encircle the top edge with copper tubing and suspend sacrificial metal strips, rebar,etc from the copper tubing. Place your engine in the tank and fill with water (preferably mineral free - garden hose filters are available.. Griots, etc) and baking soda.

Connect a battery charger - one end to the block and the other to the copper tubing with anodes attached and give it a 3-4 days.

Engine should not only become unstuck, but will be rust free when completed.

There are a few how-to tank builds on the net if you google it.

I have two flathead V8's I want to try this on myself one day soon.

Jim

I had a frozen engine in my 1941 Lincoln Continental when I purchased as in had been in storage for 25 plus years. My neighbor was a Ford Lincoln engineer and he helped me to do the following.

Removed spark plugs and filled each clynder with penentrating oil and let it soak for a week.

We put the car in gear, and had sever people try to push the car backwards while watching the fan blade to see if it moved.(if the car does move several feet and gets hard to push, Stop.) we went to the rear of car and pushed forward the same way.(Again stopping if it go harder to push) (After doing this several times it broke loose the rust in the cylinder walls. We then spun the engine with the starter to blow all the penentrating oil out cylinders. Re installed spark plugs, poured gas in carabuter and cranked.

This worked for me.

Good Luck!

Bruce Nussman