another cad. added to the family.suggestions?

So last week i took my kids to the route 66 ice palor in town here. I always see a 61 cadallic parked out front, and thought maybe i could bs with the dude as the kiddies made a mess out of their cones. As we're getting ready to leave he wants to take a picture of the kids to add to the wall, He notices my 62 cad tattoo on my arm and we start to talking. He tells me of a couple of kids that came in awhile ago and where saying that their buddy has a old cadillac for sale that looks like his and for really cheap. He offers to show me where it is. We go look at it and behind the trailer is a 61 four door six window town sedan cadillac. We knock on the door and no answer, So easter on the way to moms I stopped by and the dude was there. It was grandpas car bought new in missouri and he died 5 years ago.The motor and tranny where rebuilt a little before that. He said he drove the car 4 months ago 30 miles. We agreed on the price. I picked it up on friday. The gas tank was in the rear seat full of rust dust. The stainless trim is all there and in great shape. Rust in the usuall cadillac lower ft fenders. Floors are good as is the trunk. Keep in mind he said he drove it 4 months ago, so i wane to see if the thing would really run. I check the fluids and all looked good. Hook up a new fuel filter and run it into a can for now. Fires up after a little cranking, idles high. I figured that the carb was probly jacked up from sitting so long but at least i know it runs, so now i dont mind if i need to put some money into it.
I checked the oil after i ran it for 2 mintues and it's a lite milky color.Shit water in the oil not good.I pulled the plugs to see if i could tell if the cylinders where filling up with water, all looked ok, not cleaned at all. So i start to contaplate if i even want to pull the 390 apart and try to fix it or just part out the thing since it is a four door. The better of it got to me so this morning i did a compression test and the 6 cylinders i tested are all really good 140-150 psi. The last one i tested came up 30 psi.houston we have a problem. I pulled the valve covers and found a few bent push rods.pulled the other side that all tested good and found some more bent push rods.

So my question is what step should i do next? throw some new push rods in there and see what happens or pull the heads or??

What could make them bend that bad but still be able to run?

I'm hoping that the water was from sitting so long and possibly built up some condensation.I did pressure wash the piss out of the motor but was carefull around the carb so maybe I got some water in that way. I never ran it long enough to get it hot enough so the thermostat would open, so i can't tell if it's pissing through a gasket or a crack.

So O great ol' hambers what should I do next? pull it apart or start running some classified adds "parting out 61 cad"???

I really dont want to spend alot on this car as i've already got a 62 and 63 caddy's in the garage taht i would rather spend the dough on.

 

come on suckas sound off. i need some help!!!

 

my 59 390 did that also with bending push rods, i have 6 stuck valves. which sucked. i would part it out, if you rebuild the engine you might be into the car formore then its worth.

 

I'd put in new pushrods and see what happens. You know what has happened, so ou can be on the lookout for it. Worst case you have to go thru the motor.


jerry

 

Dont part it out dude.. Did you only buy it because of the price?

Looks like a great project car for someone and Older Caddy's arent going down in value... even 4 doors..

sell it or hang on to it till later... very cool car...

 

ya i only bought it cause of the price and the fact that i do love caddys and didn't want to see it get scraped.i may just do like jerry said and try to throw some new push rods in the bitch and see what happens.

 

stuck valves are very common on 390 Caddy motors that have been sitting for a while-- and bent pushrods as you describe go right along with that dance.

i'd pull the heads and have them gone through, put in new lifters (they get gummed up easily) and pushrods.

been there and done that on this subject-- just with a '60 Caddy that had sat forever and a guy that decided to "get it running" before i got it.

-scott noteboom

 

so any ideas as of here the water could be coming from? theres no way a stuck valve would allow water to past is there? like i said earlier the cylinders checked out ok on compression so if the head gasket was jacked up wouldn't i have 2 cylinders side by side with low compression? i'm not that good with the interals of motors so thats way i'm here, to learn. Thanks.

 

so after asking around it looks like im pulling me some heads tomorrow.

 

there are typically 3 ways for a head gasket to blow;
1.cylinder to cylinder,as evidenced by low compression on 2 cylinders right next to each other.

2.water passage to combustion chamber or oil passage,which seems to be what you have.

3.very rarely,water or oil or combustion to outside of engine.
overheating enough to warp the head will have water seeping out.
oil seepage usually because of putting the gasket on backwards (i did that on my '61 Cadillac ) or warped head.
combustion leak usually too much boost from a supercharger or turbo,but those usually blow cylinder to cylinder.

anyhow,mostly i just wanted to say don't put the head gaskets on backwards like i did,or you'll pump a bunch of oil out onto the ground

 

so having never pulled these heads is there a way to tell which way is right and wrong on the gaskets.my new gaskets don't come in untill wednesday so i dont have anything right now to go off of. isn't there one side that would have a combustion ring or such on it/ that side would face ??

 

alright i pulled the heads today. from what my inexperience in this matter sees everything looks good.no rips or breaks in head gaskets.heads seem ok no visible cracks. i rotated the crank and checked each cylinder and all looks good. all lifters go up and down while turning by hand.there was coolant not water in the cylinders and block so i dont see how anything could have frozen during the winters.

so what should i do/check next?

 

dude i like the car. i have no mechanical advice for you, but i am diggin the car. i might be comin up there in 2 weeks.

 

remove the valve springs and make sure the valves aren't stuck in the guides.
you might just want to take'em to a machine shop,they can knurl/ream the guides to the right size,and grind the valves and seats if they need it.
they should also have a straightedge there to make sure the heads aren't warped.
make sure to give them the valve stem seals out of the head gasket set.
you also want to remove the little plugs on each end of the rocker shaft and clean the crud out of those too.

 

thanks for the help guys.i just got the call from the mechine shop and the heads checked out all good he said. no cracks and all valves , spring looked new.i pulled the lifters out and they also look really good. guess i need to pull the bottom end apart now.

 

tore apart the bottom end. i found 3 piston with very minor cracks down the skirts and # 8 hole had a bent rod. cylinder bores looked all good. # 5&6 had some pitts on them so maybe they had some water awhile ago sitting in there, not sure. cam looked good as did the crank. the block is at the mechine shop right now getting check over.

any one got a rod for a 61 390 cad motor for sale?