Technical Drying out the 327

Before offloading my new 327 from the trailer, I sealed it up and ran to the car wash to knock off anything loose. It looks like my seal under my lifting plate on the intake was not as tight as I thought.

Now it is in the process of being checked out so I can feel comfortable firing it up. Turning the motor over via the balancer, it went a quarter turn and stopped. I went back about two thirds and again stopped. Now I am starting to worry. I turn it back clockwise and take a peek in all the cylinders via the plug holes. Saw something I had never come across.

Snow cone in aisle 2!

So now I have this McGyver’ed up solution. Crank the motor until the intake valve is open and insert...


$10 blow dryer and a 3D printed adapter - viola! I guess I have to seal things up better next time!

Time for some penetrating oil ‘til things go back together.

 

Must be mighty cold in Idaho!

 

My garage isn’t heated and it’s been in the teens overnight. And it is colder than hell!

 

If you haven't already I'd soak it down with W40. If you have a way to hook a starter up and spin it I think I'd do that with all the plugs out to blow out any moisture too.

 

Darn, you kids know how to make all the stuff to make life easier, that is a pretty elegant solution. Well played!

 

I’m going to go get more WD40 tonight. I am going to go through and “defrost” all the cylinders before I hook up the remote start switch.

 

I love everyone that thinks the teens are cold. It was right around -40 here all last week. I hope everything works out with your motor.

 

Minus 40, sounds like a good place to be FROM, lol.

 

Yeah I can't think of anything that needs to be around -40 especially me !!

 

I'm only going to say this because we need more good people...and especially more car guys out here in Socal, for the next 4 days it's going to be in the mid 70s...and after that it'll drop to a bone chilling high 60s for a couple days. It'll eventually get "cold" here....but that normally means mid 50s.

I think others have it right....plenty of WD40...but I'd hand spin it with the plugs out...then drain the oil...then try to warm that baby up so if any water is left it'll evaporate.

 

Soak it in Marvel Mystery oil.
r

 

-40 is some serious cold!

I ran the dryer in each cylinder for about 30 minutes between yesterday and today. I then shot more WD40 into the plug holes right after drying each one so I should be good to go. While cleaning out my oil pan and I found some lovely pin holes as I was finishing up, so a new pan is in order.

-40 - makes my bones ache just thinking about it...

 

Duct tape some small tubing to a Wet'n'dry Vacuum and suck it up through the spark plug holes

 

This probably is a better way to get the engine warm. Could throw a tarp over the engine so that it seals to the floor & cover with a sleeping bag or something that will hold the heat in. Then put a heater under the tarp for a few hours to let the heat soak in & warm the entire engine up. Just be careful & make sure there is good circulation around the heater & nothing touching the heater. A few hours should take care of any ice faster than trying a hair blower.

A thought on a non heat method that may work.
Isopropyl alcohol is used as a gas line antifreeze & is very effective at eliminating ice. We used the iso as snow machine fuel antifreeze as it was friendly to gaskets & fuel lines. It is fairly common in Canada as as a gas antifreeze. If an auto store or fuel station near you does not carry Iso as a gas line antifreeze then it is sold as rubbing alcohol in drugstores for foot care in 70% or 100% concentrations. It will melt the ice & mix with the water to stop it from refreezing. If you drench the cylinders a few times with isopropyl alcohol then let it sit the alcohol will take the water with it to the bottom of the oil pan. Drain the oil & put fresh in as you should anyways. Spray WD40 or pour some oil into the plug holes to re wet the cylinder walls with oil. Crank it over with the plugs out so the oil wets out the cylinders to protect them & let the oil work past the rings.

40 below is not that bad. It is a dry 40 below, Nice thing it is easy as 40 degrees fahrenheit & celius are the same. No bugs, malaria or poisonous snakes.

 

"Yes, but it's a Dry Cold"

Ya know, !$&@ck you, pal.

 

That's because at -40 nothing is wet!

 

Im a puss. We only had -20 last week

 

What patterg2003 said. It works.

Pat

 

Except everything that gets covered in a 1/2" of hoar frost every night so after a week it looks like the driveway needs to be cleared.

 

The blow dryer dried everything out. I am going to braze the holes in the pan to seal it up and reassemble tonight.

I hope to start it up tomorrow.