Found a motor that was rebuilt and sitting for a long time. Problems?

Are you restoring the truck or building a hot rod. What kind of transmission is in the truck. $2500 I would pass. I don't think even anyone restoring a truck like yours would buy that engine,they would have theirs rebuilt with a warranty.

 

What year? I've seen complete, running IH pickups from the early 50s listed for $3500, and maybe negotiable down from there. Have you been asking around on binderplanet?

 

I bought a 292 6 same story rebuilt 15 years ago . I paid $300 , hauled it home pulled the plugs fill it with ATF . It is still setting . I will tear it down and clean it up just so I will know what I have.

 

At our shop we've come across some old rebuilds that never got fired. One was a 326 pontiac that was rebuilt and sat for probably 20 years. It was perfectly clean inside, but the lithium grease that the builder had used was so old it actually locked the motor up.

Another is a dodge 218 we just finished re-rebuilding. It was brand new except for the condensation that gathered in the pan, causing the screen and pickup to rust to a pile of red dust. If the owner had poured in oil and started it, it would have instantly destroyed the rest of the engine.

I have a Pantera in the shop and the 351 was rebuilt back in the 80s maybe it was run once or twice, it barely turns over now.

My advice is take it apart and clean and put it back together. You never know what the insides look like, if there's enough assembly lube left, or how much rust or water is in there until you open it up.

 

That's what sent me down this rabbit hole. Down the road I could put a turbo kit on it and it would be a cool hot rod motor. I never really intended to show the truck or anything though, so it probably doesn't matter.

I asked him if it still turns over by hand, but haven't heard back from him yet.

I've been back and forth, but probably hot rod. That was my plan 10 years ago. It's a pretty complete, straight truck. I need a truck to haul things (furniture, plywood, etc), and it needs to be able to get in and out of my garage at the top of a steep driveway. If I can find a decent short box and running boards for it, I'll probably go that route.

1950. I've looked at a few, but they are rough. It would probably still be about the same work as one of those other ones, and most of them need more body work. This one is straight except a few dings in the front grille, and the box. We haven't found the running boards, yet.

 

$2500 way too much. Offer him $500 for the engine and $500 for the chrome. $1000 bucks.

Buy a 235 for $100-$300 bucks and use the $2200 for upgrades. However you did just buy a home. Take out a early equity loan and buy the engine of your dreams.

 

LOL, no wife won't let me do that. She might let me do that to refinish the basement, though.

 

Something that hasnt been mentionioned is the abuse that the closed valve spring has been under, now in 20 some years i'd call it fine, but a guy on here lunched a full race desoto hemi because of a broken spring but it had been sitting since the 60's....


Myself i have a low mile 283 from the early 90's that has given me shit because of collapsed rings and oils up plugs monthly (i checked the bore it looked great), so i can say shit can happen.

Now that said dont be one of these 350-350 faggots...

 

I'd be a little wary. Hopefully none of the abrasive is still in the bore. Being that it is much harder than the iron, it will score cylinder walls if not totally removed. I'd pull it apart and hit it with a honed with a nice cross hatch pattern.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a T-9, which I'm not too happy about. Some came with T-98s, but I'm pretty sure this one isn't.

I think these also have an odd input shaft that is really long.

 

I can no longer find the link, but read an article written a few years ago by some spring manufacturer, and the summary was that springs in use will lose their tension and are more likely to break than a spring that is compressed and held in that position. It was due to the cycles the spring goes through. Take a paper clip and bend it once, it doesn't break. Now bend that paper clip a bunch of times and before you know it you have two pieces of wire in your hands.

 

This is how I understand typical spring failures; it's cycles, not stationary compression. That's in general terms though and I don't know if there are different mechanics going on with an engine (shouldn't be).

 

Sometimes if a motor hasn't been rotated, the valve springs that are fully compressed might be a problem, but noticed I said "might". I had a SBC under my workbench for several years and friends told me about the spring issue. I lubed the hell out of it and primed the pump and the motor now has 30,000 on it with no problems. Lube it up and go!

 

If the po used emery cloth or any abrasive to clean the bore, it is total tear-down time. Anything over a year or two of sitting, you don't know where the lubricant has gone, what condition it is in or what's happened to the seals. I don't think you need to replace the rings or valve springs, but a light hone is a must.