Ok, I have held off bothering the board about this, but I need some answers and all this headscratching is making me bald too early in life. It's a long story but the question is at the end. Please bear with me and help if you can. Here's the deal: I have had my '57 292 Y-Block in the engine shop. Complete rebuild. Balance everything, .060 bore, new rings, bearings the hole 9 yards. Not a cheap undertaking, at least not cheap for this poorboy. I get it back last week all excited to be putting it in the car. Bolt all the stuff back on the motor, stuff it in the car, set the timing, and am ready to go so I think. I crank on it maybe 7-10 times and realize I have the timing 180* out and no fuel is being pumped to the carb. I switched the plug wires and pour a little (1-2 thimble full) fuel in the carb. Varoom she fires on the 2 crank and runs till the fuel is gone. So I put in about the same amount again. Same thing happens. At this point I realise I need an electric fuel pump. I go to the parts store and buy a pump that will shoot 2-3 psi of fuel. Should be plenty for the factory 2 barrel. Get back to the garage, wire and plumb the thing, and attempt to fire it again, but the starter turns slow. I think its a battery problem so I put on the charger with the hot start swithed on. No Change. I then spend the next day troubleshooting electrical problems, which I find none. I try to turn the crank with a breaker bar and socket and she is pretty tough, so I pull the plugs to release compression. Still really tight. I loosen up the Rocker arms incase something is binding. Still really tight. I seperate the trans from the block. Still really tight as in won't budge. I go ahead and pull the motor and take it back to the engine shop where he tells me that there is no way it could be abearing or the like as they have never had one spin on one of their fresh engines. I am very nice and go along and ask them to check it out. The get the heads off and call me and say the cylinder walls are rusty I need to come look. Sure enough they have flash rusted and it looks pretty nasty in there. He says the heads are good and there appears to be no sign of ghead gasket failure. The rust is in all 8 cylinders. Here's the question: Is there anyway that the small amount of gas we used to fire this thing could cause the cylinders to rust up bad enough to where the rings can't move in the walls? This was fresh gas straight from the pump. It's looking like it's going to cost me a new ring set and gasket kit. The engine guy said he would eat the labor. Am I wrong in wondering about this? Am I getting screwed by the engine shop? I am just trying to get all this square in my head. Thanks for any response you guys might have.
Did you prime the oiling system before you attempted to start it? How much oil pressure was there when it fired up? I've never heard of a bit of priming gas causing cylinders to rust up to the point the engine didn't turn. Did they install the heads or just do a short block? Flatman
A couple of things come to mind. 1) The cylinder walls were (hopefully) lubed with something during assembly. During further assembly in the shop most of this was scraped off (rotation), and then during your first sesson of cranking/timing issues you scraped any remaining stuff off....sharp ring edges, not much lube, fairly quick to happen. During this process it sounds as if you didn't really run it enough to get much heat in it...a few seconds, maybe. Being in KY right now, I'm guessing you have a ton of humidity & heat. The garage is probably not temp-controlled. In other words, every time the engine is going through a temp change (day-night), you are getting condensation inside the bores...even before it ran. It didn't run long enough to heat it up....& then the bores were essentially de-lubed. And then it sat....not sure how long until the fuel pump was installed. The rust was probably already there before it was started, for the most part. I don't think the gas had anything to do with it. In other words, most of it happened before it was fired....& the rest, once the running process stripped any remaining lube. BTW, were the spark plugs in it while you were hooking things up? Before trying to start it the first time, I mean. 2) The head gaskets were not sealing correctly. Or, the intake crossover was leaking into the crankcase... Flash rust can look horrible, but it will probably clean up OK. Make sure they lube the walls, and if nothing else, as soon as you pick it up, pull the spark plugs (if installed) & spray Kroil all over the cylinders, as much as you can reach. Bend the plastic straw 90 degrees to reach the near sides.
Thanks for the response guys. The motor sat in the garage like this: I picked up Tuesday evening @ 4pm. Painted and detailed that night, Also installed the plugs. Weds eveing @ about 4pm I started installing gen. water pump, fuel pump etc. Thurs day evening @ about 6pm I started trying to get it to fire. So maybe 3 days after assembly. Plugs were in the whole time, intake also but no carb till Weds. evening. I'm sure the humidity didn't help any as it's been lik 70% here all week. I am planning on installing and firing the motor the day I can get it from the shop this time. I'll be taking a vacation day to try it. I am getting to be fairly experienced at installing and taking it out now. One more thing: Should I trash the fuel in the tank and start fresh or should I just put in a little fuel additive just incase there is water present? Thanks again for they replies!
Honestly, if there was enough water in the tank to cause that kind of problem, I'd have my doubts that it would even fire.....unless you primed the carb from a gas can, & the tank had a lot of water in it already. They can gain condensation too... I'd probably discard the tank contents & start new, if there's any doubt....maybe even drop it & take a look inside. Any chance it was full of junk beforehand?
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