Rust! Help!

All you guys out there, please help! I have my Dauntless 225 V6 apart except for 5 stubborn pistons and rods. The crankshaft is still in because I cannot get to the remaining 2 rod cap nuts. This engine has sat for probably longer than most of us have been alive. This is a 1966 engine that I believe has never had anything done on it, other than sitting and filling with water. I am amazed that #1 piston and rod came out as easy as they did. But the other 5 are really stuck.

Here is what I have done so far. Along with #1 out, #2 and #3 rod caps are off. Number 5 cap nuts are off and the cap is loose, but hard to get to. I am going to try and find a gigantor channel lock to get that cap off. Number 4 and 6 caps have one each of their nuts loosened and can be removed. But the other cap nuts are almost impossible. I tried a very short 13MM with a very shallow breaker bar, but cannot get the #4 nut to catch. I am tempted to gin up a makeshift 1/2 inch socket that will catch both of the bolts. If I can do that, then at least I might have a chance of removing the crank, which then might provide room to tap the beasts out.

I have tried PB buster, liquid wrench, wd40, brake fluid, and even some lacquer thinner mixed with auto trans fluid. I just tried that latter. I have cleaned the bores above the pistons.

My next trial and error is to turn the damn thing over and soak the insides of the pistons with the idea that perhaps the solvents can work their way through the oil control ring openings. I was going to try this, then hook up the flywheel and starter and try to buck the engine with the starter.

Enough of what I have tried, now I need some other suggestions.

 

Its not a task of speed .

Diesel fuel works, leave it set. Fill the bores from the bottom and tap the pistons a few times a day.

You could fill it from the heads side and have better luck.

Earlier this week I snaggeg a quadrajet from the bone yard. Nasty corroded piece of rusted solid junk.
Today the thing is snapping back on its own. 2 day soak in diesel.

 

Rather than 'gnashing' the starter, do as '31Vicky suggests: then remove the starter, and use a large square-shanked screwdriver to carefully rock the flywheel forward and backward...just an 1/8" at a time. If necessary, feed it some more JB Blaster; but my favorite 'soaker' is 75% diesel mixed with 25% liquid W-D 40.
Patience.

 

A soak in vinegar will eat the rust out of the bores also. Long enough and it will remove some metal too. Might help in your situation IDK

 

Thanks for some good advice. The diesel fuel sounds good. I am going to gin up the shallow socket this weekend and get the other two caps off, then perhaps the crank might come out. With the crank out, there might be a chance of getting this thing freed up. That block is really tight in there. Even though the heads and pan are off, and the engine is sitting on a dolly, there isn't much room to try and tap the rods and pistons out. I even tried putting a 3/8" drive socket on the rod bolts and then followed up with the rod cap nuts and tightened them down. Then tried rapping on the nut end with a 1/2" socket connected to a 1/2" drive extension.

I will get some diesel fuel and turn the thing on it's top and pour the diesel fuel down each bore till the oil control ring holes are covered.

How that first piston came out is beyond me. I just tapped on it with a ball peen and it slowly came right out. But not the other 5. Guess I could be working on one of my old V8's. (Don't even want to go there.)

 

If it were me, I'd do like the others said, but throw some grease or oil on the rod bearings and caps and put them back on until you can get the pistons freed up. Only reason I say this is to prevent nicking up the crank if you get too excited when they start to go. The last thing you want to do is smack the side of a rod when you're turning the crank... Just my 2 cents.

 

the diesel works great and a mix of 50-50 ATF/ACETONE will free it use. I have also seen molasses derust parts and its simply amazed me. pm dubcee or studefreak about it.

 

If your not saving the pistons and there real stuck I'd just take a hole saw to the tops of them at least that way you can get the crank to spin so you can get to the bolts then carefully break/cut them out of the bores I saw a guy to this to a real stuck 327

 

Very good point. I plan on putting hose on the rod bolts and see if I can get the crank out. If it doesn't cooperate then the caps go back on. The rod journals that are exposed did have oil on them, so this could just be piston to walls, and wrist pin to pistons being stuck too. Biggest issue is that only two (one already being out) rods are parallel to the bores. The others are all at angles and that doesn't help the cause.

I just want to get a few of them out, then maybe it will free up.

 

A friend of mine brought up the acetone/atf trick. The molasses thing is believable too. Rust is a funny animal! Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Edit it looks I reread and it sounds like you are trying to save them paticence and lots of PB blaster has worked well for me I just filled up the bores every morning for a week then spun the motor over on stand and did the same from the bottom for three days got it to spin about an 1/8 moved it back cleaned the bores with rags resoaked and repeated for a couple hours it spun perfect by the end