Re: IML: Please Welcome Brad Pellett

[David Whitney <hazegreen66@xxxxxxxxx>]

Welcome back, Brad --

 

I thought I had the lowest mileage '66 Coupe on the road at 29,130, but you may have me beaten.  Best of luck with your restoration.

 

If the engine has not, in fact, been run in decades you will at the very least have to lubricate the cylinders before trying to turn it over.  The starter is rather unforgiving in that respect, so you may want to remove the pulley assembly and do your turning by hand.  The crank bolt is 1 1/4 inches, and it should not take more than 30 foot pounds torque to turn it.

 

Your gaskets and seals have deteriorated in the most inconvenient places, so you can look forward to a teardown inspection and reassembly with fresh gaskets.  Likewise fluid hoses and vacuum lines.  If it's rubber, count on replacing it, and don't forget the valve stem seals in the heads.

 

Since you're likely going to have to pull the heads anyway, you may want to wait until you have done so to try to turn the engine over.  Before you do that, you can check combustion chamber sealing using compressed air.  The fitting is easy to obtain, or you can just use a cone-shaped tip and shove it in the plug hole to get a seal.  After unloading the spring pressure by removing the rocker arms (one turn on each bolt at a time, slowly and evenly to avoid warpage), remove all spark plugs and blow air into one cylinder at a time.  The cylinder does not have to be at TDC in order for this test to work as long as the valves are closed.

 

The air can only go one of six places -- out the carb means intake valve not seating properly; out the tailpipe, exhaust valve; out the oil filler tube means bad rings; bubbles in the radiator, out an adjacent cylinder or from between the head and the block means bad head gasket.  No air escaping means big smiles all around.

 

Happy motoring,

David

'91 K-Imperial driver
'66 Crown Coupe project
'66 LeBaron dual air and every option known to man

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