Yep, that's me, LOL! Getting prepped to tear into a C2AE block (you fellas may remember that industrial block I bought last year?). I really wanted to use this for my 312 crank, blower cam, 471 heads, blah, blah, blah. Anywho, we started out pretty good. I was amazed when I pulled the valve covers, but when I pulled the intake, I could see that we might have been headed for trouble, the tell tale signs of rust stains going down the intake runners of the driver's side gave me some doubts.

          Very, very clean inside!!! Not dry either...the pics may look that way at the rocker arm shafts, but there was oil dripping all over the place when I removed them. They have very little wear, and NO step in any of rocker arm tips. The heads had a couple of valves replaced (new one piece retainers on valves, looks like) and it seemed as if this thing had a rework not too long before either a head gasket went on it, or it got put out to pasture.

    

The tag was still on the coil mounting boss. I am going to assume a 1964 292...what this thing was used for, I have no idea - bought it as a swap special. The front mount and the rear mounts are pretty good. Lets you run the thing with no bellhousing. The rear mount holds the starter in place.

    

Ok, above are the photos of the passenger side on the left, and then the drivers side on the right. That's PB blaster in the cylinders on the left, and to be honest, the surface rust is not that bad in those cylinders. However, over on cylinder #6 (and #7 to a degree) we have some serious rusting. Whether or not I will be able to get those pistons out of there remains to be seen. cylinder 8 is fine, and 5 has some nut shells from vermin.

Is this worth fooling with, or should I get another block altogether? The cylinders must have had something done to them at the same time as the heads, because there was no ridge in any of the bores. I did not mic the bores yet however...the lightest colored piston was stamped STD. So I would probably assume that they are still even 292, but I have seen a few wierd things when tearing down blocks. Who knows who had a hold of it back in the day.

Don't want to disassemble, take this down to the machine shop, only to bore and "bore alike" and find, "Oh, you can't use this one, find another one and then spend all the more dough on block number two..."

Arggggghghhhhhhhhghghghghhghghghghghghhghghghghghg!!!!!

Ok, I'm done.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention - take a look at that cobbled mess of an alternator setup. People are CRAZY.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Clean up the tops of a few pistons and look for an oversize stamp, it may tell you if it was bored before and how much.

If one is standard, there is a good chance that they are all standard. Of course sometimes some used a portable boring machine to bore one hole. I would measure the std hole and compare it to the other holes. If they are std, I'm sure the whole thing would clean up at .030 and .060 for sure, no matter what drastic measures you have to use to get the pistons out. If you find another engine, it could be a lot worse.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

Daniel, If you are open to an unusual but effective method of freeing rusted rings to cylinder walls, try this. An old time method was to use regular Coca Cola to disolve the rust. Rotate the block on the engine stand so the cylinder you are treating are upright. Clean out all the PB Blaster and Kroil so the coke will attack bare metal. Soak the top, couple of days , rotate 180 degrees and attack with coke from the bottom.

Google it. Coke is a very mild acid (posphoric) and given time will disolve rust. Pete

I have broken down some real junk, with so much rust in the cylinders that most everyone would just toss the block.  It was a matter of challenge.

 In all instances the pistons came out.  Using wooden or aluminum sticks on the inside of piston top.  Just soak well with blaster or product of choice prior to removal for a day or more.  You may have to rap each side, top and bottom, several times to get some initial movement.  There was one stubborn piston that I ended up breaking through the crown, but got it out.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Thought I was the only one to use an old broomstick to break a stuck piston Seriously I have a designated old brooomstick to tap on stuck pistons, upside down in the engine stand. Soak with diesel for a couple days then PB Blaster for another and a couple of taps and they come loose..

Dustin

Southern Oregon Y's Guy

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/profile.php?ref=profile&id=1441322018

I can probably get those pistons out. Never had a block that I couldn't tackle to date. LOL.



My main concern was the usability of the block and having enough meat to bore out so that if there any pits, we are ok...

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I think you have a real good chance of saving it, if it is std. .060 should clean it up. maybe even .030 or .040 if there are no holes in it from rods escaping it's a keeper.

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

Dan

Just went thru the same kind of situation.Had to literally beat the pistons out breaking 6 of the tops thru.

I would be concerned mostly about the rust in the coolant passages.I sent my block out to a place to have it chemically dipped to clean the passages out.The cost was $100.00.

The places that do this chore are the same ones that dip bodys (automotive-not for the mafia)

Oldmics

I normally find a round log of wood about the same diameter of the piston, helps not to break the top of the piston. I have some good chunks of Hornbeam for this, one of the hardest woods there is in this area.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?