230 inline 6 with surface rust?

[63gmc]

Well I got this 63 gmc a couple months back. The guy had let it sit up for a couple of years and had the exhaust loose from the manifold, which was barely on the engine. I guess this let some moisture inthe engine. I pulled the plugs and found some surface rust on 2 cyclinder walls. Pulled the pan, and no water was in the oil which was good. MY question is should I be worried to death about this rust or try to start her up? ANything I should put in the plug holes to help lube the rings back up for the first start up? I did turn it over with a pry bar on the flywheel since the starter isnt bolted up yet. Any input?

[scotts62]

Depends on how much rust, rust will kill the rings in a heart beat. I would put some oil in there at the very least.

[pat 70/71]

I think if the rust is minimal, clean what you can with scotch brite pads and fire it up these motors run forever! remember they run bad longer than fords run period! check your compression & make sure you have oil pressure and you should be good to go! cheers, Pat

[68gmsee]

My input... You got nothing to lose. If this works you're in luck if it doesn't you'll just have to dismantle it and rebuild it.

Remove all the spark plugs and use an oil can full of 5 weight oil and squirt plenty of oil into each cylinder (some people use trans fluid, but to me it's not slick enough). Let it sit for a day or two then try to turn the engine with the plugs off by clicking the starter. If it moves let it run for a few seconds and reinstall the plugs.

If it starts, it will smoke pretty bad at first. It may take about 5-10 minutes to burn off all of the oil out of the cylinders and exhaust.

Once it warms up to operating temp, look at the exhaust pipe and gun it gently to see how much it smokes. This will give you an idea if you want to tear into it.

[63gmc]

yeah, the engine turns so thats not what I'm worried about too much. I just wanted to see what people thought about the rust. A buddy of mine said to squirt some marvel mystery oil in the plug holes and let it sit a day or so.

[sierra4x4]

I would say just put some oil in the cylinders crank it with no plugs in it to try to flush out the rust. It will make a huge mess. I had a 305 v8 that sat outside for 2 years and got water in it and was actually a little siezed with water in 2 cylinders and in the oil. I just drained the oil and flushed it a few times before running it and it. It ran great for 6 months. I ended up having to replace one head later on but that was a totally different problem and I was suprised at how mint the cylinder that had water in it looked. All that you could see was a little staining on the cylinder wall. The compression was almost exactly the same on all cylinders after all this.

[pritch]

A few squirts of Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder will do wonders.

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by 63gmc

yeah, the engine turns so thats not what I'm worried about too much. I just wanted to see what people thought about the rust. A buddy of mine said to squirt some marvel mystery oil in the plug holes and let it sit a day or so.

In the past I've seen surface rust in engine cylinders that all I had to do was hone them slightly and didn't affect the way the engine ran and another that had to be re-bored.

That's why I mentioned you got nothing to lose. Try it and if it runs go for it. If it doesn't... well you can take it from there.

[63gmc]

well I let the mystery oil sit overnight. Got home early today and hooked jumpers to the starter and turned her over with no plugs. Sounds like she has good compression and she turbed over without any god awful noises haha. This weekend Ill probably throw the manifold and carb back on and wire the distributor up. Mechanic buddy of mine was telling me to try to fire it up without the radiator before I go hooking all that up and have to pull it if something is wrong. Said I can run it for a few minutes without the radiator without hurting it. My question is will this hurt anything? It's going to be in the upper 70 to 80s this weekend and I don't want to call him a dummy to his face if he is correct. Anyways thanks for your help guys and input and if you could help me out with this delimma that would be great!!!

[68gmsee]

Whya take a chance. The radiator takes about 15 minutes to install and you will need to run it more than a few minutes to burn off all of the oil in the cylinders. Install the radiator and run it until it warms up to normal operating temp. This way you can check to see if it's burning oil through the cylinders or valve guides.