Well boys, that stream of obscenities you heard on Friday night was me hitting the biggest hurdle yet on the rebuild. After dropping the jets a bit the richer mixture got the engine idling without the choke finally. Hooray!
But wait. Now that the engine isn't racing at 3 grand, it sounds a bit funny. Shut it down and pulled out the compression gauge. I know what you're thinking. You've been working on this thing for two months and only decided to check compression now?
Um, yes.
Cylinder 1: 168psi. Groovy
Cylinder 2: 155psi. Ok.
Cylinder 3: 50psi. MF! CS! SOB! GD! MF! (You know you're swearing a lot when you start to repeat yourself)
Deep breath and started to pull the head. Rockers adjusted down too much? Nope. Hey, maybe just some crap caught under a valve right? No. Seated clean. Got the head off and ran my finger around the cylinder. Hmm. A bit rough but not too bad. Peered deep down and saw it. Massive gouge running around about half the circumference of the cylinder about 3/4" above the piston top. I'll attach a pic. I'd say this engine sat for a good long time and a piston ring rusted right onto the wall. When the previous owner hooked up a battery to crank it dry, blammo.
Thankfully the guy I bought it from threw in another block that's in pretty good shape. (He probably did a compression test) So the weekend I planned to spend doing the passenger door skin and welding in some new seat belt bosses, instead I spent stripping the engine to prep for a swap. I'm going to Princess Auto on Tuesday to buy an engine hoist. I figure if I have to pull it a second time for any reason, I will have spent enough renting hoists that I may as well buy the one they have on sale for $159...
Here's some progress shots of the tear-down in case you're interested...The blow by blow of the compression test is entertaining...
http://www.flickr.com/gp/39389329@N00/Tty7mf
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