Lots of good advice so far. Has anyone determined that it is the engine which
is stuck?
After long storage I'd assume it is frozen at the rings too, but its worth a
few looks about to verify that the problems are all in view before we fix
them.
If a borescope were to be available that would be a big help. Contractors use
similar things now to look into walls for home inspections, maybe one is
available. Of course, the penetrating oil family is a pretty good thing too
as far as blind attack on the problem. I'm in favor of the coke if our new
associate is capable of devoting a fair bit of time to the thing in one go.
If the rust in the cylinders is pervasive, then the problem becomes a good
deal more serious. if it is a light rust, and merely preventing the engine
from moving, something else. Rust at the rings is pretty much the same thing
that happens often enough between the faces of the clutch. When this happens
we have two schools of thought. initially the brute force, massive ignorance
school (I'm an alumnus, if not currently enrolled in this school.)
secondarily, the wary and wily trickster school of thought. (I hope to more
and more often be in this school) My theories go something like this.
Rust is a pretty fragile material. it fractures easily, but presents the most
godawful problem when it locks up things like this engine or our clutches. I
think it resists us so well, because we have difficulty approaching it on
favorable terms. Whether we are working on a frozen clutch, or a stuck piston
ring, we are attempting to shear the material. in shear rust is pretty
strong. In tension though it's quite weak. It is pretty hygroscopic, and
reduces in strength when wet. I'd be quite interested in a clutch experiment
where a stuck clutch victim inserts the wading plug, and introduces hot water
into the void, shouldn't take too much to get things wet inside. They are
probably already pretty wet which caused the rust in question. An oil and 90
wt change and we should be back in business after. I've freed clutches by
wedging the clutch open, and using a long screwdriver to lever the disc away
from the flywheel face. It was a forklift, and access was pretty easy, but
the theory was sound.
So all in all, I'm in favor of the coke method. I used it this last summer on
a frozen piston and it worked a treat. The actual method which moved the
piston however was a hardwood 4x4 and a sixteen pound sledge. The old tractor
guys occasionally use a spark plug with a zerk fitting welded to it to apply
pressure to move the piston. That is pretty much a last resort though, and
risks "severe damage" and is only used as a last resort. They were pretty
bummed about the cost of the grease to fill the bore too. I'd fill with
Crisco, and then use the grease in the cartridge, if I was to try this.
Hope all turns out well here.
Zack
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