A few weeks ago, I had turned the motor by hand in the old truck, and it had no compression at all. After pulling the valve cover, there appeared to be a few valves stuck open, and I thought "that's it" for this engine.

Well, today I took as stab at freeing those valves. It turned out to not be as bad as I thought. Only two of the valves were stuck (both exhaust). I went through all the other valves and rotated them a bit with vice grips, to lap in the rusty valve seats. Then went to work on the stuck ones.

Number 2 exhaust was stuck open (probably has been open for 30 years). But with some oil, a neat little spring compressor, and vice grips, I was able to work the valve back and forth and up an down until it worked pretty smooth.

Number 3 exhaust was worse. Turns out it wasn't stuck open, it was stuck closed. This is what the push rod looked like.

Fortunately, these push rods are not hollow, so I was able to straighten it without damaging it.

I had to hit the valve stem pretty hard with a hammer to get the valve to move at all, but eventually I was able to get it to a position where it would move a little bit with vice grips, and I started working it from there. Lots of oil, lots of little movements, then bigger movements, then I was able to turn it with my power drill.

Some more time and oil, and it eventually freed up pretty well.

A little note on Mr. Smiley here. He just showed up in the back yard one day in Fremont. When I needed someone to keep dirt out of the intake manifold, he volunteered. And he's just lived in the truck ever since. You will see him in these journals now and then, helping out where he can. I guess he's the mascot.

So now for the moment of truth: crank the engine... no compression at all.

Wait a minute... I forgot to put the spark plugs in!!

Crank it again: Holly Tomato! How did anyone start these things with hand a crank! I can barely turn it!
WE HAVE COMPRESSION NOW!

After putting the rocker arms back on and cranking the motor some more, some of the compression went away. Apparently there is still rust or something interfering with the valves seating well. But I think there is a very good chance that this thing will run.

The distributor looks quite good inside. We should be good there. I tested the starter a few weeks ago, it turns very slowly, but turns. So now I just need to work over the carburetor (it has lot of black sticky gook in the bottom).

-bill

I never did try to start that engine. The clutch didn't work, the brakes didn't work, the gas tank was full of black stinky gook, and it seemed rather pointless to have a running engine in a truck that still wouldn't be drivable. I was also in the middle of buying a new house, so the truck took a back seat for a year.