Not Fast, just "Less Slow"

Well...I always wanted a Valiant and always wanted a /6. So I bought a 64 Valiant convertible recently that was last run in 1982. (having a droptop is just bonus points for me) 225 and 3 on the tree.

The description of the car said something like"spins freely but needs minor electrical work and a carb rebuild"
It took 6 weeks to finally get it here and 3 weeks into it I of course bought a rebuild kit for the carb. (I'm so naive)

It showed up late one rainy night in October on the back of a car hauler from 4 or 5 states away. Put it in the back of the garage, dried it off and checked it over a little. Next night I go out to the garage with my compression gauge to get an idea of the engine condition. Well the engine would not turn with the starter. Hmm, I fool around with it and finally take the starter out, put 12 V to it and the solenoid moves but the starter motor doesn't spin. I rig up something on the damper to so I can turn it with a pry bar but still it wouldn't turn.

After removing the valve cover and seeing all the sludge I say this thing is coming out. So I pull it and throw it on a stand. I got a ridge reamer and did the 2 holes I could get to w/o turning the crank. Even with 2 pistons out,no head and no timing chain it still wouldn't turn with an 18" breaker bar. I can't explain how I did it other than I took off a couple rod caps, rotated the crank a little, ridge reamed 2 more holes, then did the last 2. I find out 5 of the 6 wrist pins were frozen in the pistons. Only #1 moved freely. Also, I had a hard time removing the lifters because of all the build-up. So I think the combination of the 5 frozen rods, the sticky lifters and the sticky rockers are what prevented me from turning it over.

Anyway, 2 Saturdays ago I dropped the block, crank, valve cover and oil pan off at a machine shop. He's an old school one man shop, probably close to 70. I had measured the bores and saw .006-.008 wear on two of the cylinders. There was a broken top ring on #1 and all the rings are carboned into place anyway. The bearings look really good with no abnormal wear patterns. I told him check it over and we'll talk about what it needs. I want to buy the parts and do the assembly but I need to know where we're going.

This morning I got a call on my cell and Karl the engine guy said he had a fire in his shop last Friday and he's out of business. Oh and, come pick up your stuff.

Ironically, he had my block in his oven to get cleaned but it hadn't been baked yet. So my junk was saved from a fire by being in an oven. :wack: I'll find out tomorrow if I lost the oil pan, main caps, and valve cover.

So my plans are to get it running and stopping by Spring. This car has ZERO brakes. NADA, nothing, not even the parking brake works. I'll get to that later. I don't want a race car, but I can't put a completely stock engine back into this thing. I just can't. I wanted to drive it as a survivor but I can't rebuild the engine without painting it. And now that the engine bay is open I have to clean that. It's going to be a driver so it's getting a dual master cylinder as a minimum. Man, I wish I hadn't sold my spare K-H discs. It's going to look mostly stock underhood but I'm thinking of a slightly bigger cam, a little porting, etc. It currently has four 13" Mud & Snow tires on it dated 1978 so that can't be good. I have a set of 14" SBP Rallyes doing nothing but taking up space so that may happen.

Lunch time is over so I'll continue next week as I'm off until then.