225 with the head left off for a year... can it be saved?!

225 with a head missing for over a year and surface cylinder rust

  • Pull it

    Votes: 6 50.0%

  • Fix it

    Votes: 6 50.0%
  • Total voters
    12
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B

BigBlockJames804

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Hi folks!
Like I wrote in the subject.. buddy had a 225 and took the head off for his 72 2 door dart and left the bottom end in his 74 dart custom... my question is with light cylinder rust and the engine turning over can it be resurrected or do I just pull it out? He said he wants to go as cheap as possible but... any suggestions or info?! Thanks!
 
No rust is good rust, and there's no way to fix it in the car worth doing it in the car, pull it, hone it, & check it.
 
"Light" cylinder rust is kind of subjective- if it's just a surface "flash rust" it may be okay. Does it wipe clean with a liberal dousing of PB Blaster or the like? If so, slants are pretty forgiving. Let the cylinders soak in case the rings tightened up, then give 'er! Just depends what you want to end up with. Pics would be nice...
 
Professor Fate said:
"Light" cylinder rust is kind of subjective- if it's just a surface "flash rust" it may be okay. Does it wipe clean with a liberal dousing of PB Blaster or the like? If so, slants are pretty forgiving. Let the cylinders soak in case the rings tightened up, then give 'er! Just depends what you want to end up with. Pics would be nice...
Click to expand...
It does spin freely there’s nothing that my fingernail catches on as far as the bores go..the one thing I’m worried about is the lifters will move but I can’t seem to get them out of the block.. is this anything I should worry about and I’ll post pics in a few!!
 
Professor Fate said:
"Light" cylinder rust is kind of subjective- if it's just a surface "flash rust" it may be okay. Does it wipe clean with a liberal dousing of PB Blaster or the like? If so, slants are pretty forgiving. Let the cylinders soak in case the rings tightened up, then give 'er! Just depends what you want to end up with. Pics would be nice...
Click to expand...

here’s the pics

B99EAFD6-24E8-4121-B9A0-0776F9FC85EF.jpeg


48DDC769-4019-4C61-A7EF-CE44BAC6179B.jpeg


68E815F4-2E1E-43FA-BFEA-6169F9747C93.jpeg


DA8D49B5-23B9-4178-9FA1-FB60636DBEB2.jpeg


EC3D633F-FC5C-4060-BF8B-0E35E1AFCEAE.jpeg
 
No, nothing new, all lifters get that way. Varnish etc. buildup under the lifter bores makes them hard to pull, they actually make tools to grab & yank 'em out, spray some penetrant on them & work them.
 
And from those pics,...I stand by My original post............
 
I had a 318 with similar rust to those pictures and honing wouldnt remove it. Pull it have it bored over.
 
Option A: Do as Killer6 said.

Option B: Leave it in the car, put it together, start it, quickly eat up the remains of the piston rings, and then do as Killer6 said.

One of these options is less work and less money; which one do you think?
 
I've seen worse. Not proud of it, but I was under the gun, so I hand sanded HEAVY rust out of #7 cylinder in a 360 with a 32gr sanding disk. It ran fine afterwards, and is still running.
 
I will see your slant six and raise you a flathead. And it runs. Pretty decent i might add.
Did a light wire wheeling on the rust and a scotchbrite to knock back the rust.
B04DC86F-CDEC-4F10-8520-9AC52C6DD02E.jpeg
Played whack-a-mole with the valves until they would go down on their own.
 
The 440 i put in my ram charger had some bad rust pitting in one hole... I didn’t have any money at the time so I sanded it and honed it the best I could and it runs fine. That was more than 10 years ago.
 
if you want to do it cheap,I would be inclined to get a 3.5 inch ball brush (flex hone) and a with plenty of light penetrating oil on the cylinder bore walls and the piston at BDC
Use the ball brush to clean up the bores and reestablish the cross hatch on the bore walls. Power the ball brush in a variable speed drill, with a fast up and down motion at a medium speed you with get about a 45 degree cross hatch.
Use a Scotch Brite pad with an ample quantity of wd 40 to scrub the top deck.
It will run fine.
Question: why the head studs?
 
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I would remove the rust as @my68barracuda outlined and have at it. It's always easy to spend somebody else's money. What the heck do you think happens to cylinders in an engine that sits 20 or 30 years? People resurrect those all the time. Find a GOOD penetrating oil, (Seafoam Deep Creep is great) spray it down and do the dingleberry hone. Clean it all up good when done. That joker will come out fine.
 
Lol thanks so much everyone, to answer the questions ... this isn’t my car it’s my buddies ... and it’s sat in my yard for a few years now.. he told me he’d pay me to just get it going to get it out of the yard and doesn’t want to spend a lot to get it moving under it’s own power.. of it was me I’d pull it and hone it myself... the head studs were him and I have no friggin clue why lol
 
Who was spending someone else's money? Hone it & check it is exactly what was suggested, and You said.....????? New rings either way, & if the goal is to make it crawl under it's own power, it wasn't worth asking the question,....just sayin'........
 
Pull it ,take it apart ,hone it , measure it , if it's still in spec then give it new rings & bearings . It's pretty rusty and there is no way it will be any good unless it's honed and re ringed.
 
Those bores look to be beyond mere surface rust. My definition would be removable with scotch-brite and a lubricant. If your conscience says the rings should be checked out (cause they're rusty and maybe broken) then you may as well yank it out, throw it on a stand and inspect the whole thing. He removed the head to use on another car so what's going on top of this one?

But if the goal is to just get it out of your yard.....have at it with dingle ball. Could be a good mosquito chaser when done and add to the slant six legend. But I wouldn't do it.
Give him a warranty that expires at the end of the driveway.
 
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Personally, if it was me, and just to get it running/moving. I would just use some penetrating oil and scotchbrite, by hand, to clean the rust as much as possible, without busting my butt. Remove the oil pan plug and flush the cylinders with karoseen. Put that sucker back together.
 
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