Motor that has been sitting 15 years

[73dartneedswork]

I found out last week that my 318 had a bad piston. Instead of rebuilding the motor, I took a chance and bought a used motor off of Craigslist. It’s a rebuilt 318 with about 5,000 miles on it. The problem is the motor has been sitting for about 15 years.
The motor came out of a truck so I have to change the motor mounts, water pump, timing cover, oil pan and oil pick up tube.
Any recommendations (besides a rebuild) on what I can do to get the best chance of success from this motor despite it sitting so long?

Thanks,
Kris

 

[JoeDust451]

I found out last week that my 318 had a bad piston. Instead of rebuilding the motor, I took a chance and bought a used motor off of Craigslist. It’s a rebuilt 318 with about 5,000 miles on it. The problem is the motor has been sitting for about 15 years.
The motor came out of a truck so I have to change the motor mounts, water pump, timing cover, oil pan and oil pick up tube.
Any recommendations (besides a rebuild) on what I can do to get the best chance of success from this motor despite it sitting so long?

Thanks,
Kris

If it turns over freely, pull all the plugs & squirt some trans fluid in each cylinder, not much, but some, try & squirt it towards the back wall so it gets around most of the cylinder, then make sure the ignition is good to go & use fresh fuel & fire it up, the lifters might be noisey for a bit but should quit down, i'm assumeing you'll be installing fresh oil, if so (prime it), we started up a 383 after sitting 22 yrs. & it ran good, i myself fired up a 440 after sitting about 13 yrs. & all was good.

 

[Valvebounce]

You'd definately want to prime the motor using an electirc drill in the oil pump drive before you start her up if she's sat that long. I'd also reccommend turning the motor over with a powerbar with the rocker covers removed to make sure that none of the valves has become stuck in their guides after such a long time.

 

[needsaresto]

I have found a cheap turkey baster to be a good tool for squirting large amounts of oil into a cylinder. Tranny fluid,diesel whatever you use,use a lot.Prelube with a drill and tool. Sometimes it helps to flip the motor upside down briefly,but this makes a mess!

Dont force the crank too hard. If it wont move with a 1 foot pipe on the ratchet,a 4 ft pipe wont help either and probably break rings.Once it does move,only work it about 1/4 to 1/2 inch until it moves freely.

 

[Speedotann]

My 360 was a stock longblock sitting in a shed for 12 years that my buddies dad gave to me (unknown mileage) ... just threw on a LD340 intake and a 600cfm eddy, new oil pump and h2o pump and mp cam.... Runs fine... a little tired but FREE is good!! Just make sure it turns all the way over and prime the oil system.... cant hurt to start her up....

 

[Backtobasics]

Add a zinc additive to the oil. Try the turkey baster with oil, and squirt with high pressure, the oil into the drain hole areas, and try to get as much oil into the intake valley as possible, to get some oil onto the camshaft.

 

[cjh]

Spark plugs out, put some engine oil in there, prelube the system, then wind over by hand first, if it moves freely, then use starter to wind over so the oil in the pots can be moved around.
Put the plugs back in and fire it up, and watch oil pressure.

 

[RedFish]

Yep, pull the coil wire, take all the spark plugs out and turn it, first by hand. Fresh oil then spin it with the starter. A battery boost box will help. Starter is designed for intermittent duty. 20 second intervals so you don't burn it up.
Add fresh fuel, fire it up. Happy moparing.