Al,
Ok bud here is what I did and it was just a few months ago. I bought a 65 with a 273 2bbl with 318 heads. It was sitting outside for 2 years with no hood, it did have an aircleaner on it. I checked the dipstick and there was some water in it but for the money and the modifications this car had done to it I took it home,; after I drained the oil and got about 2 quarts of fresh water out of it.
1) pulled the 273 intake and carb off, the carb was the wrong one so I tossed it, the intake is now on the musuem shelf. Pull out distributor
2) Pulled the heads off, you have to do this if the car has been sitting you don't know whats in there, you just have to. Inspect valves rocker passages push rods etc. Send it out to be checked if you want but mine looked pretty good.
3) There was some water in a few cylinders there was some rust in #1 and #4.
4) Buy about 3 gallons of Marvel, it might sound like alot but you will see why.
5) Fill all cylinders with Marvel as the engine sits do not try and turn it over. Fill the engine with Marvel, just pout it right over the rods and everything, distributor gear set all over fill it up might take 2 gallons, remember 273cid is converted to 1.3 gallons but thats in the cylinders itself the motor takes 5 quarts with an oil change with filter so this should get you to the point of "filling" the cylinders from the bottom up. Let it set for a week.
6) Inspect daily on the amount of fluid in cylinders, remember there might be one that is top dead center, so that is why we filled up the engine to get some lubrication in from the bottom. As you inspect for drainage hopefully it doesnt run right out if it does thats not good you rings are shot. Should be minimal per day if at all.
7) Ok its been a week, gently rock the crank a bit if it moves great if not I would let it set and keep filling cylinders, my motor moved at this point some other folks might have more of an idea on how long to wait. This is critical because the rings could be rusted to the walls or worse the crank could be rusted in place to a conecting rod.
8 ) When I rocked my engine I did it in the reverse pattern that the rust was building up in the cylinders, this way I wouldnt drag the rings over the rust. Once it moved and I took each cylinder starting with the ones that had rust and drove the piston to the bottom, filled it up with Marvel, let it sit for a day, took a rag and ran it all over the cylinder, set my hone it and cleaned up the cylinders I did this one cylinder per day so it would sit completly in Marvel.
9) Ok cylinders are all clean now, Engine moves freely, by no means is this the end..... I drainded all the Marvel out, took the old oil filter off put a new one on. I put Cylinder #1 at Top Dead center, timing showed TDC, oh goody.
10) Put the engine back together. I even put the old plugs back in, they looked ok and I still don't know if this motor is any good. I was already in for the Marvel, and gaskets. I did have a Wieand 4bbl intake and a Carter AFB so that went on.
11) Got it all together. I put 4 quarts of 10/30 and one of Marvel. Filled the Radiator up with water. lil bit of gas in the carb. I put a spark plug wire checker on the #1 plug, you can get them anywere it just as an inductor that shows spark, I just wanted to know on startup that I had fire to the plugs, turning it over with no spark is a no gooder.
12) Contact! Amazing it fired right up and sounded awesome I was at about 38 or so PSI. I ran it until it was at 180 degrees and steady. Then 10 min after that. Turned it over again fired right up. I did a compression check. Three cylinders are at 120 they all had rust build up I knew it wouldn't be great, the others were all at 150.
13) I am still tinkering with it its been driven a few times motor is "broke-in" I guess, the car hauls *** when the secondaries open up. My next phase is to drian the oil, maybe it has 50 miles on it and use a motor flush and then refill it. Knocking on wood nothing leaks. It has a later model 904 (1972?) with a 8 3/4 3.21 rear same year I think. Big bolt patter wheels all the way around disk brakes. Some one put alot of coin in it and then smashed the front up.
I will up load some pics of what I did and you can see some more here;
www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/RicksMopar
I am no expert on anything this is just what I did, hope you have the same luck I did......
Next phase will be to pull the engine out and begin dissassembly for paint....
