Let me start by saying this is my first project vehicle, and I have learned tons from all of you verteran bolters on this site (including the last key fix of float needle clean-out that resulted in it starting for the first time...).
I have a 49 half ton with a 235 from 1954 and 3 on the tree that has been sitting for about 19 years. 4 of those have been in my garage while restoring it, and the other 15 were at the previous owner's covered carport. The engine has always been able to be turned by hand when i grab the fan and pull it, so that was encouraging. Over the last 3 week's I've been working on getting it to start and had success this weekend. Before it finally started, the engine had plenty of clean oil (looked like it was just poured in there), I had squirted oil on the valves, then squirted Marvel MOil in the cylinders and let it sit. I checked the compression and had poor results of 55, 61, 70, 70, 75, 75 (1 through 6), so I thought the motor was toast or was possibly in need of a valve job.
It surprised the heck out of me by starting this weekend, and even more surprising is that it just sat there putting away like "what took you so long" never missed/stumbled. Since I had fixed the brakes (because I knew I was going to take it around the block if it started) did a few test runs in the driveway and off I went for a few laps around the neighborhood. It ran fine but seemed a little week which I attributed to the lack of compression. When I got back in the driveway, it made a thump sound, and I immediately shut it off thinking I just threw the fan-belt. Looked in the engine bay and saw no signs of what made the thump. Tried to re-start and it sounded like the battery was dead, so I pushed it into the garage grabbed a beer and called it a success.
Tonight I went to check on it and decided to see if I could turn with the fan again, and my heart sunk when it felt frozen solid. The thump sound is what scares me the most, and fear the worst. Tonight I'm going to check for some obvious things like the valves, oil level, stuck starter and see if I find anything else that jumps out. I'll drop the oil pan this weekend if I have time and see if anything looks wrong.
Long story short (ha.. too late) does anyone have thoughts on what it could be? I didn't see any thump/engine seize threads, but found one about a seized re-build that is making me nervous...
Thanks!
Sulli
