I bought an old bus for a song one time back in the era when hippies did such things. I was the mechanic for a private school. The engine had been sitting on the ground next to it in the rain with one head off for over a year. The school administration considered it junk. Perhaps there was enough nickel in a 322 Lincoln V8 truck block to inhibit rust but I was able to dry it out in the shop and fill the cylinders with penetrating oil and wait - like weeks or maybe months. Anyhow after a time I was able to pull the other head and the crank and coax the four stuck pistons out of the bores. There was not enough ridge at the top to hurt the rings or pistons as they came out.
I carefully removed the rings and cleaned the grooves one at a time and reinstalled the rings. Then honed the bores clean, washed them and dismantled the rest of the engine to clean everything. Then I reinstalled the pistons and rods, then the crank, found a good head, torqued everything down and put the engine back in the frame. Same bearings, rings, everything. New gaskets though nearly broke the budget. I was poor in those days. I charged the batteries pushed the starter button and it ran, ran well, no smoke, no blow-by. So for a hundred bucks I had a '52 Kenworth 58-passenger school bus that I lived in for several years. Just shows what you can do if you take your time and you're careful.
