I'm working on the donor motor for my 49 3600. It is a 56 235 w/848 head. 2 yrs ago when I drove it home it ran great. It is on a engine stand currently so I am not able to do a compression test. I built a leakdown tester to ck ck it. All cylinders are above 90 lbs except #3 which is at 82. I could hear some air at the head when I did the test. Last night I pulled the head and plan to take it to a machine shop to have checked. Looking at the top of the pistons and cylinder bores. There is no ridge at the top of the cylinders, and the pistons have a fair amount of carbon on the top. On #3 I can clearly see .060 stamped on the top of the piston. I'm going to pull the pan and look at the bottom end tonight. I am torn as to how far to go,between doing everything while it is apart (not really in the budget), checking, cleaning etc. I'm supposing I shoould pull the bearing caps and look at the bearings, plastgage? them. Rebuild the oil pump? How do you ck the cam? I can look thru where the fuel pump mounts and see the cam, and it looks shiny, but worn. Should I clean the carbon of of the top of the piston?. Do I pull the pistons and hone the cylinders? I don't have the tools to check the bores. I'm kinda leaning towards cking the bearings and leaving the pistons alone, since ther is no ridge and the leakdown test came out well. Just looking for some comments from the collective wisdom.
Dave
