So, my son and I finnally fired up the old engine after over a year of owning the '52 with original 216.
I rebuilt the dizzy, and carb, new plug wires and feed fuel via gravity from a gas can sitting on the roof of cab. Before trying to fire her up, I added fresh oil (none in pan when purchased), spun up the oil pump with electric drill until oil running out of rocker arm return tube, made sure the engine was not seized (soaked cylinders for 6 months in liquid wrench and fogging oil)
Hot wired coil directly from 12v battery and she fired right up almost immediately. Blew a ton of rodent nesting/food remnants out the tail pipe, but settled into a nice idle immediately and ran very smoothly with no noticable bad noises. So, she will still get torn fully down and rebuilt, but at least I have a shot at a rebuildable engine. It was a good day for sure.
We have no idea how long the engine was dormant, but based on the condition of the overall truck when purchased, it has been a long time.
Current truck progress is front clip off and metal banged out straight. Need to finish sandblasting a get a coat of epoxy primer on the metal before filler work.
Last edited by DavidF; 10/31/2011 9:38 PM.
