The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop locked up 216

I have a 216 of unknown history which is locked up.
I pulled the head and found that there is no evidence of a ridge at the tops of the cylinders. That is inspiring.
I drained the oil and mostly water poured out. Not so inspiring.
I was able to remove all of the lifters. Five of them required a lot of penetrating oil, heat, and tapping, but over 3 days of monkeying around with them, that came out. The bottoms of the lifters have no wear patterns on them. Again, inspiring.
I still couldn't get the crank to turn more than about an eighth of an inch.
I poured acetone in each cylinder to create a pathway for the automatic transmission fluid which I added later. The transmission fluid seeped down in 3 of the cylinders, but not the others. I mopped up the transmission fluid and added penetrating spray which I used to free up the stuck lifters.
I used a block of wood and a hammer to tap on the top of the pistons to try to get even a tiny bit of movement to help create space for the penetrating oil to make its way down.
I will keep you posted when I make progress.
I certainly welcome any tips to free this engine up so that I can remove the clutch, flywheel and bell housing so that I can put it on an engine stand and take the oil pan off to see what's inside.

You don't need to free up the engine to remove the clutch and pressure plate. Just use a small hole saw (3/4") and a flex socket to make holes in the bell housing over the pressure plate bolts you can't reach. It doesn't hurt the bell housing at all- - - -it just adds a little cooling air to the clutch. Once the clutch and flywheel comes off, you can either unbolt the rod and main bearings and lift the crank out, or just use a big hole saw, like about a 3" diameter in a variable speed 1/2" drill motor or a floor mount drill press to cut the piston tops away just a little inboard of the piston rings. An engine that's stuck that bad is going to need to be rebored, so there's no sense in trying to save the pistons. Use standard bore 235 aluminum pistons during the rebuild and bore the 216 .060" oversize to get 224 cubic inches.
Jerry

Thanks Jerry.
I studied your recommendations in other threads and may well go that route. I don't have any use for this engine and don't ever expect to.
I am trying to salvage it for someone who may need one some day.
Before I do anything else, I am going turn the engine upside down on a piece of plywood and remove the oil pan to see how bad the rust may be on the bottom end.

Carl once you have the pan off, you can pull the rod and main caps and break off the cam gear to get the cam and front engine plate off, then pull the crank with flywheel and clutch attached. Then you can salvage that bell housing without any additional ventilation holes. Then you can probably drive the pistons out individually.

Update,
Got the 216 freed up and spinning today! I can see honing crosshatches on the cylinders. It has a recent head gasket and the engine isn't covered in road grime and is painted "rebuild red".
Going to take off the bell housing and put it on an engine stand tomorrow and take off the oil pan to see what all the rainwater that was in it did.
Here is how I got it freed up.
Removed head.
Removed lifters by using penetrating oil, propane torch. The torch was used numerous days in a row hoping that several heating and cooling cycles would free them up. It did.
Poured acetone in each cylinder just to get something that would creep in there. It did.
Followed the acetone with transmission fluid. It creeped past all but 2 cylinders.
For the 2 cylinders that the transmission fluid wouldn't get trough, I hit the transmission pooled up on the pistons with the propane torch until it reached its flashing point. Boiled in oil the way I saw it.
Then I just gave up on it for a week.
Finally got it to turn with a pry bar on the flywheel teeth. Winning!

Good show! If anybody from your neighborhood is headed to Tennessee anytime soon, maybe that engine could hitch a ride to my place. I'd be glad to get it! I've got plans to turn a bunch of 216s into 250-something cubic inch engines with long stroke 235 crankshafts and pistons for a Japanese Diesel forklift.
Jerry

I may have to try that on the 235 I have that’s not turning. Boiling oil, indeed!

I haven't got the head off it yet. The cylinders have had evaporust in them for a couple weeks now.

Transmission fluid has a specific temperature where it flames up. I don't know what that specific temperature is, but I stopped when it reached that temperature and moved on to the next cylinder, so's on and so's forth's until complete.
These are cast iron pistons by the way. I probably wouldn't go that hot with aluminum pistons if I thought that they might be salvageable.
I let the engine sit for days after boiling the oil, more based on defeatism than an actual plan. Low and behold, it freed up.
Once I got it to move the pistons down, I poured mineral spirits into the cylinders when they were at the bottom of their stroke, then used a maroon Scotch Brite pad soaked in the mineral spirits to remove the gunk on the tight spots. That really helped in getting it spinning by prying on the flywheel teeth.

My spare 235 was locked up with two cylinders that would not drain down oil from the top as the head was off.This sat for about 4 years in the corner of the garage.I ended up taking it apart and pounding on the pistons with a piece of wood .i tried atf mystry oil fuel oil and .I think that heat is a good idea .the two pistons that were stuck were all gummed up and the rings stuck but a good candidate for a rebuild.