The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop am I wasting my time?

so I picked up a project truck,because I cant help myself
when I opened the hood all the plugs where out,distributer dissassembled, and wire off starter
all that so they could check compression,(110+)ok that makes sense. Radiator is removed and no hoses

guy is a good sales man so I get caught up in his story and never pull the dip stick,once home I pull dipstick and it looks like 7+ quarts of oil water mix

thats weird how did that get in there,how did they compression test and miss that,and the ? continue
drained and flushed oil
filled block with water,none made its way to the oil pan so filled with oil and check compression manualy that is with thumb over (sparkplug) hole seems good

do I spend the time putting the dist together and try firing this pig? or pull it and drop in a runner we have

There is a good chance the engine has a cracked head or cracked block which doesn't show up on a compression check. What kind of engine is it? If you have a runner, I would use it. How's the rest of the vehicle? It sounds like the guy blew smoke up your chimney on the engine.

If it were me I would want to fire it up just to know what I have.
If it is junk you would know and not feel bad scraping it.

Build a fire in what is there and you may win the prize. If it's junk, you already have said you have a runner, and it may get out of it's hiding place in the corner of the garage. If # 1 is OK, you win. Not much to change one out and playing under the hood and having fun can't be considered a waste of time.

atowncustom,

I agree with Pre '68 Dave and Tramp. I always want to know for sure myself. You may get lucky! If not, worse case is, you know exactly what you have, and may add to your "Good Parts" collection! Also, you already have a back up plan! Whats an extra day or two in the big picture?

As said above,
FIRE that pig up and see whatcha got.
A its scrap and go to plan B.
I,d Hate to walk away not knowing if I could save that Mill or not.
Either way it,s a good learning exp and you did it yourself,moreover if ya get lucky and"A" works.
regards,
steve sr.

Just a guess: they knew it leaked, which is why the plugs were out when you saw it.
Run it to make sure.

my truck had water in the oil and all that was wrong was the head gasket went bad ( luckily there was no coolant in the radiator )

Indy

thanks all
so I too agree and have to know if I can make the old pig run
yes the seller blow some smoke up my chimmeny,and you can bet I will pull the dipstick even on nonrunning parts trucks from now on

I pulled some parts off the shelf so as soon as time permits I will get on this and report back

truck is a 52 gmc 1/2 ton came from nebraska
very solid
has a 54-56 235

There was no '54-56 235. '54-'55.1 are different from '55.2- later.

first find out what engine it is... just behind the dist. 228/248/270XXXXXXXX?

head 3835913 54-62
block 3835911 53-55

tryed to get some spark to it earlier
not sure if the condensor / points I found are any good
but we are getting closer

I think that 3835913 was used on 1954/1955st 235 blocks.

so I went back at it fresh
tried another coil/points/condenser
poured some fuel in the carb and it fired and belched some smoke
fuel pump is no good and carb is seized so making it run is a challenge,but the fact that it fires off is enough to keep me going
next will be swapping carb and fuel pump
did I mention I pulled the valve cover and it was spotless underneith like brand new
for now I will stay with the positives and not mention the tweaked front or cracked frame