Seized engine trouble

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Seized engine trouble

Postby 58Jesse » Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:24 am

Hello, I'm new here. I have just been given a '58' 2 door pillared hard top, with original wheel skirts, it was my mother's and she used it daily up until about 4-5 years ago. It was laid up for a few months while we had the starter motor re built, when we re-installed the starter, we found the engine had seized. Yesterday I set about finding out why the engine was seized. I discovered one of the valves on the passenger side head was stuck, so proceeded to remove the head. What I found was the piston closest to the firewall had water in and was full of rusty crud. It looked like it had been on the titanic. I am wondering if anyone can tell me how this might have happened, as it was fine when the car was parked, and the head gasket hasn't blown. I have now removed pretty much all of the rust, and filled the bore with engine flush and WD40. I shall leave it a week and try free the engine off again. If I can't free it, I am thinking the next step will be to take the engine out, and have it rebuilt. Would the heads need to be skimmed? Are there any U.K based members that might be able to steer me in the direction of a company that could re build my engine? Or of a U.K based company selling a re-build kit?
Thanks in advance.
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby 58limited » Sun Jun 05, 2011 12:02 pm

Hopefully there is not a crack in the cylinder wall, like what happened to my '59 Edsel. If that is the case, the cylinder will have to be sleeved. This also happened to my '68 Ford Galaxie. It sat for 12 years and I had to beat the #5 piston out with an iron pipe and sledge hammer. The block had to be bored .030 over. We assumed that water leaked around the gasket while the car sat, no other evidence of damage or a cause was present.

Marvel Mystery Oil, if available in the UK, is great for soaking stuck cylinders.
1958 Buick Limited Riviera Coupe Model 755

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1953 Chevrolet 3100 Pickup
1957 Pontiac Transcontinental Safari
1968 Ford Galaxie 500 HT
1977 Lincoln Continental Convertible
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby Smartin » Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:50 pm

I would have the head checked for cracks before thinking it is a block problem...since you already have the heads off.

Also, if the engine compartment was rained on or power washed at some point, water could've gotten in through the carburetor and flowed in through the open valve(s). My guess is that the stuck valve was not stuck at the time it was parked, but became stuck when the cylinder corroded.
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby dvonk » Tue Jun 07, 2011 1:02 pm

58limited wrote:Marvel Mystery Oil, if available in the UK, is great for soaking stuck cylinders.


+1 on the Marvel Mystery Oil... i freed up a 264ci straight-8 on a 1952 Pontiac that had been sitting since the about 1980. i poured the MMO in the spark plug holes and let it sit for a week or two, then i used a breaker bar to crank the nut on the front of the harmonic balancer to turn the crankshaft. after working it by hand for a while, the starter was able to turn the engine over by itself.
1958 MOD. 43
STYLE 58-4439
BODY No. BK2451
TRIM 412
PAINT CG
ACC. E (also BFG)
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby RoadMaster75 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:20 am

Water in a cylinder bore can be a big deal or maybe not....
A water jacket crack & subsequent intrusion in to the cylinder would indeed require a sleeve.
Are you sure the starter problem was not related to the stuck condition .....?

As suggested water can invade through the carb and run into an open valve, all right...
Also, Head gasket failure is not always all that obvious if the head is warped.

I'd remove both heads, and proceed to try and Unstick the motor carefully,
by hand back and forth ( either a pry bar on the flywheel or at the balancer bolt).
Since this was a recently good running motor I'll bet you'll succeed ... Trans fliud is
also touted as being helpful in unsticking engines. Be patient. Then inspect each bore carefully
as you rotate; looking for signs of block damage.
Assuming all's well at that point -
Then have a reputable machine shop tank the heads and
magnaflux them to find any evidence of cracking. If not, then proceed to
having them re-surfaced ( just did a set and they removed .010). While at it, have them
do a valve job and replace any valves, seals, etc necessary.
These old nailheads are pretty sturdy old machines; I'd wager
the above will yield good results and you'll end up with a nice tight, freshened up
motor without a lot of $$ spent.

Keep us in the loop!
mike
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1949 Willys-Overland Jeepster - Buick V6 power
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby 58Jesse » Sun Jun 12, 2011 4:53 pm

Hi Mike, thanks for the advice, I think I figured out what caused the problem. The whole time the car was waiting for the starter to come back and be fitted, it was jacked up at the front on the drivers side, causing the car to lean over at a sharp angle towards the passenger side, which is where all the water had collected in the rear passenger side cylinder. I guess over the course of the months the water slowly seeped under the gasket and into the cylinder. I have now removed the drivers side head, and found no problems, so its just that one cylinder that is stuck. Still no movement whatsoever with a torque wrench on the crank pulley, in either direction, and that's with an extra long bar on the end of the wrench. I will persevere with it and try some trans fluid. So far I've been using WD40. Lots of people have suggested Marvel Mystery Oil, but I don't think I can get that here in the U.K. Thanks for all your help and advice.
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby dvonk » Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:37 pm

i dont know if you can get it in the UK, but ive heard good things about Kroil Penetrating Oil as well...
1958 MOD. 43
STYLE 58-4439
BODY No. BK2451
TRIM 412
PAINT CG
ACC. E (also BFG)
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby Dyna » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:16 am

Hi

There is no Marvel Mystery oil or most of the other oils available in the US, you have some of the Wynns stuff and WD40 widely available. There are some special (gray) imports of different US products, so ring around to some of the companies in the UK companies specializing in US cars. There is a shop just north of Heathrow they do not have Buick engine parts but they do have US chemicals and other US parts. I doubt there will be any shop specializing in Buick parts in the UK, and if there are you will most likely pay more than double, use a freight fwd type https://www.shopusa.com/shopusa/ (note they don't serve UK) to get the stuff over to you without it costing an arm and a leg.

Cheers Dyna
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Re: Seized engine trouble

Postby ttotired » Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:02 pm

New on here, but I have just (a couple of weeks ago now) freed up the engine in my car and got it to run

Sounds very similar to yours, water about the place, I think mine had been left outside without an air cleaner on it?

Anyway, I used wd40 and trans fluid and patience (2 weeks of soaking and trying to move it every day)

The day I got it to turn, I had a 3/4" drive bar with an extension pole for more leverage and the starter hooked up through 24v and a jump wire to activate the starter all in action

Basically, while pulling down on the bar (tightening the crank bolt) I would activate the starter and it would clunk in and with a meter and a half of leverage, it would move about 1mm

After a couple of hours of doing this (letting the starter cool) it slowly started to get better until the extra leverage was not needed

This killed the starter (no biggy, the starter for an international is exactly the same except for the drive end housing (pinion ect all the same)

Once it was turning ok (and I fitted a new starter), just cleaned the points and away it went, but it knocked

Engine is now out of the car and in pieces, the knock is #1 piston broke its skirt , not sure when, but it looks like a while ago
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