Oh $%&*$#@!!!!!
I put in some oil this afternoon, and then removed the valve cover to check before I spun the oil pump. I sure am glad I did that!!! This is what I found:




Needless to say this is not what I was hoping for. I guess after 18 years I should have expected something like this, but I'm freaking out.
So my question is this: Can this be cleaned up without pulling the engine or the head? I realize that many of you are going to say pull the engine and rebuild...but I'm not really there, unless that is the only way. How bad is it???? Shop VAC.... LOL

 

Sorry to say this.. but you ARE there. I think it would be down right scary to even think about running this without a rebuild. Just think what it looks like inside the engine!

 

Ok, so I'm still breathing, and my heart has slowed down some with the help of a vanilla stout It seems that alot of the rust was dust from the inside of the valve cover:

So believe it or not I did shop vac the valve train.
It looks better, but not great still:


So... do I dare start this engine and hope the oil circulation will clean some of this up? Or will that kill the engine? I had planned to do an oil change after about an hour or two of running. Clearly I don't have any idea, but I really want to drive this car
Be Nice, I'm new to all of this!!

 

Wow, tough cal but if it were mine I would rebuild ...

 

pull the head with plans on getting a valve job, it should only be about 150 bucks and should come with a resurface. then you can see what the cylinders look like. if they are ok, just do the head and run with it. if the cylinders are rusty too your going to need to rebuild that puppy.

 

start it up run it till it blows up build new motor :P

 

This engine/car sat for 18 years in a barn before I found it, but ran before it was parked. I already pulled the pan, and the oil was dirty, but not alot of sludge in the pan. The pickup looks pretty clean. The engine is not seized, I could move it with a breaker bar. When I pulled the oil pan the bottom of the cylinders looked fairly clean. A touch of rust, but only a tiny bit.

 

If you want to keep the original motor you need to quit messing around and do a rebuild. Rings, seats, and all sorts of rubber, and plastic is dry, cracked and will probably fail IF you can get it to even turn over. You found a 67 vert IN A BARN! I would LOVE to find one. Do it right, or sell it to someone who will. I used to have a 68 Coupe and a 70 Grande, and wish I could get them back.....I'm so jealous right now.

 

Where in bama meatman?

 

JHP,

If you can't afford a true rebuild right now, you COULD keep your eyes open for a local 200 that is running that someone is dumping to due to a V8 swap. Pick it up for a few hundred, keep yours and rebuild it later for originality. This is one of the huge bonuses of having a straight 6, you can buy spare engines for far less than a rebuild that are acutally in decent shape.

I have an excellent contact in Bedford VA (near Roanoke kind of) that would know of or have a good 200 laying around. PM if you want his info. (Which you may just want for parts etc, he has a ton of stuff).