<VV> Problems with a 140 tear down

[Ken Pepke]

My personal experience tells me that seized engines are [perhaps] always the rings to the cylinder walls.  That makes a Corvair engine the easiest of all to 'unstick.'  First, resist the urge to use any kind of penetrants.  Remove the heads.  Next, heat the cylinder barrels, one at a time, to red hot all around in the area of the rings.  Hit the sides of the cylinder barrel with a heavy rubber mallet directing the force in such a manner as to drive the cylinder barrel out of the block and off the piston.  It is a good idea to place something under the engine [wooden box?] to catch the cylinder barrel.  It is not a good idea to try to catch it by hand.

Once off, all parts once cooled, less the rings, can be reused.

Ken P
Wyandotte, MI
Worry looks around; Sorry looks back, Faith looks up.

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> From: RoboMan91324 at aol.com
> Date: September 1, 2011 10:35:04 PM EDT
> To: virtualvairs at corvair.org, bgilbert at gilberts-bc.ca
> Subject: <VV> Problems with a 140 tear down
> 
> Bob,
> 
> A few years ago, I bought a complete 180 engine from a VV'er  in the 
> Chicago area.  He told me that the engine turned freely.   Nothing could have been 
> further from the truth.  In my decades of  experience, I have never seen an 
> engine more solidly seized.  I won't take  the time to explain all of the 
> things that were wrong with this engine contrary  to the seller's description 
> but will keep my story to just the dismantling of  the engine.  I will tell 
> you what I tried initially just in case it might  work for you and will 
> tell you what finally worked.
> 
> First, I tried to turn the crankshaft with everything intact  including the 
> heads.  Nothing moved.  
> 
> Second, I took everything off of the engine down to what would  be 
> described as the "short block."  What remained were the cases, crank and  cam 
> shafts, pistons, cylinders, con rods and caps.
> 
> Third,  I mounted the engine on an  engine stand to make everything more 
> convenient.  I turned the engine  sideways so the cylinders were facing up and 
> down.  I used PB Blaster and  other products that had been recommended here 
> on VV.  I squirted the stuff  into the combustion chambers which faced up 
> as well as into the bottom of the  pistons on the other side of the engine 
> that were facing down.  My thought  was to attack top and bottom rings as well 
> as the wrist pins at the same  time.  Also, with the pistons facing 
> directly up and down, this assured  that the Blaster would contact the rings all 
> the way around the cylinder.   I have always felt that if the piston/cylinder 
> was in the normal horizontal  position, contact of the Blaster with the 
> rings would only be partial.  You  can't trust capillary action to draw the 
> solvent to all parts of the  rings.
> 
> Every day I would apply more Blaster and every few days I  would turn the 
> engine 180 degrees on the stand so the trio of cylinders facing  up and down 
> were reversed and I would apply more Blaster or other product as  described 
> above.  Each time, I would give the tops of the pistons a  good smack or two 
> or three with a hammer.  I would use a piece of steel as  an extension for 
> those pistons which were too far down in the cylinders to reach  with the 
> hammer alone.  Obviously, with pistons so firmly seized, I assumed  the 
> pistons were worthless even if I wanted to reuse old pistons so I didn't  care 
> about dents in the pistons.  I tried this for weeks without  success.
> 
> Fourth,  I tried to unbolt the connecting rod caps so I  could try to pull 
> the connecting rod, piston and cylinder from the engine as  assemblies.  
> Because I couldn't turn the crank, I couldn't get to all of  the cap nuts with 
> traditional tools.  I spent an obscene amount of time  trying to do this and 
> even ground down some sockets to try to get them to fit  awkward positions. 
> This helped and I eventually got all the nuts  off.  I even tried a 
> nutcracker.  I removed four of the  rod/piston/cylinder assemblies by tapping the 
> cylinders with a dead blow hammer  while pulling away from the crankcase.  
> With a couple of these assemblies  removed, I had easier access to a few more 
> cap nuts through the now  empty cylinder holes in the cases.  I was stuck 
> on the last two  assemblies because the crankshaft's rod journals were seized 
> in exactly the  worst position.  The journal side of the rod was too close 
> to the crankcase  to pull the rod/piston/cylinder assemblies out.  The rod 
> cap bolts couldn't  be removed because they were also too close to the 
> crankcase to slide out of  their holes.  I couldn't pull the case halves apart 
> because the rods were  at an angle that caused interference with the crank 
> journals.  Because I  couldn't remove the cap bolts, I couldn't tap the con rods 
> to break the wrist  pin seizure.  I did not want to damage the crank 
> journals with the con rod  bolts or edge of the con rod.  Be careful with the 
> crank if you think all  it needs is a polish.  To get the last assemblies out, I 
> had to use a  pneumatic cut-off tool to cut through the remaining con rod 
> bolts.  With  those out of the way, I was able to remove the last of the  
> assemblies.
> 
> Fifth, I pressed the pistons out of the cylinders with a  hydraulic press.  
> I felt I was beginning to over stress the press but the  pistons finally 
> let go with a "crack" that sounded like a small caliber  gun.  The first one 
> scared the poop out of me so be prepared.   Fortunately, the cylinders were 
> salvageable.  I sent them to one of our  valued vendors for exchange.
> 
> Lessons learned:
> 
> First, I was not pressed for time but even so, I wasted plenty  of it with 
> the benign methods described.  If those efforts don't work in a  reasonable 
> time, go to more drastic methods sooner than I did.  With 20:20  hindsight, 
> perhaps I should have even considered cutting the con rods themselves  if 
> there was no risk to the cases or crankshaft.  Think about the value of  the 
> time wasted vs. the value of new rods.
> 
> Second, be careful of who you deal with even here on VV.   There were 
> several chapters in my horror story with the seller other than the  terribly 
> seized engine he claimed to be "free turning."  The person I dealt  with was in 
> the Chicago area and I am on the west coast.  We never met  face-to-face.  
> This man was on VV for a few months before our transaction  started and 
> remained here for a few months after I finally received the  engine.  To my 
> knowledge, he left VV unless he remains a lurker.   Don't get me wrong, I would 
> happily deal with most of the people on VV even  sight-unseen but I am now 
> leery of "short timers" that I cannot meet  face-to-face first.  At least that 
> is the case with high dollar  items.
> 
> Good luck Bob
> 
> Doc
> 
> 1960 Corvette, 1961 Rampside, 1962 Rampside, 1964 Spyder  coupe, 1965 
> Greenbrier, 1966 Canadian Corsa turbo coupe, 1967 Nova SS, 1968  Camaro ragtop
>