What about stuck rings ?

[63t-cab]

Not ever haveing dealt with this situation,just how bad do they have to be stuck before worrying about breaking them when turning an engine over.say if I put a bar against the ring gear and am able to break it loose without much trouble,how delicate are the rings ? thanks for any advise.

[rockne10]

Assume you have already been soaking the cylinders with Marvel Mystery Oil or equivalent?

All experiences may be different but, I've I've managed to release two stuck engines. First one was a '60 Lark VI convertible that had been sitting in a carport for fourteen years. After a couple weeks of soaking I used a pry bar on the flywheel; figured that would be the slowest, gentlest approach. The car performed well as a daily driver for a number of years after that.

Second one was my Rockne. It had been sitting in a garage for thirty-one years. Soaked it for a month or so; then put it in gear and hooked a chain to the '60 convertible. Only moved a foot or so before I heard a "BANG" that I was certain was the block breaking in half. I've put almost 2000 miles on it since then and still never opened the engine other than to adjust valves.

Your experience may vary.

[PackardV8]

FWIW, diesel fuel is just as effective as anything for soaking stuck cylinders.

Some cylinders in some climates will still be clean and shiny. Others will have much rust in there. Either way, if after a good long soak with diesel in the cylinders and crankcase, drain everything, give the sump a charge of cheap oil, prime the oil pump with a drill and screwdriver tip, fire it up and drive it home. Done it many a time. Studes are tough.

jack vines

[jclary]

I think that breaking a ring would be a very rare occurence while attempting to free a stuck engine. Given the geometry of a piston engine, and the even manner that the forces are applied in the process, I think you are more likely to break a tooth off a ring gear, chip a cast iron housing or break a crank bolt, depending on the method you use attempting to turn the engine. It has been my experience to find broken rings mainly on worn out engines, or in conjunction with other failures.

However, I did tear down one engine to find rings that had apparently lost their tension and were practically hugging the pistons. I am curious to know if any one of you have run into this before. Every thing else looked pretty good in this engine, except it was using a lot of oil.

[candbstudebakers]

I have had a lot of stuck engines all Studebakers from sitting around, some uncovered and some just like they were put to sleep after a nice long run, first off remove the plugs then with a small tip screw driver go into the cyl. hole and feel around and see what comes out on the screw driver, water has not gotten in to the cyl. then chances are better than not that it will come free, I use Marvel Mystery Oil and have had good luck, I use a pump style squirt gun oil can with a small hose that will fit in the plug hole and then fill the gun can up and put it what ever the cyl. will hold, do all the cyl. and let it sit a week you can check the oil dip stick now and then and see if any thing is showing up in the oil. this past month I have had 4 cars sitting and soaking the first one I needed to put on the lift and try to move the fly wheel and after some back and forth things started to move, once it moved some I put a battery to it and turned over easy, after that did a compression test and that proved to be the big let down one cyl. had "O" the others were from 30-90 so that tells you time to rebuild the engine, the 2nd one was a hawk that we tried to pull in low gear since it is a 3 speed but all we got was tire skid the length of the drive way about 100 feet long, so off to the shop to remover the plugs and let it soak for a week after a week put the battery in and it tuned over right away so we put in a set of old plugs today and tinkered with points and coil ect and got it to fire but we did not run it as the gas tank is full of junk that is tomorrows work, by the way we did a compression test on this one also and the lowest one was 100+ and the others were 140-150 so we got a winner here, 2 more sitting and soaking waiting their turn, also a R-1 GT to still do that will make 5 in total this month, just have to take your time when doing this good or bad , good luck...Bob

[61Lark]

This weekend I am going to tinker with the 64 Daytona I brought home last month, starting by soaking the engine. I was planning on using ATF and acetone since I've heard people have had good luck, but I might give diesel a try. At nearly $4 a gallon it's a spendy fuel, but a cheap solvent. Probably about 15 years ago my dad freed up a Jeep 4 cyl. by letting it soak for a month or more using diesel.

Nick

[Tom Bredehoft]

Stuck rings, stuck in the piston. It took almost a year of weekly running my '60 Lark to unstick the rings. It pinged like the devil sucking oil into the cylinders, but that went away one at a time over time. I had a bottle of Rislone in the oil.

[Chucks Stude]

Bob, I was alway told when tow starting a car to do it in the highest gear, that puts the most force, and the lowest rpm against the engine . I always did it in the highest gear, since that made for more efficiency of tires against asphalt, and turned the engine over slower.

[gordr]

Has anyone here heard of using iodine to unstick an engine? Like tincture of iodine, bought in quantity at a farm store where it is sold for animal applications? Friend of mine swears by it, but I haven't had the courage to try it.