engine issues

[BrianTom]

Hello,

I inherited a 66 C10 pickup with an inline6. 230 or 250, not sure which. I got the electrical and fuel parts figured out. Couldn't get the air part figured out and was getting no compression except on one cylinder. I decided to pull the valve cover. When I did, the rockers were covered with an unfortunate mix od oil and water.

The engine does turn over. I've done it by hand and with the starter. I decided to bump the engine over to see how everything was moving and found out it wasn't. Only the rockers in 3,4, and 6 moved. I pulled the first rocker on cylinder 1, and the pushrod wouldn't budge. I'm about to take the head off and see what's going on under there, but I believe I need to take the pushrods out first?

I'm torn on rebuilding that engine (have never rebuilt an engine, but why not give it a shot?) or replacing with a 350 on an LS. Not sure what comes out the best on cost and reliability. The truck was given to me, so I've sunk very little money into it so far except for brake and fuel parts.

I'm just looking for opinions based on people's experiences. Also ideas on low cost engine stands if I go the rebuild route.

-Brian

[RustyPile]

Before you remove the head, which won't show you anything about why the valves aren't working, remove the 2 side covers.. You can't see the cam from there, but you can see the pushrods and lifters. Spin the engine over and look for things that aren't moving. Oil mixed with water??? It's possible some valves have stuck in the guides resulting in bent and broken pushrods..

[BrianTom]

I think it may be stuck valves. That's the next thing I'm going to try before taking the head off. I saw a video that had similar issues. I took one of the inspection covers off, and there was a large amount of oil/gunk in there. I'm trying to get the distributor off to remove the other cover. I plan to clean those, clean the top of the head and see if I can get the valves to unstick. I'm also going to get my scope out and look into the cylinders since I have all the spark plugs out. It's an ongoing process.

[theastronaut]

If it had water in it, check to make sure the cam lobes aren't rusted. I'd bet that the lifters are rusty and stuck in their bores. The 250 in my '66 must've had water in it at some point before I got it, and the cam lobes rusted. I got it running and drove it for a few years but I didn't realize the cam was going flat and the lifters were pitted until this year.


I wouldn't spend much time on it, you can get a good running inline 6 that someone pulled for a V8 swap for around $300 on marketplace, there are tons of them for sale around me at any given time. I just missed out on a running 292 that had 12bolt's cast iron headers, power steering brackets/pump, and had been converted to TBI. They were only asking $350 for it but I was too late, someone beat me to it.

[BrianTom]

I used a rubber mallet and got some of the valves unstuck, but not all. I removed the pushrods on the stuck ones. Pushrods were rusty and corroded. I cleaned them as much as possible, dropped them back in, and they still didn't move. I think it's time to pull the engine and decide what to replace it with.