New Engine (6 Cylinder Club)

[2bits]

I was asking about inline 6 parts at a junkyard the other day and a guy who was sitting around the place said he had a 250 sitting in his shop if I wanted to take a look. He lived just around the corner so I followed him over and he had a complete 250 inline 6 on an engine stand next to some other really sweet engines (Chevy 454's, Buick 455's, a Mopar 440 etc). He had alot of junk and alot of cool vintage stuff out in his shop, and his personal mini junk yard. He has a 1953 Chevy and a 1935 Chevy Truck, a mid-70’s hearse, and another older truck too.

He said some guys drove in from Colorado in a 1950 model truck then pulled the six out to put a 350 in the truck, but the engine was running just fine when pulled. He put it in his garage where it has been sitting for 3 years, (he is a gunna-do-it kind of guy). We drained the oil which was clean, we put a couple of bolts in the balancer and used a cheater bar and spun the engine freely so it has not locked or seized, and he said he would take $150 for it complete. That's an awesome deal for a running engine and a decent deal for a roll of the dice engine. The real reason I wanted it was sitting on top of this 6 cylinder is an Offenhauser 4 barrel intake manifold, and a Holly 390 carb! The carb will surely need a rebuild but the intake is worth what I will be paying for the whole engine so I figure if it ran, that will be a bonus. It is a mid 70's model block with HEI ignition. I ran the block #'s on it and it is a Mercruiser 165hp 250! SCORE! That means extra heavy duty and a marine cam for some torque!





I got running on a run stand, and it runs strong... I left the 4bbl intake on it since everything was already on there, and I got an adapter and bolted a good 2bbl I had laying around to it. I’ll have the 4bbl rebuilt as soon as I can. I got everything all rigged up, I even had a full exhaust setup with glasspacks on it sticking out the garage door. I primed the cylinders with a little bit of oil, and hand spun it slowly and everything was turning freely. Took about 20 min of off and on trying to start it and then it sprang to life and idled perfectly. No smoke at all after burning off the little bit of oil I put in the cylinders. I lightly revved it and it wrapped up quickly. Good oil pressure. No stumbling or sputtering at all, just felt super powerful. Adjusted the valves and all is well!

Here's a video of it running.

YouTube - Mercruiser first start

I got the engine stripped down and cleaned and painted yesterday, and while I was doing it, I got a call about the messed up engine that is in the truck now, and he is supposed to come over Wednesday to pick it up. I left the cutout rocker cover on it for now, in case I want to mess with the valves some more once it is in, plus the chain always drags on the valve cover when installing the engine anyway. I am going to clean up the classic valve cover I have with the Chevrolet script on it and put that one on.