frozen engine

[aforfletch]

I recently purchased an early 60's A4 that blew its head gasket. salt water got into the cylinders and the engine is seized. Ive put a combo of marvel mystery oil and blaster in the cylinders. any magic on anything else I can do to free up this engine? engine is on my work bench with head off.

[Ajax]

It was just mentioned in another thread, that a 50/50 mix of acetone and ATF (automatic transmission fluid) works well at freeing stuck pistons.

Give that a try.

[Mo]

Welcome aboard. You can try as Ajax said. Depending on how badly it's seized, usually after 24 hours or so try it and see if it will move. Some remove the starter and get a pry bar to get leverage on teeth of ring gear /flywheel. Once it moves a little, turn the direction the other way, back and forth in each direction bit by bit and it should free.

[Dave Neptune]

Patience patience patience

aforfletch, as Mo said and add a lot of patience!!!! I freed my frozen A-4 29 years (1984) ago now and it is still running. I did have to do a valve job and replace ONE exhaust valve.
After soaking and a bit with the pry bar on the flywheel you can also usa a block of soft wood and a "dead-blow" type hammer on the top of the pistons. Obviously you don't want to strike any harder than it takes with lots of patience!
If/when you get it loose you should take a good look at the valves. After replacing my exhaust valve and putting the head bak on she was a bit of a bitch to start and belched smoke like crazy for a while until the rings began to re-seat. The same engine is still running and quite well after all these years. I do have couple of cylinders with a bit lower compression and she still runs on the STOCK SPARK PLUGS and they're clean and a lite tan.

Dave Neptune

[marthur]

Dave,

Are you saying those are the original spark plugs for the motor? Or are you saying that you use the Universal recommended RJ 8 C?

[Dave Neptune]

You bet

marthur, no not the original plugs. I do us the champion RJ8-C (.040" gap) so there not really "stock". The only differance is the (R)esistor type, they work a bit better with an E/I however the "heat range" is the same.
I also do a lot of idling around in the bays at the island and in the marina~no issues and nice looking plugs even on my low compression #1&2. I do use a bit of oil and the engine is now on it's 43rd season and my 29th since "freeing" the frozen beastie. I get 3 seasons out of my plugs with the E/I . I do not use any additives unless I'm burning someones old fuel or OB fuel, doesn't seem to bother it at all, although the plugs will be a little darker in color.
When the motor was developed the "resistor" plugs were not around. Many badmouthed resistor type plugs back then as with a point type ignition approaching the end of it's life the added resistance would cause a mis-fire, when it was really just time to do a tune-up.

Dave Neptune