Engine stored (not properly) for 2-3 years, how to proceed?

[1Bad500]

I bought an Galaxie with the 390 FE engine & trans out of it. The po showed me a video of the engine running from a few years back. He had the head's done (looks clean, but the engine wasn't properly stored.

Anyone have advise on what to do before turning it over by hand?

[cjshaker]

Pull the plugs and look down into the cylinders. Some of the walls should be visible with the pistons on the down side of the stroke. If it looks clean, prime it and go. If you see hard rust on the walls, better to not chance scoring everything bad. If it looks like some very minimal 'browning' or super light surface rust, I'd probably spray some WD in them and run it over by hand several times to see how they cleaned up.

I've started a lot of engines that sat outside for a long time (in the car, but still outside in moist/wet weather). Some as long as 20 years or more. Never really had a problem as long as they were ran real easy for a while. Sometimes lifters would be stuck, sometimes they'd smoke for a while, or sometimes they just didn't want to build good enough compression to fire on some cylinders, but they always seemed to clear up and run good after a while. Not the ideal way to do things, but if you don't want to go to the expense and work of a tear-down, it'll work.

[1Bad500]

Thanks for the info.  This car is a project I would like to get on the road quickly so I'm hoping to get the engine running as is.  The other issue is if I HAD to rebuild the engine, I couldn't leave it stock.  Stroker kit, aluminum heads, intake, etc.. would be in store and I REALLY don't want to spend that money right now.  HAHA!

[justintyme73]

Like he said, pull the plugs, and wd-40 before you try and turn it over,  A little  shot down the intake runner and even pull the valve covers and hit the valves with some to dissolve varnish, a little down the pushrods to help the lifters move too.  Turn it over by hand a couple times to see how it feels and with plugs out and the valve covers off you can watch to see how all the valves move etc. Better than sticking it in the car and firing it up with a stuck valve or finding the camshaft was already flattened.  Change the oil after turning it over good and letting all the wd work its way down.

[Falcon67]

Add - pull the distributor and prime it with fresh oil, run the primer while turning once you ascertain it's free to turn. 

[Gregwill16]

One thing I recently learned that prevents a very common issue, was to remove the rockershafts and tap on the top of each valve to make sure they are not stuck. You will know by the sound when there is one stuck or not and this will prevent major issues. You can also oil things up a bit while you have better access.

[machoneman]

I'll add, on FE's unlike many other engine types, one can load up a oil squirt can (or even a cheapo squeeze bottle) and shoot fresh oil on the lifters/lobes to crudely pre-oil these important sliding surfaces. That and spinning over the oil pump shaft with a speed handle or drill, as already noted, is great as well. 

[1Bad500]

After a closer look, the distributor was removed and valve covers were loose with no gaskets.  Feeling around the heads and in the distributor hole, I'm finding some grit.  Looks like dust got into the engine. 

Any options besides complete tear down?

[My427stang]

When you have something like this, you have to wonder if the engine was broken and got pushed to the side, or did they get a fresh short block and slap the covers on to try to keep it clean-ish when the project stopped, someone knows

I would slap it on a stand, check the mains, likely reseal it, at least rear main and look at bearings.  If you see something ugly, stop.  If you don't clean it up the best you can and cross your fingers