stuck or frozen.

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I was in my garage all afternoon trying to get the engine on my 29 to turn over. It had been sitting sine the early 50’s. The engine was “Frozen”. I thought, Frozen or just stuck”. Several engine guys told me they might be able to get it going. Well, I noticed the hand crank was in the box of parts. I thought I would try to work on it.

After almost of an hour of working that crank back and forth, back and forth it creeked an extra inch, then a few more and then a entire half turn with the car moving toward me. It was free! I slipped the car in neutral. Fogot that is was not. The crank then turned, not easily , but turned all the way around with the fell of the engine moving.

What a relief. Now only a full rebuild instead of god only nows what. All those engine guys I say thanks. Not frozen, just stuck.

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Putting a light oil in each of the spark plug holes will help with turning the engine over.Some use Marvel Mystery oil or upper cylinder oil for this.Good clean oil in the crankcase would be a good idea.The old oil no doubt has alot of contaminants in it.

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Your engine was free in June of this year. I turned it over several revolutions with the hand crank.

Greg L

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Thats funny Gregory, I had the hand cran attached a few days ago. I was standing on it and the engine was not free. It truly doens’t matter as long as it is free now.

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If the car was in gear, the brake set or the wheels blocked, you would not be able to turn the engine. Since you noticed the car was in gear, I’m sure that was the problem.

I pulled the crank from under the front seat, put it in the engine and was able to get several turns of the engine. It did not turn easily. I think it has plenty of rust on cylinders, dry lifters and cam lobes and has pretty dry rod and main bearings.

The engine had no indication of compression.

The other possible reason for it to seem to be ‘stuck’ would be if a lot of oil had been put in the cylinders, and if the spark plugs were in, then a cylinder might have ‘hydro-locked’ from the excess oil in a cylinder. Just guessing here. It was turning in early June..

Either way, it doesn’t matter, it needs a full overhaul,

Greg L

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