Hello All, I found a replacement motor for my corroded aluminum block. This one is iron, and has some rust around the first couple of valves. What might this indicate? Also, the spark plugs were pretty corroded. It came from a junk yard, apparently it was thing came out of the owners Dart, and it ran when they pulled it. My plan was to get the motor into the car, and then try to see about getting it running. Bad idea? Thanks for any advice.

That doesn't look alarming. Minor rust on the cylinder head surface, no big deal. Dirty old spark plugs, replace with new spark plugs (NGK UR5). Let's see some photos looking into each intake and exhaust port, brightly lit with a flashlight or camera flash.

This is a '75 or newer motor, which means a couple of things: it means fewer options in spark plugs -- not a huge deal -- and it means if your car has an automatic transmission you'll need to install the spacer ring between your small-nose torque converter and this motor's large-bore crankshaft flange.

There are things you'll want to do to freshen up this motor. You have to pull the oil pan anyway (to swap on the one that fits your car, from the original motor) so pull the timing cover, too, and check for timing chain slop. Good odds there's some to be found, perfect time to install new.

You'll want to clean the rocker assembly and renew the valve stem seals, see here.

It will also be a good idea to replace the oil pressure sender, and service the oil pressure relief valve to make sure it's doing its job, as described in these two threads: thread 1, thread 2.

This late head has a different engine temperature sender thread, and the sender that fits it isn't electrically compatible with the gauge in your '62. Fortunately the later head hole is smaller, not bigger, than the one you need, so you can easily drill and tap it to the correct size and thread, which is 1/4"-18 "dryseal" NPT. Remove the thermostat and put a good, strong magnet on a rag in the thermostat hole to catch the drillings and chips from this operation. Just as well; you'll want a new thermostat anyhow.

You will want to remove the water pump and clean the rust and crud out of the engine's water jackets as described here

It is very much worth your while to get the good gaskets for the manifolds-to-head and intake-to-exhaust junctions. Other parts suggestions and links (plugs, thermostat, valve cover gasket, etc) in this post. Or as an alternative you could stand the engine up on its back end, remove the water pump, and fill up the engine with Evapo-Rust, let it stew long enough, then drain it out and reinstall the water pump.

All this extra work is a minor nuisance compared to the major nuisance you will be sparing yourself by doing it now instead of later.

You might want to set up security cameras in your work area; looks like somebody snuck in, stole all your IH red paint, and painted this engine sort of randomly: a black valve cover (correct on '83-up motors) and a blue block/head (correct on '70-'82 motors).

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I second everything Dan said. With the engine out of the car, it will never be easier to take care of all this. Even if the engine was running well, it's still 40+ years old and may have been sitting outside for some of that time. The only suggestion I'd add is to consider replacing the front and rear crank oil seals, since you're already removing the oil pan and timing cover.

An engine stand will make your life easier while you do all this. If you don't have one and can't borrow one locally, they're $50-60 new at Harbor Freight.



Actually, is there any reason he couldn't swap the head over from his aluminum block? I don't know if they were significantly different. That would save him from having to tap NPT threads, open up more spark plug options, and give him an opportunity to inspect the cylinder bores... scope creep, I know. It would also look more period-correct, if you're into that sort of thing.

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Thank you!!! I just used the paint I had....doh.

I will get an engine stand and do all of what you recommended.

The learning never stops.

If it were mine I would want to do a compression test and/or leak-down test before diving too deep into anything else.

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Compression test is a catch-22: much easier to do in the car (otherwise you have to put the engine on a stand with a bellhousing and flywheel), but once it's in the car if you find bad results it's a whole lot of do-over work.

The '62 cylinder head will swap onto the later motor, but what you'd gain in spark plug options you'd lose in hard exhaust seats (for durability with unleaded fuel) and the better combustion chamber of the '67-up heads.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Personally, I'd leave the head on there, unless you think there's a reason it might be bad. Plugs are plugs, mostly, unless you have crappy ignition or mixture is way off.

Lou

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Maybe it's an optical illusion of the pictures but the tip / electrode look more corroded then just the surface rust of the body. Makes me wonder what the rest of the chamber looks like.

Leakdown can be done easily enough on the stand. Heck, put a bolt in the crank snout and give it a spin to make sure the thing even turns over at least.

+1
Even a 'manual' compression test.
turn it over by hand and see if all 6 cylinders offer the expected resistance.

I would definitely want some confirmation the motor is OK before putting it in the car.

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--> Check out my FI Turbo build <--
--> And the race truck build project <--
--> The Diesel Corvette <--

This is a '75 or newer motor, which means a couple of things: it means fewer options in spark plugs -- not a huge deal -- and it means if your car has an automatic transmission you'll need to install the spacer ring between your small-nose torque converter and this motor's large-bore crankshaft flange.


Hi Dan,

It supposedly came out of a 66 dart, thought it had 67 dart written on the valve cover.

Thank you very much for the help. I am going to start at the things you recommended today. I'll keep you all updated as I go.

Wrench on,
Luke

It might have come out of a '66 Dart…but that was not its original home. It's a '75-up motor.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I agree with Dan on the engine's mfgr era. The "spool" mounts are a give-away on it. Your '62 has the old-style "biscuit" mounts

(BTW; You want to sell the pair of mounts?)

Roger

Good spotting on those spool mounts—those prove it didn't come out of anything pre-'73.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.