So an old friend of mine calls me up from North Texas. He has an old
Cutlass that he used to beat up on, on occasion. I have no idea what
internals it has if any. I know it has Edelbrock heads with a Torker intake, some
big honking Holly double pumper, I think Headman headers with a MSD ignition system wired into it. It had been parked for a few years when he went to try
and fire it up, it turned over about twice, he didn't know what had happened until he pulled the plugs out. It turned over fine, but shot water out of ALL
the cylinders. Most out of #7. I told him to spin over for a few minutes to blow
out as much water as he could, then dry around the plug openings with compressed air, spin some more, then put some trans oil or engine oil in the
cylinders, let it sit some and spin over once and let it sit. Told him I would get
back with him. I needed to get some feedback. Forgot to add it's a 455.

I have never heard of this happening in all cylinders, any idea what could
have happened here? I asked him what the engine oil looked like. He said
it wasn't overfull but looked a little grey..

 

Not sure why I called it thermal lock, I meant hydra or hydro lock.

 

Core, at best

dismantle to assess condition.

I have seen water get in and freeze and take out the cylinder walls. Or push the rod into a U and force the crank out the bottom, taking the main caps with it. That crank survived though.

 

Sounds like water got into the intake manifold and most of it went into #7 cylinder. You won't learn much until at least the heads are off.
You might get away with cleaning up the bores, but I doubt it somehow.

How much does he want for it?. Maybe you can agree a deal after it has been taken apart to see exactly what can be saved?.

Roger.

 

He needs to just tear it down. Then go from there.

 

I know my old hood spike used to leak which dripped onto the air cleaner and then down into the engine. Does he have a hood on it that has that arrangement? Maybe he was degreasing the engine?
I find it odd that all eight cylinders would develop a head gasket leak at the same time.
Depending in the intake used cylinder 7 and 6 could have the most water in them due to being the bottom set of runners on a dual plane and also being at the rear where the engine angle would cause the water to puddle if it came through the intake manifold.

 

Trip, I think you may have called it! Thank you.
It seemed strange to me that the water was clear, (like rain water.)
Radiator was full, with plenty of green anti-freeze.
He has an open element cleaner, round K&N, open on top as well, 70 supreme
with the hood spear. I will ask him how loose the spear is, and yes, parked outside.
If some of the water leaked past the rings, with him turning it over, could explain
the grey tint of the oil too.

 

Just a follow up on this thread. Changed the oil & filter once,
fired it up, ran it up to temp, shut it down, changed oil & filter again
and seems fine. He did say he had a vacuum plug out in the top of
the manifold that probably helped funnel any water that had pooled
or tried to pool on the intake down into the engine as well. Also,
no spear on the hood, only holes, ha ha.

 

Make sure you buy a lottery ticket while your luck's in!.

Roger.

 

Ha ha, I did ask him what he thought he was going to do with the rusty
old POS. He told me he just wanted to burn a little rubber, re-live
a little youth and probably sell it this Summer. I said, oh yeah? Pull it,
motor and trans, I'll come get it and give you $800. He's thinking about it.

 

All's well that ends well.