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Posted in the other vintage forum, guess I should have started here first.
I just pulled a 1955 olds98 out of a garage (and 2 parts cars) where it has sat since 1992, super solid body/floors/truck, 100% complete, factory air car. Unfortunately the engine is stuck from sitting so long, hoping to have it freed up by the weekend, 2 cylinders have yet to allow any diesel/ATF to go through, fingers crossed I don't have to disassemble the engine.
The interior is pretty well shot, with the exception of an almost perfect headliner and door cards. I have no idea why the car was taken off the road but the previous owner bought it off the original owner and told me it drove under its own power into the garage, maybe it did, maybe it didn't. Original owner was a ww2 vet and from what I have read moved to my hometown to help install ICBM's in the Adirondack mountains in the 60's as part of the strategic air command. I'm pretty excited to get the old girl up and running again!!
I did own a 1956 Oldsmobile years ago, a super 88 four door, which I had t sell due to a divorce and the three I just bought are from the same guy I bought the 56' from in 1997.
Welcome aboard, as redoldsman said we like those mid fifties cars.
You will not find on any forum a better group of guys. good information is found here. Drop on down to the vintage forum should you have problems we probably have been there done that......Lost in the fifties .... Tedd
Wow! That's a really neat car and looks to be well preserved. Even the parts car shown looks like it has nice metal.
I don't have experience with this product, but I've heard others say it works miracles on things like stuck engines. It's called Marvel Mystery Oil. Maybe try that if nothing else seems to work.
What are your plans once the car is up and running? Looks like it will be a nice project. Here's a picture from the promo literature of the day. I think the fat white walls really add to the look.
The plan so far is to get the engine free, see if it will run/move, the entire braking system needs to be gone through, the master cylinder sticks and I would imagine the wheel cylinders are stuck too, it has a Delco-Moraine power brake unit. I would have to say the Hydramatic will need a rebuild. The steering seems to be very tight, no slop in the steering wheel, Its not going to be a show car, just something to keep me busy and have a little fun driving every once in a while.
If I can't get the engine to spin, I do have a complete 55' engine/trans that has 65K on it, still have to pick it up from the guy I bought the cars from, he said he put oil down the cylinders before storing it, if that one spins I might just swap out the engines, but I'm not giving up on the original yet!!
There isn't a straight panel on the car, but there really isn't much for rust, I'm going to pull parts from the pink one first, this might make someone a nice project someday.
I've used Acetone and ATF 50/50 for years and as far as I'm concerned it's as good or better than any commercial break free type materials you can buy. Might take a week or more but generally it will bust the pistons free if they are going too.
There are no numbers to match on this era car so nothing to worry about if you have to go to the other engine except that is if you need to trade transmissions also. It can be a problem separating transmission from a stuck engine should you need to swap. Not all the bolts can be reached on the flywheel without rotating the engine If it's stuck and can't be rotated you have a lot more work ahead of you..... Just a thought....Tedd
I’m going to give that a try, I have both in the garage, don’t know why I didn’t use it in the first place.
There’s another product I have read about as well, made by sea-foam, it’s called deep creep.
Good call on the trans, if it doesn’t spin it’ll be damn near impossible to get the nuts off the flex plate.
If it has only two pistons stuck there is a chance that the rod bolts will be in a place that you can get to them and jar them enough that they will rotate other wise its a complete tear down with the transmission still attached. Doable but awkward... The fun begins...Tedd
If you get the engine " freed up " it will make it easier to disassemble for a complete re-build .
Once cylinder walls and rings get rusted they will never " seat " again .
The engine will smoke like a steam locomotive .
" Been there , done that " several times .
End result was always a complete re-build , including boring and new pistons .
I imagine the cylinder wall probably won't be pretty once its freed up, but, i'd like for it to move under its own power until I can get something figured out with the other engine, which I still don't know the condition of, hopefully it rotates. If its free, i'll most likely do just piston and rings and hone as long as the crank and connecting rod bearings look decent, the 56' Olds I previously owned had cracks on all 8 pistons when I took it apart from the skirt all the way to the wrist pins.
