I hauled Alice (yes, her name is Alice) into the garage tonight to take a closer look and prepare to spin the motor by hand.
I pulled the plugs and took a look in the cylinders. Not bad. I definitely see carbon buildup, but the walls looked okay. I put 3cc of Marvel Mystery oil in each cylinder and let it soak for a while. The plugs themselves didn’t look too bad, though one broke as I removed it. Looks like 3 and 4 were running rich.
Then I pulled the dash pot off the carb, and was pleasantly surprised at the condition of the innards. Even the diaphragm was still flexible and intact.
The piston cleaned up with a little carb cleaner. The piston even still had a little dash pot oil in it.
Then I pulled the valve cover. More nice things to see. There was still a little oil residue on the valves and everything looked really clean.
The distributor is a points system, not the electronic ignition I thought I’d find. The cap and rotor are shot, but it will all get replaced.
I am surprised by how well preserved everything is under the bonnet. I definitely have to replace the hoses; one of the radiator hoses is leaking coolant. But the coolant coming out is green, not rust colored.
There’s even oil in it. And it smells like oil.
After all this looking around, I got out my 1 3/4 socket, jacked up the car a bit, and crossed my fingers. I needn’t have worried. The engine spun over without any problems.
This is all great news. I have plenty of work to do—pulling the tank and flushing the lines, for starters—but I may be able to apply fuel, air and spark sometime soon!
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