Frozen Piston

[PaulProe]

I am trying to salvage an FE block. Have it all disassembled except one piston. #8 is frozen at the cylinder top. Appears the engine sat with water in the cylinder and it's frozen everything up.

Tried to hammer it out from the bottom with no luck. With a long solid rod and a 5lb hammer, it still won't move.

Any suggestions on how to get a stuck piston out without ruining the block? I don't care about the rods, they are long rods so not worth anything

HHEELLPP

Paul

[rblong]

get some wd40 around the skirt and let it sit - for days - freshening wd40 every so often. Heat piston a few times in between, but always let cool completely before you try and drive out from underneath. I might even smack it a little fom top to get it broken loose - then more wd40. May be newer better ways, but this has worked for me. Hope fully the rings have not caused so much damage by rusting into block that it can't be bored!

[Jac Mac]

I assume you have managed to remove other pistons & rods. Now loosen rod bolt nuts on #8 & turn the crank slightly so rod journal ( crankpin ) is trying to pull rod/piston down bore. If you have managed to remove crank already you can skip that.
Clean any carbon of the piston crown. Now grab one of the old unwanted pistons minus rings & rod, set it upside down on top of #8 with the pin in line with the crank c/l . Hold a piece of scrap steel against the piston & give the scrap steel a good solid clout or two with a reasonable size hammer. Piston should start to move down bore, Turn crank as before and repeat process until piston is approx 1.500" down. Then scrape / sand bore to allow piston to be pushed out top.

It is a waste of time and likely to split /damage bore to try and remove piston out top of bore without doing this first as rust forms on piston ring area which has a smaller dia when cold and the skirt area will jam when you try to push it thru if not removed.

I got quite good at this as I worked at an Import Shop who brought lots of V8 motors into NZ from USA in the 70's some of which had been left out in the weather with no carb etc.

Good Luck,
Jac Mac

[Carnut427]

Once you get the piston out, the rust can go pretty deep into the bore. Have it bored before you buy your pistons because you don't know how deep the rust will be. You may have to sleeve that cylinder so you don't bore it so far.

Dan