Stuck engines

Somebody spoke the other day, about a product from NAPA, that was good to unstick engine pistons. Some kind of acid I believe. Tried Lots of things. No results. All kinds of penetrating oil,trans fluid kerosene,brake fluid heat, gas and trans fluid light it up. Everything I have heard about on this site but this acid. Any help appreciated. Bernie Steffen

You are at the point where I just give up and get out the BFH.

Bernie, I believe you meen Actone! I have used it on a dry stuck tractor with ATF and in 1 week It was free. But I agree with rusty If you have tryed all the above than pull it apart and drive them out BFH time. oldiron29

its just manual work that will do the job, and doing it properly. not listening to what atf, kerosene , wd40, brake fluid and them other concoctions do, its like this, if one worked they all will work.that being is it is lightly stuck from condensation and any oily substance will do the job. everybody says atf, thats balony to, ihave a w6 that is stuck, took the head off and filled the cyls. with wd40 and it run down into the pan, so then ithought i will experimentand filled the cyls up with atf. and they still have that atf sitting in them since may.so that proves that the thinner the vis the sooner it will work its way past the piston. there is no miracle potion or lotion that will simply unstick your engines.when you rebuild your engine do you throw in a handfull of floor sweepings before putting the head on? i have taken engines apart that the head and cyls. were just plugged with rust and other garbage and imean solid.dissasembled them removed valves and cleaned everything up and put them back together with even the same head gskt. and they run like a charm. but in my mind i know what work they still need, because you need to get the tractor running to see if there is other issues with it. any engine i have dissasembled from rust, it needs new parts not cans of compression.a nice crosshatch pattern in the cyls. and everything clean, not rings that are seized in the piston causing blowby.so to sum it up, you can put anything oily in your cyls. and if it dont free up with minimal work , you gotta pull it apart , no ifs ands or buts.but there is one but anyone can take things apart, but to get it together is another story. and i am sure anybody mechanically inclined or instructor agrees.thats enough preaching and punching for the day.

Well first off how long have you let it sit with ATF etc. in the cylinders?? I have had some that took 6 months to free up. Ya I was also not in a hurry as I have 2 soaking right now and have for months. If soaking doesn't work then it is time to bite the bullet and open it up and get the hammer out

Good question Bernie. I suspect that if a piston was stuck to a cylinder because of rust, then one of the phosphoric acid solutions would be appropriate. Found in the paint department at home cheapot. Behr and someone else makes some. Usually call it concrete etcher.

For that matter, regular ol HCL/Muratic acid cuts rust quickly and is cheaper than phosphoric.

Ought to work for the water jacket passages as well.

There's no rubber or other parts between the heads and oil pan that can be eaten up that I can think of except for the pan gasket and maybe water pump seals but the water pump shouldn't see any if you used a squirt can to squirt acid into the spark plug holes.

Don't quote me on this, I'm just guessing.

bernie, if you want to experiment with something, an old timer was telling me he used dry ice to unstick rusted pistons. he packed the cylinders full and let it set a few hours , then broke em loose. i dont know if it works or not, but i been looking for a stuck motor to try it on. wal mart sells dry ice.

A friend said that he had unstuck a Ford 6 cyclinder engine by using CLR without diluting it.
SDE

Pull the head and pour gas on the top of the pistons. Light the gas and repeat a few times. Then follow with a good penetrating oil once cooled off enough not to burn. After a few hours the starter will spin her over. Works every time. I just takes pulling the head.

This is an 153 engine. These are getting hard to come by. Crank is out no head. Would like to save the pistons. Need to save the rods. Thanks for all the suggestions. Will keep trying. Will let you know when I get these pistons out. Thanks again. Bernie Steffen I

I agree with bc on this one... muratic acid will eat away rust but it also causes "flash" rusting after use, so you better flush it away really well then coat it with oil or something to prevent the rust afterwards. Is this a 153 from a 504 or combine? If your in the PA area I know where you can get used parts for either. Let me know if your interested [email protected].

The only acid I would give the faintest consideration to using on an engine would be phosphoric. I don"t think I"d even do that, though.

you stated head and crank were removed, if this be the case and if cylinder wall isn't too rusty below piston ,wet it down with penetrating oil of so kind ,take a block of hard wood place on top of piston hit with hammer, drive piston down below were top ring was sitting , clean up cylinder with sand paper,emery etc.,top of cylinder may need to be ridge reamed also,use a brass drift pin set against wrist pin boss in piston or connecting rod below wrist pin slowly drive it out, if it gets tight or excessive rust is below piston when first trying to break loose drive it a little each direction until it frees up, be presistant you will get them out

Try this
www.nnalert

If it is stuck from water . I been told water will free it .Hope this helps

I have been reading this forum for years and it is my opinion that "Old" knows just about all there is to know about freeing up a stuck engine. You could do a lot worse than to take his instruction....
mike