Engine guys...few ?'s w/ pics

[stockk5]

Ok tonight i dug a little deeper into the 350 i just got. The kid said he drove it to the house and parked it and pulled it from the truck. This has been verified through a few different people saying they were there when he drove it in. After i took the intake off i noticed the collant passage were COMPLETELY baked full of crap. Not all of them though, only 2 were still open. What does this mean? can an engine even run like this?

The hole directly opp. of this one looks the same as well.
How do these heads look? can anyone tell me how whipped this motor was from it or what?

Finally well i guess when the kid said the tarp blew off it he wasnt kidding.. nice lake inside the cylinder

Still turns over though, nothing more than surface rust.

 

[89GMCSuburban]

Exhaust holes? Those are the water ports for the head. It can run like that, just won't cool off too well. Make sure there's no rust on the valve seats. I'd probably take out the pistons and clean the bores from rust then wd40 it and re-assemble.

 

[Russell]

The center hole full of carbon is the exhaust crossover to heat up the automatic choke / keep the carb from icing up. It won't hurt anything having it plugged off. Just means that the truck was started, run for a few minutes, then shut off constantly. I have an engine with less than 15 000 miles on it that had that hole totally plugged off too.

The hole at the far left in the pic is a coolant passage. I'd highly reccomend flushing the entire block rad and intake so the water comes out clean before you put new coolant back in. Thats pretty sick looking!

Also, you are probally alright with the piston bore -- I have a 76 350 that I tore out of an old 76 I picked up, it didn't have a hood or air cleanerfor several years before I picked it up, needless to say, I had a cylinder or two full of water as well. After I cleaned everything up, I only found very minor pitting in the cylinder full of water, I was able to hone 90% of it out. The bulk of the corrosion was in the pistons. The aluminum was more willing to be oxidized than the high nickle content block, so the piston had a big chunk of it eaten away due to corrosion. I was gonna rebuild the engine, and run it again, but I decided I did not want to get the .020 overbore done to clean up the cylinder walls / replace the pistons, so I gave the block to someone else

 

[Blazer1970]

That coolant passage at the rear of the heads is blocked off by the intake manifold gaskets in almost all small block applications. That is why all the crap is built up there. Center is exhaust crossover as already stated. I can't see the front hole in any of your pictures, but they are the ones that are used to pass the coolant from the heads to the crossover in the intake where the thermostat is, and then back to the radiator. I assume that your front holes are open. That is exactly what most higher mileage engines look like when the intake is removed.

 

[stockk5]

dohhh i feel dumb! well thanks for clearing up whats what on the engine, im still trying to learn it all! thanks for the info!

 

[Russell]

Only one way to learn!

When I first got my truck, I didn't know the head from the carburator, lol

 

[Jagged]

that crap in your lifter valley plugging the *oil* drain holes (not the coolant passages) is from parafin-wax based oil like penzoil or quaker-state; just remove your oil pan, and run a lot of laquer thinner over it and use a wire brush (or similar air tool) to knock it all out. While you're at it a new oil pump would be a good idea. Just remember to run some oil through it after treating it with laquer thinner