Thread: Car has been parked for an extended period of time...

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Yea, although I'm new to working on a car of this age I have been working on cars for awhile. I only cranked it a short burst at a time and stopped when I heard the noise.

One thing that I found odd yesterday when changing the oil was that the oil filter was bone dry. I'm wondering if the car was parked because of an engine problem (oil pump failure?) and the seller didn't tell me anything about it.

I really didnt want to put much money into the engine. I put new oil and replaced the filter anyway yesterday. It was only cranked a few times. If I drain the oil again and check the filter, shouldn't there be some sign of oil in the filter already?

Is there anything else I can inspect at this point before tearing down what I had hoped was a good motor?

Thanks again!

You should at least take off the valve covers and see if you have a stuck valve or lifter.

Originally Posted by Blow by

You should at least take off the valve covers and see if you have a stuck valve or lifter.

Considering I thought I heard the sound on the drivers side down low, I debated draining the oil and checking the rods... however, the valve covers were easier so that's what I did.

I pulled the passenger side cover to find the following:


The red "arrows" (hey, I did that with my camera - lol) show where I have two bent pushrods. All the other pushrods appeared to be fine. So at this point I'm wondering if the corresponding valves are so stuck that they bent the pushrods? after I removed all the pushrods I was able to hear the motor rotate without any strange noises, so I'm guessing the bottom end is good. I was able to watch in the spark plug holes the pistons move up and down.

Overall, I had a productive afternoon.