Quote: To me it comes down to if any rust has formed. Alot of parts are oiled as part of the assembly process as you know but there's alot of bare machined metal that ain't touched with lube even if 5qts of oil was added & it was prelubed. I would at least pull the pan & possibly the intake. My #1 Q would be was it stored in a heated facility because if not, temp changes that get the ambient temp dropped below the dew point make moisture condense & rust ferrous parts. Also another consideration would be how expensive this eng is
Rust doesn't bother or worry me like some. I have put some rusty stuff togeather and it stayed togeather and ran a long time. The short block 440 motor that is in my 71 sat uncovered in a shed in Detroit for many years, lot's of rust, even on the cyl walls. Took scotchbright pads and removed most of the rust off of connecting rod and deck surfaces. One cly had some serious deep pitting in a 3" circle in one of the clys. It surely was not able to be cleaned up with a hone and I wasn't gonna bore the block again because of rust in one cly. I honed all 8 holes again and all the rings sealed up great. I put higher compression pistons in it without rebalancing and it runs great. The cly with the rust was a non issue.
