I rebuilt a '73 440 almost 2 years ago. I had planned on installing it in my Duster a couple of months later. Well, something came up and the project got pushed back. Then one thing led to another and here I am two years later. Well, I am to the point to where I am ready to order the torque converter and slip the engine and transmission in to the car. I unwrapped my engine today to tinker with a few things. I primed the oil pump and found that I had a lifer collapsed. When I would rotate the crank by hand the push rod would almost fall out of the rocker arm. I thought it wouldn't be a problem, it would probably pump up when the engine started and got up to pressure. But I don't want to risk wiping out a lobe on the cam.
As I was tinkering around, I decided to test the cylinder pressure, to see if I was in the ball park of where I think it should be. I used my dads cylinder pressure gauge that has been sitting on a shelf for years and years. My brother started turning the crank over by hand while I held the gauge in a spark plug port. The needle never budged, but we determined two things. The gauge is no good (we tested it by plugging it in to our air compressor after testing it in the cylinder head) and that the rings are not sealed. I have tape over the top of the intake manifold, when I plugged the spark plug port and turned the crank over the tape burped at us.
The cylinder pressure slipped right passed the rings and in to the crank case. I am hoping that when I start the engine this will quickly itself by the rings seating. But this is my first engine so...
Let me know what you think... am I cruising straight in to a expensive catastrophe?
