Originally Posted By: HouseTiger
Most 'disgusting' engine was in 1983, it was a 75 Pontiac belonging to a neighbor. Engine wouldn't turn over - we ruled out battery, starter, fuel, etc.
Drained the crankcase and as the glue oozed from the drain plug . . . several beers and a cigar later . . . we filled the crankcase up with kerosene. Alas, after some soaking, the engine budged (barely). Took over an hour of cranking and cranking before it would finally turn enough to start. Let it idle for about 20 minutes, drained batch #1 of now black paint grade kerosene. We repeated the process I think like five or six times until the kerosene would drain relatively clear. Put a new filter on it, and some fresh oil, and he went about driving it, only changing the oil like every 2000 miles (adding some brand of engine version of Drano to the fill before draining it). I cringe on how much [censored] was still in that engine.
Glad Pontiac engineers couldn't see what had been done to that engine.
That reminds me of the '79 Pontiac LeMans (early G-body) that I bought a decade ago. It was originally a V6 car, but somebody put in a 350 with a Q-jet. It was a disgusting, neglected beater of a car. The carbuerator caught fire when I test drove it, but I handed over a few hundered bucks and I bought it just for fun. It was hardly able to move under its own power, spewing black smoke and choking out. Third gear was out of the question. When I got it home, I found a disaster. I did a basic tune up, adjusted the carbuertor, and put some cheap headers on it. All of a sudden it was a relative rocket - I'm talking 16-second quarter miles. With all that power, the transmission quickly went out. It only cost $600 to have the TH350 rebuilt, though. Some time later, the car got flooded in Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, I found the car with the windows blown out and the interior all kinds of nasty. When I tried to start it, it was slow at first, but then it spewed out a huge puddle of black nastiness onto the ground, and fired right up. The exhaust had filled up with water, and maybe some got into the engine, but it was now running on all cylinders. I drove it for a few thousand more miles before it decided to lose oil pressure and overheat. In fact, here is a picture of the engine, post-hurricane: