361 Woes

I installed the new pushrod, rechecked the old lifter to see if it would still collapse, added some oil to the top of the valvetrain, put her back together and turned the key. Fired right up and has good oil pressure (45-50 lbs at idle cold to warm and 60 lbs above 1,500 rpm) no knocking and was running on all eight cylinders. There was no smoking, with the exception of the fuel/oil remmnants in the exhaust, but that burned out. Revved cleanly, no backfiring. Seems to have solved the problem. I have cleaned the fuel tank(obviously the previous owner lied about cleaning the tank) and changed the 17 year old oil. That should help keep the crud out of the oil holes in the lifters. Otherwise, the top of the motor looked clean, no valve seal remains anywhere. The carb is due to be replaced with our new holley and four barrel intake, as it seems a bit rich and out of adjustment from sitting so long.

The sole fact that a motor could sit so long without running, then be started back up after 17 years without any prep by the previous unwise and dishonest owner and run decent is awesome.

Tough, these mopars are.

Now, to get the insurance on and see if this thing is driveable. It needs to be driven hard under load to clean it out more.