Cooper40

@Young Ed I believe it is touching. The pic on my phone is higher quality and I can see that they are touching. @Sniper Ok, even if the springs and valve stems are rusty? I would think that the PB blaster would help with the rust. I'll get brake fluid as well.

Thank you for all of the feedback and encouragement! We took one of the valve cover plates off and discovered that cylinder #2 valves are pretty rusted and also #3 (closest to the camera). (The pic is looking down the block, the front of the engine is at the end of the picture on the right). One of the valve stems on the #2 cylinder looks really rusted. I'll take the other cover off and look at those too, it was just hard to get to. How should I proceed? Spray them all down with pb blaster?

@soth122003 Thank you for all of that info! 1. Yes I got the service manual for it. It is super cool and I love how detailed it is. 2. Yes I plan on keeping on grass for now. Ok so you think only 2 pieces of 4x8 plywood would be enough to fit all of the jack stands under? Also, what jack stands would you recommend that are good quality and (possibly) not crazy expensive? 3. Yes, we have it covered. We're using this weird bug tent thing that can go over the front of the car and that works for keeping out the water. The day after we got it, it rained and all of the water leaked through the middle seam in the hood and collected around the spark plugs (just as I expected). We covered it after that. 4. The carb is a Ball & Ball Carter carburetor. It seems like the original one. Haven't checked distributor or fuel pump. Thank you again! I will for sure reach out when not if I have more questions haha!

@Dave72dtI don't think there is a crack. You might of just been seeing the reflection of my flash? Here are some pics of the same cylinder without the flash. Also, the previous owner took the plugs out and just piled them in the battery tray so I don't know the order.

@squirebillthe guys who delivered the car rolled it off of their trailer so probably not the transmission? Unless I'm missing something...

@Los_ControlThanks for the feedback. Yeah to me it doesn't look too bad in the cylinders. I don't know when the last time the engine was run but it had old AC plugs from the 60s! They were pretty badly rusted and on one of them, the threads were rusted. Here are some pictures. Is it possible for a starter to be the problem like you said? I don't have any way of jacking the car up to get to the starter. Could I try and get it out from the top?

We've turning it over by putting pressure on the fan which slipped and spun the water pump (so we know that isn't locked up). We also tried putting a pipe wrench on the harmonic balancer and put a pipe on the wrench and tried that but we ended up breaking the wrench (it was a cheap one off Amazon I think). I was a little wary of that because I didn't want to force anything too much. We don't have jacks or jackstands yet because this our first project. Also, it is on grass so most likely it will end up sinking into the ground. It it was on pavement, I would've got jacks and stands and tried the flywheel. We ordered a chain wrench and we'll try that once it arrives. About the will it run videos, I'm definitely aware that some of them can be a pretty bad idea. Seeing as this is my first project and I don't want to mess anything up too bad, I'm taking it slow and reading up on things before I try tackling it. Thank you for the advice, I'll keep you posted.

Hello everyone! New user here Im probably one of the younger people on this forum (23 yrs old) but im facinated by old vehicles, especially 40s era! I recently aquired a 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe. The engine is locked up tight! My brother and i are working on it and this is our first project car ever. Definitely new to working on engines but ive watched many "will it run" videos through the years and have a little knowledge that way. I also just started watching @keithb7 on youtube. His videos on his 38 plymouth are super helpful! So far we have tried putting mystery oil in the cylinders, that didn't work. Pulled the head and it doesn't look to bad underneath to my eyes. It looks like the cylinders have been sleeved? There is a little nick in the #2 cylinder wall and a bit of suface rust in the cylinder as well but other than that, not too bad, the walls are really smooth. What do you guys think? Next step is going to be pulling the manifold off and taking the valve cover plates off and seeing if the valves are rusted. If so, how should I address unseizing them? Are the other things I have to take out in order to loosen them up? Really looking forward to talking with the people in this forum You all seem very nice and knowledgeable!