Someone want to explain this?

[Bryan]

The motor I pulled out of the woods had a few surprises Besides the valve area being full of crud, the cylinders had straw and acorns in them.

 

The head was on tight, exhaust pipe open, carb mount covered with jar lid.  

 

Yeah, squirrels or mice crawled into the exhaust pipe.   

 

HOW DID THEY GET THE ACORN ON TOP OF THE VALVE?

[Sniper]

10 minutes ago, Bryan said:

HOW DID THEY GET THE ACORN ON TOP OF THE VALVE?

 

Weak valve springs, lol

[Art Bailey]

Pros...their only two jobs is to stuff acorns in tight spots, and make more rodents. 

[OUTFXD]

I will use the scientific word for "I dont know".  Instinct!

[Eneto-55]

Mice can get through incredibly small spaces.  Same with bats.  A house on the mission center where we lived in Brazil had a sort of board & battan siding, where the siding boards are fastened to the walls vertically, with appropriate gaps so that another board would over lap an inch or so of each board behind it.  The gap at the top & bottom of the wall was filled in with a short narrow piece, to completely close the gap - AT THE TIME OF CONSTRUCTION.  Kiln dried wood is not available in Brazil, not when this house was built (1971), nor the entire time we lived there (1985 - 2003).  Normally we "stickered" the boards in a pile, to allow them to air dry, over a period of months or even a year or more before using them.  Because the boards shrunk width wise AFTER the construction of that house, there were gaps of 1/2" X 3/4".  That was enough space for bats to go up into the walls.  Hundreds of them.  (After all, bats are just "rats on wings".)  I had a batch of boards that were Brazil Nut wood.  It is especially notorious for shrinkage.  I had specifically told the saw mill that I did NOT want that species, but they sent it anyway, with a different species name on the delivery bill.   I planed it all, and left in in a stack with weight piles on top, stickered every 12 inches.  I left it there for at least a year, not knowing what I could ever use it for, as Brazil Nut wood is also prone to extreme warpage.  Later I looked at it, and saw that the full 12" wide boards were down to 10" - TWO full inches of shrinkage!  I went ahead & used it for siding on my house out in the village, and it was apparently dry enough that it was done "moving" - no more shrinkage and it also never warped.

Sorry I got so carried away with this.....  "My Bad", as they say.  But only now do I get it - the question was more about the acorn than the mice itself.... 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Eneto-55

[Bryan G]

My car had been stored for maybe 15 years or more in various places; the exhaust & air cleaner were in place. When I pulled the head I was greeted with acorns in the exhaust manifold. Quite a distance to travel for a home! Gives one new respect for those critters to make it a) up into the tailpipe, b) through the muffler, c) up into the manifold, d) back out again.

 

You really denied them a great 6-place storage unit!

[joecoozie]

Not a Mopar but this is what I found when I pulled the manifolds.

I dug an acorn out of one of the exhaust ports, too. It was crammed up against the valve stem.

Those little buggers can get into some tight spaces.

 

[OUTFXD]

I am more impressed by the sexy Gloss Black Paint(?) coating the Intake/Exhaust, and head. 

 

I Painted the headers on my buddies 55 chevy.   I bead blasted them clean,  applied a high heat Primer,  and finally Coated them with a "special" High heat paint specifically designed for Elvis.  Mucho Dinero.

 

It Dis-colored as soon as my buddy warmed up the engine and had almost all fallen off 6 months later.

[Los_Control]

19 hours ago, Bryan said:

The head was on tight, exhaust pipe open, carb mount covered with jar lid.  

I would only imagine the jar lid being the weak link here.

While the jar lid was sitting on it when you pulled the engine,  I think the vehicle has been sitting for several years.

I suggest there was no jar lid originally, then later on added .... or it fell off & later was put back on.

Either way would not take long for the rodents to create that amount of mess.

 

They do like to get into the darnedest places.

 

 

[Bryan]

34 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

I would only imagine the jar lid being the weak link here.

While the jar lid was sitting on it when you pulled the engine,  I think the vehicle has been sitting for several years.

I suggest there was no jar lid originally, then later on added .... or it fell off & later was put back on.

Either way would not take long for the rodents to create that amount of mess.

 

They do like to get into the darnedest places.

 

 

With the rust in the cylinders I agree that the jar lid might not have been on the entire time. Or the mice peed a lot.

[Eneto-55]

5 hours ago, OUTFXD said:

I am more impressed by the sexy Gloss Black Paint(?) coating the Intake/Exhaust, and head. 

 

I Painted the headers on my buddies 55 chevy.   I bead blasted them clean,  applied a high heat Primer,  and finally Coated them with a "special" High heat paint specifically designed for Elvis.  Mucho Dinero.

 

It Dis-colored as soon as my buddy warmed up the engine and had almost all fallen off 6 months later.

I have yet to see how long it will last, but I glass bead blasted my intake & exhaust manifolds, and the head, then cad plated them.  (Actually, plated the bell housing as well.)  Did this back in the early 80s, while working at a plating shop where the boss would let me work on my own stuff after-hours.  And yeah, I STILL haven't started the engine.  (As some may remember, I lived out of the States for 18 years.)  Someday I hope to find out how it all looks after reaching normal operating temperature.....

[Booger]

this, my friends, A great post!

[Los_Control]

Air always has moisture in it. Steel will absorb moisture. Unless engine is stored in a climate controlled environment, it will collect moisture.

 

A stored engine such as yours, with a carburetor/air cleaner in place you have a much better chance for the cylinders to survive.

 

With a jar lid to cover it .... Myself as a prospective buyer, I'm going to value the engine by what I can sell the accessories such as starter, generator or basically scrap yard prices.

Simply because it did not have a carb/air cleaner I'm assuming everything inside is junk ... whatever I can save like a cam or crank would be a bonus.

Kinda what you are seeing now .... rodents pee is extremely  corrosive, with no rodents & no Carb, you would still see rust in the cylinders.

 

A few examples.

Last fall I bought a used engine from a wrecking yard here in West Texas (Abilene) a very dry climate.   I was told it sat stored for 8-10 years.

I added oil to the cylinders and rotated it often til I installed & started it.

When I started it there was white smoke or steam coming out of it for over 1 hour, almost 2 hours.

Simply condensation the iron block had absorbed & releasing as the metal ran up to operating temperature.   ..... Totally expected.

 

Another example of a vehicle parked for 4 years in the Washington Area, nothing but steam coming out the exhaust as the moisture burned off the engine block.

 

I once bought a rebuilt engine while living in Tacoma, sat for 2 years under the work bench in a garage. The rings were frozen to the cylinders.

 

We do the best we can, metal will absorb moisture, we can try to prevent it .... nature will repeat itself.

[Bryan]

30 minutes ago, Eneto-55 said:

I have yet to see how long it will last, but I glass bead blasted my intake & exhaust manifolds, and the head, then cad plated them.  (Actually, plated the bell housing as well.)  Did this back in the early 80s, while working at a plating shop where the boss would let me work on my own stuff after-hours.  And yeah, I STILL haven't started the engine.  (As some may remember, I lived out of the States for 18 years.)  Someday I hope to find out how it all looks after reaching normal operating temperature.....

Know what you mean..Corps of Engineers in Germany from 1984-2004, then Israel and S Korea. Only been back since 2014.