[FWDLK] It's DeLightful, It's DeLovely, It's Getting Better

Hi All,

I wanted to give a progress report and summary of the many response I received on the non-starting/low-compression problem with my '59 DeSoto 361.

A lot of people suggested that the old fuel was bad, and/or carb problems. Actually, the old fuel was pretty bad (it was pumped when Nixon was in office) but that's not the problem. The car, at present, has the fuel pump disconnected at both ends and a dry carb. I didn't even let the fuel system enter into the equation -- I stuck just to starting fluid only while attempting to start it.

A few others have suggested towing the vehicle up to around 35 MPH while in D or 2 range, where the trans will actually turn the engine over.... basically, the old push-start. That's appealing to me, but it would be a bit difficult in my current scenario. The car is in a garage in a city neighborhood with narrow streets. It's a long, flat, dead-end street, but there isn't much wiggle room if the car was to buck or lurch, so I'm going to have to count that one out in my situation, but it sounds like a good idea for others who are facing the same problem.

Another good-sounding approach was to disconnect the starter cable at the relay, and hook up another battery in series to give a 24volt crank for short periods of time.

But I do feel that the main cause is the low compression. The engine is firing okay with the ether while cranking, but the majority of the smoke is coming out the breathers on the valve covers, leading me to believe that most of the compression stroke is getting blown right past the rings.

Following the lead of around 15 list members' recommendations, I started soaking the pistons down with massive amounts of Marvel Mystery Oil (MMO), and cranking occasionally with all of the plugs out. After soaking for around 4 hours, then thoroughly cranking to blow the extra oil out, compression increased dramatically. What had been a high of around 60 PSI on all cylinders jumped to a new range of 90-115. Vacuum also jumped to around 6 PSI from nearly 0. As BJ Pultanovich pointed out, without vacuum, very little starting fluid would actually get to the cylinders, so starting would be near impossible anyway.

Since I'll be out of town for a couple of weeks, I filled the cylinders to the very top with MMO through the spark plug holes and left the plugs out. Hopefully after sitting for a couple of weeks the rings should break totally free.

In any event, I think I'm going to bring the pump from my parts washer and just flush the engine with kerosene for a few hours... pump in through the breathers and let it drain out through the drain plug to flush out of loosen the goo.

If the rings still won't break free, I can always do a quick ring job. It is possible to do in the car, but I'll have to jack the engine up a bit to be able to remove the oil pan. A hone with a ball-type glaze busting hone will freshen up the cylinder walls, and a thorough flushdown to remove any grit would finish the job.

I'll keep y'all posted on what happens from here. Thanks again to all for the great suggestions!

-Dave