Good Engine Stored 10 years; found problems!

[Rickchevy56]

Good Day Chevy folks

We were in the middle of helping repair my parents fire damaged house when a friend gave me a 6 cyl. '56 235 c.i.engine w/ 60k miles/ and a 3 speed manual tranny out of his '56 wagon. We put it on a pallet in the garage, put a little oil in each spark plug hole, foil covered the carb, electrical item like the starter, etc. and cushion wrapped it. I would turn the crank via the fan blade until after a couple years I could not get it to rotate.

Now the tranny, carb, tappets in my '56 Chevy wagon's (which my family has had since it was new!)engine are wearing out and the engine conked out with probably a fuel pump issue so we decided to put the newer engine in. I did notice a year ago when cleaning out the garage that there was maybe a quart of oil on the floor near the engine front. Some think it was a deteriorated gasket for the crankcase or timing cover. I checked the dipstick and it seemed about 90% of the oil was still in there. The oil did not seem to have any water or coolant in there.

One shop told us to see if the engine was ok to use a battery to run the engine to see how it sounded and get the compression test. My brother who is a mechanical engineer and he does most repair work on his cars said the engine sounded ok, and with a 30 year-old little compression tester on a cold engine we got #1 piston w/115 lbs., the others were about 125.
Another mechanic who does classic cars said I could myself, should replace most gaskets like on the head, valve, oil pan; I don't know what others. ?

I did check out the water pump ports and it had rusty gunk in there. I do know it would be a good idea anyway to replace the water pump.
I also checked out the coolant drain plug on the left (driver) side of the engine. There was like a soft fine grain sand in there that was not wet but smelled of oil.
So what does that mean and what should be done about that?
Any other suggestions on what needs to be done to possibly get this engine ready to put in. Help!
Thanks to you for your Help
Rick G.

[maxwedge]

Fresh oil, carb cleaned out, points cleaned and gapped,see how it runs before doing any internal repairs, also prime the oil pimp, using a oil pump priming tool, first.

[Ol'Jim]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

Fresh oil, carb cleaned out, points cleaned and gapped,see how it runs before doing any internal repairs, also prime the oil pimp, using a oil pump priming tool, first.

^^^ Agree with Max Wedge.
If you never did get the engine to turn over in the past year or so, pull out all the spark plugs, squirt in a little oil to each hole, and try turning it again, using a breaker bar & socket on the crank snout. (Careful to not tip over the engine doing this). If it is frozen-up, no sense in installing it without figuring out why and correcting the problem. Also, what appeared to you as a quart of oil on the floor, was most likely only a few ounces. 1/4 of a quart will quickly spread out the size of an unfolded Sunday newspaper, and look like a lot. With a 235 in a 56 Chevy, you will have plenty of room to R&R almost any component on that engine while it is in the car, including oil pan. So I would not get into too much repair work before installing it. As Max said, just make sure you turn/prime the oil pump, (after replacing the old oil & filter). And definitely clean the carburetor, and make sure all is good in the distributor. Might want to put a new set of spark plugs in it, too. Oh, and do not wash the engine with a hose. Water can get into many places, and cause problems. If it needs cleaning up/painting, try to wipe or brush off as much gunk as possible, then use some blue shop paper towels and lacquer thinner to wipe it down. For tight little places, a spray can of brake cleaner workes well, and evaporates quickly. Engine degreasers leave a heavy residue that smells strongly, eats up rubber parts & gaskets, and stains driveways. And it needs to be hosed off. I would avoid that if possible. Sounds like a fun project! Enjoy! Let us know how it goes.