New Member with a 1978 124

[lola]

Purchased the Fiat as a project car for my kids (2 boys and a girls in their teens)on to give them options and goals other than an Xbox. The car has been in a garage for about 30 years. Body is in good condition but there is a lot of siezed parts. So far we have made progress on getting things cleaned up, tires, battery...etc. recently we have drained all the fluids and replaced them. Here is the huge downer...tried to turn it over and found the engine is siezed up. Looks like we have some work cut out for us. Looking forward to interacting with this group. Thanks, Lola's Owner..

[aj81spider]

Welcome. Good job getting the kids engaged. I could never drum up any interest in mine.

[maxdog]

Seized stuff ??
Engine : Try pulling the plugs , adding around 100cc of diesel to each bore and leaving every thing to soak for 2-3 days..Don't try to bust things free with a wrench and a hammer or long piece of pipe on the wrench .
Make up a batch of " Penetrating Potion ;50% auto trans fluid -40 diesel - 10 acetone ; This is cheap BUT flammable so use with care . I have used it in Dollar Store spray bottles to free very rusted components
WD 40 is a very useful lubricant . in my experience it is expensive and not very efficient when used as a rust busting penetrating oil .
Buy the best Metric wrenches and sockets you can find . Cheap Chinese lead alloy wrenches will drive your kids straight back to their X box
Cheers and good luck
Maxdog

[JohnMc]

I personally like PB Blaster and have it soak. Then as MaxDog said get really good metric sockets. I now have three impact wrenches which are great - as they do not usually break. Also sockets with swivel on the end that are impact. Really a lot of the bolts seem to be 10, 13, 17, 19 mm sizes. Of course there are others - especially on suspension stuff.
Fun product. My son and I have worked for a few years on ours.
As a retired safety consultant do remember safety. That also means wearing your safety equipment and never just doing a fast job and not properly supporting your vehicle. Good safety glasses (not the cheap-ass visitor safety glasses) should be used at all times - who knows what the other person next to you is doing and nothing stops a product in its tracks like a bleeding knuckle or just piece of dirt dropped in the eye.
I love cars and even thinking of installing a lift in the garage.

[JohnMc]

I personally like PB Blaster and have it soak. Then as MaxDog said get really good metric sockets. I now have three impact wrenches which are great - as they do not usually break. Also sockets with swivel on the end that are impact. Really a lot of the bolts seem to be 10, 13, 17, 19 mm sizes. Of course there are others - especially on suspension stuff.
Fun product. My son and I have worked for a few years on ours.
As a retired safety consultant do remember safety. That also means wearing your safety equipment and never just doing a fast job and not properly supporting your vehicle. Good safety glasses (not the cheap-ass visitor safety glasses) should be used at all times - who knows what the other person next to you is doing and nothing stops a product in its tracks like a bleeding knuckle or just piece of dirt dropped in the eye.
I love cars and even thinking of installing a lift in the garage.

[JohnMc]

I personally like PB Blaster and have it soak. Then as MaxDog said get really good metric sockets. I now have three impact wrenches which are great - as they do not usually break. Also sockets with swivel on the end that are impact. Really a lot of the bolts seem to be 10, 13, 17, 19 mm sizes. Of course there are others - especially on suspension stuff.
Fun product. My son and I have worked for a few years on ours.
As a retired safety consultant do remember safety. That also means wearing your safety equipment and never just doing a fast job and not properly supporting your vehicle. Good safety glasses (not the cheap-ass visitor safety glasses) should be used at all times - who knows what the other person next to you is doing and nothing stops a product in its tracks like a bleeding knuckle or just piece of dirt dropped in the eye.
I love cars and even thinking of installing a lift in the garage.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Lola, can you give a little more detail on what you mean by "the engine is seized?" It could be that water (coolant) found its way into the cylinders and sat for 30 years and rusted the rings to the cylinder walls, or it could be something relatively easy to fix like a bad starter motor. With a good battery, does the starter motor click at all when you turn the key? If it "goes click" but the engine doesn't turn, it could just be a poor electrical connection in the large cable that runs from the battery to the starter, or the starter motor solenoid is bad.

Another, less likely, possibility is that the clutch disc bonded itself to the flywheel/pressure plate over 30 years, and the starter motor is trying to turn the engine while it's in gear. The test for that is to put it in neutral, see if there's any difference, and while in neutral, you should be able to slowly push the car forward or backward by hand (emergency brake off, of course). If that isn't happening, there's something else going on.

If the engine is indeed seized internally, the the advice already given above is a good place to start. I have to admit I've never run across this with some cars I've had with coolant leaking in the oil that sat for 5 years, but then again, I've never had a car sit for 30 years before I got hold of it.

-Bryan

[lola]

Thank you for all the suggestions. What we did is we added miracle oil down each cylinder. waited a week or so and now I got the motor to turn, but it appears to have no spark. any suggestions on what to try first, distributor, points, the ceramic "thing" on mounted on the wall? I also found online a factory maintenance manual, does anyone recommend using that or a third party maintenance book. Thanks Again, also being new to this group and not to familiar with forums should I be posting these comments into a specific category.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

I'm heartened to hear that you got the engine somewhat loosened up. As for the spark, have you changed the spark plugs? With an almost frozen engine and many years having passed, I'd definitely recommend a new set of spark plugs and a new set of spark plug wires.

Some tests to do: On your ignition coil, you should have 12 volts (or thereabouts) on one of the terminal posts when you turn the ignition on. If you get 12 volts there, remove the spark plug wire from one of the cylinders, expose the metal connection inside the rubber boot, and place that connection next to (but not touching) a good engine ground. Sometimes the cam covers can function as a ground, but another alternative is the hood latch mechanism. When you crank the engine, you should see (and possibly hear) a spark going from that plug connector to ground.

Let us know what you find out and we can go from there.

-Bryan

[lola]

Bryan,

Yes, I have replaced the spark plugs and wires. I also checked to see if there was spark. (there was not), so I will do as you suggested and check the volts with a meter. Keep you posted. Thanks.