I recently bought a rust-free, totally original (down to the paint), but long dead CS. It had sat in a carport in southern Oregon for 23 years with the engine "partially" disassembled--carburetor and distributor off, radiator removed from car, and the sparkplugs removed (ouch!). I instilled Marvel Mystery oil into the cylinders thru the sparkplug holes repeatedly over a three-week period and then finally tried to manually turn the engine yesterday with a socket on the harmonic balancer bolt. Big surprise--it won't budge.
As a person with too many cars, all needing money spent on them, I've come up with 3 options: (1) rebuild the original engine (estimate from my engine guy ballpark $2000); (2) buy a crate long block 302--found one for $2,000 with 320hp; or (3) buy a '68 cougar I found for cheap with it's original fairly recently rebuilt 302, drop the engine in, and part the rest of the car to help offset expenses for the swap?
Opinions? Advice?
TIA...
As a person with too many cars, all needing money spent on them, I've come up with 3 options: (1) rebuild the original engine (estimate from my engine guy ballpark $2000); (2) buy a crate long block 302--found one for $2,000 with 320hp; or (3) buy a '68 cougar I found for cheap with it's original fairly recently rebuilt 302, drop the engine in, and part the rest of the car to help offset expenses for the swap?
Opinions? Advice?
TIA...