I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me a bit. Recently we dug out a Continental Straight-6 crate motor of military origin from my late Grandfather's storage trailer. The thing was never used, but is seized after years of sitting (at one point, a bit of water did get into the motor. Don't ask me how, the thing has been in a trailer for decades.). Here's my problem; I don't know jack about Continental's crate motors. I know it's got two sets of numbers on it; one number reading 884800, and a serial number of 205. We don't know what model it is, but we know it's roughly 800 pounds and probably has a displacement of at least 400 cubic inches. So... Anyone know what I'm looking at here?

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008 ... lete-list/

Above link has a picture of a continental 4

"After it donated Continental's engineering records to the Muskegon County Museum, Teledyne Continental Motors, still in existence today, sold off its last Muskegon factory in 1994. " The Museum may be able to help verify what you have.

The military crate says Jeep personal or gun carrier, possible a generator motor

Parts (Hemming's motors)are not that hard to come by, some places sell rebuild kits. These are VERY tough engines that are forgiving during the rebuild process.

The bigger number looks like a casting number. Continental was good at putting tags on the left side of there engines, but not all. And anything military is up in the air. Can you post a picture? Is it overhead valve or flat head? Does the distributor come out the top of the head, side of the block, or off of the front cover. Does it have a mag or distributor. Picture would be best.

At this point the crate is long gone. However, if it pleases the court, I'd like to introduce exhibit A;

Dylan;

"at one point, a bit of water did get into the motor. Don't ask me how, the thing has been in a trailer for decades."

Those old engines (before all the emission control stuff was mandated) where quite open to external air. Even if it was stored out of direct contact with rain water humid air can quite easily enter the crankcase and condense onto interior surfaces.

The crankshaft seals on many of those engines where a "serpentine" seal, a bunch of thin disks on the crankshaft would turn inside slots in the crankcase without anything touching. This does a good job of keeping the oil inside, but humid air can also get inside.

Also, without closed intake or exhaust manifolds you can be sure that some humid air got into a couple of the cylinders since the chances are good that one or more intake/exhaust valves have been open for all these years.

A good hot humid day lets the damp air in, the engine cools at night and the moisture condenses inside the engine, no rain required.

Only way to prevent this is to mist the inside with oil and then make all openings (even little ones like the oil filler tube) totally airtight.

Newer engines are quite air tight to keep unburnt gasoline and oil vapors from escaping the inside of the engine and causing air pollution.

But these things are quite a bit overbuilt, with some work I'd bet this can run again.

Cheers, Kevin

I got a machine with a Continental 4 that was locked up some years ago - I emptied a spray can of PB into the cylinders through the plug holes, let it sit a few days, barred it in both directions sort of vigorously within reason, let it sit a bit more for a while, did it again, added a bit more PB, etc. After a week and a half, it started to want to move a bit more and more. The next day I had it turning with the starter motor. Compression tests were pretty good, got a lot of good use out of it. This won't cost more than a few dollars for some PB, and I think you might have equally good results. Best of luck with it.

There's a possibility that it might be a non turbocharged light aircraft motor. Sometimes you come across one without the gearing for the propeller drive. They're mighty fine motors for small airplanes.

What's on the tag? Continental made a very wide variety of engines, the data tag has a wealth of info.

CD

That's just it... Other than the 884800 and the Serial Number, there's nothing else on that tag. Which begs another question; could there be a tag on the other side? I'll be totally honest, while I can toss a furnace around with a bit of effort, flipping that motor over is way out of my weight class...

A closeup of the tag would help.

Hopefully this helps... Sorry that it quality picture in advance.

By chance, it doesn't have "RED SEAL" cast into the side of the block. Looks about like the standard industrial 6 that was used in many forklifts and other equipment. I want to say they were in the F series of engines.

A little bit of cross searching shows that it is most likely a 4 1/4 bore, 4 7/8 stroke flathead six sold to Clark Equipment Co.

Pour automatic transmission fluid into each plug hole. Put plugs back in. Or mix acetone with the atf first then pour in. In the oft chance that the rod and mains have a loose coating of rust then that would have to be addressed before trying to spin it over. Or better yet, sell it on ebay.

Isn't Coca-Cola supposed to be good for that?