Fleet's 54 Clipper Deluxe

Posted by Fleet Butterfield On 2016/8/3 23:22:50

I bought this light green car from Iowa this last April of 2016. The body is in decent shape, but the engine only turned over by hand. It was missing the radiator, and water pump.
We, as in my good friend who not only helped me to go down and get it, but has also let me work on it in his garage.
After we, got it home the first thing we did was try and start it. There was no compression, so we squirted oil down the spark plug holes, but still no compression.
After we took the head off, we found out why there was compression. All but one of the exhaust valves were stuck open. With a lot of work, and cussing we finally got the last stubborn two valves to work.
We were able to get it running for two short times as there wasn't any water in the engine. I just wanted to see if it would even fire up before I spent any more time or money on it.
I pulled 4 out 5 frost plugs out and air blew what I could out of the engine. Apparently I must've cleaned it out fairly well for when I took a pressure washer to it hardly anything came out.
Now I have put the engine back together, except for the radiator. When I fill it with water I expect the radiator to leak, I'm crossing my fingers on the water pump. Either way, it's on to doing the brakes.