I bought what turned out to be a '50 Chevy Fleetline (has a '49 grille) last week that has a fair body (crappy old bodywork aside) and runs pretty nice, because for $200 I figured I couldn't go wrong. Turned out the engine is a '55-'57, I haven't looked for a serial to ID the year yet but thats what the casting number is.

The car hasn't been on the road since 1971, and has only been driven enough to move it around here and there since it has no brakes. But it does run nice and quiet, the points are slightly burned so it's a little rough, but no obvious signs of trouble.

Well, I never checked the oil until today and what I got was milky brown. So I drained it. The pan that normally is 1/3 to 1/2 full with 4 1/2 quarts was close to overflowing with about 10 quarts of milky oil and water mixture. I think the only reason it's not more full is any more than that would go out the draft tube. There were like chunks and things in it, too.

So then I figured I would pull the valve cover. I had already noted drops of water condensated on the rockers through the oil cap. That cap is new chrome where the rest is typical untouched old engine compartment.

So here is all this fuzzy crap all over the head, around the pushrods, etc. It looks like maybe it sat with no oil cap and a mouse built a nest in here that wasn't found until after the motor had been run.


So I am wondering if this is a sign of a cracked block or head? Thats an awful lot of fluid in there. There's no way to check through the radiator for bubbles, etc. right now b/c the water pump is bad - I had to put a bucket under the front to catch leaking coolant - but I have a used '55 water pump I could probably put on there to use to test it and just fill it up with plain water. That and some fresh oil and I run this off a line to a tank for 10 min aught to confirm me one way or the other.

Any advice on if I should mess with this to confirm if it's bad, or maybe try and change the oil 3 or 4 times and see if it clears up? If not, what about another engine?

I'd just as soon keep an inline in this, but given the newer I go the easier it will be to find a runner, how new of an engine can I use with the stock front mounts? Hopefully this has a '55-'57 bell and I can switch to a T5 later on.


Thanks a bunch -

Bill K.