I've been trying to fire this 305 that's been sitting for a long time. I had the intake off and when I looked down the ports there was rust on all the valve stems, and elsewhere in the ports as well.
I haven't taken a comp test yet but the cranking speed is very erratic, leading me to believe that some of the valves might not be returning to their seats.
Other than taking off the heads, what can I do to fix that?

Thanks

 

Soak them in pentrating oil or brake fluid for a day or 2; then dose them with ATF.

 

I just did a search and read about some stuff called seafoam.
What is that, how does it work?

RB ... if you're still there, should I just remove the intake again and spray a bunch of liquid wrench in there?

Thanks

 

depending on how loong it was sitting, check to make sure the lifters arent frozen. Thats happened to me...my symptoms were the same. The rockers werent moving, cranking was slow. turned out the lifteres were sludged glazed.

 

The lifters were stuck in their bores, or the internals were sludged up?

 

lifters stuck in the bores

well, internals were kinda sludged. But that wasnt the main reason. The main reason was the lifteres froze so the cam had a very hard time rotating due to the lifters. because the cam had a hard time rotating, the crank had a hard time rotating because of the chain.

It was a speed of about 2 or so 'cranks' per second.

 

I'll take it apart again tomorrow and have a look at that.
If I had 5 gal of liquid wrench, I'd like to just pour it down the intake til it won't hold any more. That wouldn't be good for the cat tho.

 

How long has this car been sitting?

 

Probably 2-3 yrs.
I put a carb and dist on there that were both working yesterday, I used a jumper wire across the fuel pump relay, and got the fuel press dialed in with an afpr. Everything to do with fuel and spark is set up right, I'm sure of that.
I just wanted to test it with a carb before trying to mess with the TPI system, to wring out any mechanical bugs.
I'm basically trying to bring this car back from the dead. The previous owner was ready to sacrifice it to "the hook" when I stepped in and offered to take it.
I have a fresh engine for it, but I'm hoping to get the original engine fired up to get it through the smog test, cause it seems like if I can get it running it will be more likely to pass with everything stock.
I'll have to try again in a few days.
It's a pretty tired engine, I think. It has 135k on it. I can rotate the crank about 8* back and forth by hand before the slack comes out of the timing chain enough for the dist to show any movement.

 

It finally fired - Severe mechanical noise.
Out comes the 305.

I wish I could chuck this #@*&%! diverter valve