Music Courtesy of Kaika:
/ slow-down
When you hear a click coming from an engine when you turn the key, it's not usually a good thing. Best case scenario would be that the battery cables were a little loose. Regretfully for us, the starter clicking was result of the pistons being seized to the cylinder walls.
The starter would engage the flywheel, but would not have enough power to break through the rust. A deep clunk could be heard each time you would turn the key.
I've had success freeing up an engine by putting diesel down the spark plug holes and waiting for it to lubricate the cylinder walls. This did not work for us in this case. Since we thought we might have a blown head gasket, we decided to take the exhaust manifolds, valve covers, carburetor, intake manifold, and heads off of the engine to have a better look at the pistons.
We found some head gasket issues, along with water in the cylinders which was causing some rust to develop. The rust had penetrated into 3 or 4 of the cylinders causing some slight pitting. in the cylinder walls.
In order to hone the cylinder walls while the engine and pistons were still in the boat, we used steel wool, sandpaper, and brass wire brushes to clean the rust from the cylinders.
After a good cylinder hone, the engine turned over flawlessly. Regretfully, to initially break through the rust, I misaligned my harmonic balancer by cranking on it to move the crankshaft. This caused timing issues down the road for us.
By the end of this, we had an engine that actually turned over, but we were still unaware as to whether or not the engine would actually run.