The old V-12

[blackie9]

Well it's finally time to get started on the ole V 12 ser. # 1292. I think it was probably around the early '70,s when I spotted this monster in my favorite junk yard. I didn't know much but I new I had to to have it. I have always loved machines and engines from a very early age. It was in a wrecked simi tractor at the yard so I got started getting her free to take it home.
The story was that the truck had run into the engine of a train at a remote country location. The driver was killed and some how the engineer was also killed when the rock that truck was hauling went shooting thru the air from the impact and into the cab of the locomotive. Somewhere I have a copy of the newspaper article which I will post when I find it.
So, home it went and the disassembly began. All the usual mouse nests and standing water where there (it was sitting uncovered and a carb was broken off). Got most of the pistons free except three that are still in there. The walls of the bores even with standing water seemed to still be OK (that good metal they used) and the crank looked perfect.
After some research, I don't know how I did that back then without the internet, I found that the many of the 351 parts would be the same and it looked like I would have to break those up to get them out because they would have to come out the top, so there was a school bus in the yard with a 351 so I grabbed it too. If I remember right I ran that 351 when I got it home.
Well that was then and it got set aside (35 years) for a time because of an uncontrollable problem with collecting and restoring Minneapolis Moline tractors. Well I sold the farm and I'm selling the tractors so guess what I found. So I got the 351 down off the rack to start taking it apart and found, Thanks to this great site, that is a 351M. So I said I can't tear a perfectly good Magnum apart and it just so happened there was a 351 on Craigslist St. Louis for sale (some of you saw it I'm sure) so I got that one and started taking it apart. So far it looks pretty good.

[Funky61]

Welcome Blackie9!

Great story on your V12. Kudos for saving other V6's. How about a pic of the V12 too?

[blackie9]

So tell me how do you get those pistons out with that rod in the way? And another question I have been wondering about is these numbered pistons and bores. Does this mean that the pistons are not generally interchangeable?

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[FetchMeAPepsi]

The person you wanna talk to is CoyoteRun. He's got a V12 he put in a 50's model truck and stretched the front out to take it. Pretty cool! He knows alot about these V12s.

For the 351, post a question in the engines forum and someone with more brains than me will be able to answer you. I'm pretty sure you ahve to unbolt the bottom part of them to get them out though, you cant just pull em out the top. Kinda like a tooth where you unbolt the roots.

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[blackie9]

Well this is embarrasing, I took the other head off tonight of the "parts" engine and to my surprise it was pretty clean in there too. When I picked it up it was sitting out in the weather, exposed to the elements I thought mabey there would be three or four good pistons. The rest would have grown in and become part of the block, never even thought of trying to turn it over. So after seeing the way it looked inside I put a wrench on the crank and you guessed it, it turned right over.

[blackie9]

So I got this engine apart and I'm looking it over and I see the block and the pistons have numbers stamped on them. 2 are marked 5 and 4 are marked 4.

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Can someone tell me what this is all about.

[BarryGMC]

The pistons are different sizes. Usually in .001 increments . Lots of engines are this way. If you look on the oil pan rail the block is usually stamped With the same # at that cylinder. Barry

[BarryGMC]

Sorry to repeat the block stamping. A good old school engine rebuilder should have a piston expander. And be able to get a piston to fit your cylinders. Or measure got replacement ones and put the biggest ones in the biggest holes

[blackie9]

So would I be assuming to much to think that a piston marked with lets say a number 4 in a 351 engine would be the same as a number 4 in the 702 would be the same size?

[BarryGMC]

Probably is the same.