Autopsy results are in of the (2) old engines I had, one being the matching #'s just pulled from this car and one being the matching #'s to the Polaris '76.
Here's what I found upon cracking open the 74 engine:
"Hmm, what made it steam clean #2?" I thought. It did not have a cracked block or any scoring- in fact, the bottom end is perfectly usable as is... I just have no use for it.
Upon further investigation, I found that the cylinder head is from a 73 roundie (but still an e12, I think the cutoff was the 72 cars for the 121ti)....
So what could be causing severe loss of compression on #2 and steam cleaning of the piston? There must be a crack somewhere....
Yep!
The spark plug I put in there was out of the new engine I put in the car- it received all new ignition parts alongside everything else. It was to test pouring gas into the sealed combustion chamber with the valves closed- sure enough, that crack goes so far into the head that the gas came right out the intake, exhaust, water and oil jackets :/
I also took the '76 2002 block I had completely apart. I thought it was a goner for sitting so long, but the bores actually appear to need just a light honing to be usable.
Cause of death: improperly torqued head gasket. E21 head is fine but I have no use for it.
So in the end, I have:
(1) good piano top piston bottom end, with a sludged up, cracked, nasty E12 head that is not repairable. Stored with head off, cylinders all down and full of MMO, covered up well.
(1) good rebuild-able '76 block and E21 head... I really have no use for either.
I'm happy to report the little 2002 is running very happily and being driven daily finally. My friend saw it and sent me a picture, driven by my mom. He was on the highway afterwards with her doing 90 and having trouble keeping up...
And it's racking up miles with the new engine finally. 100+ miles so far. This was after my mom's first trip out... looks like somebody had some fun! It was driven 2 miles with the new engine to get gas and the trip ODO reset afterwards.
It's not all sorted, however! Ignition timing and carburetor still need to be dialed in, hood needs to be aligned and foam installed underneath, front end alignment and one thing that's really confusing me: the AC compressor is not in a straight line with the crank pulley. Belt is off for the time being, but when running the car with the belt on it made a nasty squeal. It almost looks to be like the belt has to go like / this. So that's off for now.... I'd love to convert it to a rotary compressor. The old York Piston compressor is a noisy, worn out piece of crap.
Cheers and thanks for keeping up with this little car!