ABANDONED MODEL T *ENGINE SEIZED* CAN WE MAKE IT RUN?

Añadido: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]On today's episode of Watch Jargo, we are in the shop with my buddy Austin, who brought us a new project. But before we talk about new project here, the real reason he's here is because he is the one that found the two wheel car. I know I told you guys in the very first video that one of my friends said, "You need this." And I was like, "You're absolutely right." And he was like, "I have to drive it." So, first of all, Austin's going to take out the two wheeled car and experience the amazingness that it is.

[00:00:26]>> Let's do it.

[00:00:26]>> All right. Oh, >> like that.

[00:00:28]>> Yeah. It's pretty snappy.

[00:00:35]>> Also, watch out. That uh screwdriver will hit you in the knee real hard.

[00:00:39]Yeah.

[00:00:45]>> How long did it take you to get the hang of it?

[00:00:47]>> A while. A while.

[00:00:56]>> Oh, you have too much steer.

[00:01:00]There you go. He's a honestly starting with an obstacle is pretty impressive.

[00:01:12]>> It's so funny, dude.

[00:01:13]>> Oh my god.

[00:01:25]>> You know, I don't know. I assume some Shriner guys that saw the old magazine article from the 70s.

[00:01:34]>> You're actually really good at this.

[00:01:37]>> You can't look cool doing this.

[00:01:39]>> No, it looks awesome. It looks so cool.

[00:01:44]>> I'm good, man.

[00:02:04]Look at what we've got here.

[00:02:07]Old Model T.

[00:02:11]Woo.

[00:02:13]>> The Yamaha Cross Track.

[00:02:15]>> Okay.

[00:02:16]>> I love that thing, man. That's awesome >> because I don't it's got that box kind of mid drive so I don't have to use it as an ebike until I'm you know biking into the wind or I'm exhausted.

[00:02:27]>> Well, there you go. That is the two wheeled car. You finally got to drive it.

[00:02:30]>> Made it.

[00:02:30]>> Huge shout out to Austin for finding that. Otherwise, I never would have.

[00:02:33]>> That thing's a blast.

[00:02:34]>> I wouldn't have seen it on marketplace.

[00:02:36]So, then you bought this and what is what year is this T here?

[00:02:40]>> This is a 26 model Touring.

[00:02:43]>> 26T Touring. And the tires have had a better life, that's for sure. But we just rolled this off the tow truck moments ago.

[00:02:54]Doesn't look like the tube's done.

[00:02:58]Somebody painted the wheels with spray paint with the tubes in them.

[00:03:04]>> They taking air >> so far.

[00:03:11]Everything's going to be cool.

[00:03:13]>> Absolutely. So, I acquired a 20 3 GB book. Yeah.

[00:03:20]With the aired up the front tires and they're holding air >> so far as we would expect. The hopefully those tubes are in good shape. The back tires are not in as great a shape. That tubes uh we might be able to grab one of these today. We'll see. just so we can make it hold some air. But, you know, I know you want to replace the tires and everything.

[00:03:43]>> It's been sitting since 1988.

[00:03:45]>> 88. That's crazy. 37 8 years ago or something like that. This was parked.

[00:03:51]>> Wow.

[00:03:52]>> So, let's go on a tour of this T. Oh, you know what? I bet the tube in the spare is good.

[00:03:58]>> Oh, swap it.

[00:03:59]>> Yeah, we could throw that bad boy on there. Unless the tube is missing.

[00:04:02]>> Wait a minute. I don't see a valve stem.

[00:04:06]>> Yeah. All right. Just kidding about the tube in the spare.

[00:04:11]P 131 Pioneer Montana. That's interesting. And it's on the front, too.

[00:04:15]I'm curious about it.

[00:04:16]>> Huh, man. This thing has seen some things.

[00:04:23]And you said it was a military guy's car that was lived in Monterey, California.

[00:04:27]Here, >> I was told. And they got rested here and it got moved into a garage and then it stayed there and I don't think it ever moved again.

[00:04:34]>> Okay. Okay. Somebody's rewired most of the thing here. And this looks like uh it's like a coil relocation box or something from what I can tell because normally the coils maybe it's the A, but I'm pretty sure the coils on the T sit inside.

[00:04:48]>> Make it right >> normally. So that's kind of interesting there. And all this wire is the same color and new. So we have plenty of fun troubleshooting there. And you said you tried to crank it and the engine's locked up.

[00:04:58]>> It is. And I think we know why.

[00:05:00]>> We might know why now. Let's give it a Here we go.

[00:05:08]It's locked up tight. She's stuck.

[00:05:11]But as soon as we pulled this thing in the shop, we figured out what the problem probably is here. It might need a head. It might just need a cylinder head. Luckily, I think these are accessible, right? They made millions of these. So, I don't think a head It might be $300, but that's cheaper than any head today.

[00:05:28]>> Yeah, no kidding.

[00:05:29]>> That's for sure.

[00:05:30]>> Also a lot simpler to work on than anything today. That's for sure. These are really fun projects because of how simple they are. It's It's absolutely ridiculous. Let's see if there's water in here one of these days. Doesn't have the temp gauge. Ooh, dry as a bone. But I guess it probably all escaped into the engine here.

[00:05:50]>> Yeah, after 38 years of sitting.

[00:05:53]>> Yeah, the sun visor on this is in good shape, which is kind of rare. Usually it's metal, but this one's wrapped and looks nice. And it's got the Model T Ford Club of America logo on here. Uh, wipers. That's cool. The window doesn't swing open on this one.

[00:06:06]>> Oh, yeah, it does. I wonder if that was because it's a Touring.

[00:06:08]>> Yeah, it must be. I mean, check it out.

[00:06:10]It's got a rear sun shade that rolls down. How sick is that from early early sun shade right there. Big old back seat. Looks actually really comfy. Looks like it might have taken on a little bit of water in that back corner, but man, it's really really not bad >> for being 100red years old.

[00:06:30]>> I know, man. 100 years old.

[00:06:34]It definitely had a few little critters here and there.

[00:06:38]I'd love to get down to the battery box, but we need a 6VT to do it.

[00:06:43]>> Yeah. You think I can get one of those locally?

[00:06:45]>> O'Reilly stocks them.

[00:06:47]>> Do they?

[00:06:47]>> Oh, yeah. It's part number one OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

[00:06:51]>> IT'S pretty cool. So, this is open. Is there a lock position? I don't think there is. You just didn't lock your doors.

[00:06:59]>> That's it. That's it. Window regulators still rock. Still rock.

[00:07:10]>> Still works. I see this cool roller wheel on this one.

[00:07:12]>> Oh, somebody threw a wheel on it to keep neat >> exterior pressure.

[00:07:17]>> This does have the swing out window.

[00:07:19]>> Oh, it does.

[00:07:21]>> So, if we go like so.

[00:07:27]There it is. AC. We're ready for the air conditioning.

[00:07:33]This is so cool. I love it. So cool. So, here's the deal, guys. We plan on getting this thing running today. That was what was on the cards. I'm going to have to start with uh some pliers to pull the spark plug leads there. Um but obviously that's probably not going to happen with a cracked head. So, what we're going to do is rip the head off of this engine real quick, just so we can see how bad the damage is and how much work we're going to have to do to make this thing run again. And does it need a block? I don't see any cracks in the block, but a lot of times they're not external like this cuz this got frostjacked like you wouldn't believe. I mean, it's pretty impressive how there's a solid >> 1/2 in.

[00:08:09]>> It's like a half inch.

[00:08:10]>> Yeah.

[00:08:11]>> Crazy. Crazy. All right. Well, we'll yank all these bolts real quick because there's an auction for this head ending in 9 minutes. That's how much time we have.

[00:08:19]>> All right. Let's do it.

[00:08:21]>> Little sauce.

[00:08:25]So much dirt down in there that >> Yeah. So, I was talking to Tyler Grimes the other day and I was telling him I wanted to soak these things to get some Marvel down in it. Yeah.

[00:08:34]>> And he was telling me his go-to is a 50/50 mix of ATF fluid and acetone, >> which is good. Honestly, everybody has their own solution from the internet, but the answer is either one of those or evapor.

[00:08:48]>> Yeah, >> Evapor Rust is incredible.

[00:08:49]>> So, you think that's that's the way to go?

[00:08:51]>> Um, it depends on how damaged it is. I think if it's very damaged, you switch to evapor. If it's not, you just use whatever you got. Whatever you like.

[00:09:02]I figured these would all come right out. Uh, we do need to get the horn off, which is going to fight here. I'll just get I just need to become short with a ratchet. And also try to uh let's grab some pliers for the spark plug wire.

[00:09:19]Oh, why is the HORN ON A HEADBOLT?

[00:09:23]That's something I never thought I'd see.

[00:09:28]>> Wow. And on there good, huh?

[00:09:30]>> Yeah. We're going to transition to the real tool here.

[00:09:35]I definitely did not think this was going to happen.

[00:09:37]>> Oh, wow. You're doing that, huh?

[00:09:41]It'll come. I mean, all the others came right off.

[00:09:47]There it went.

[00:09:50]just needed leverage.

[00:09:58]>> I'm really curious to see how well it'll clean up with a bath.

[00:10:01]>> Yeah. Honestly, I wish we would have started with a bath, but my pressure washer is toast. It exploded internally.

[00:10:08]>> Did it. The pump blew up.

[00:10:09]>> Yeah. I'm sure it did the same thing this did.

[00:10:13]It was even inside all winter, but it's still freeze jacked. Okay. I give you that guy.

[00:10:21]Hopefully there's enough wire. Yeah, there we go.

[00:10:34]Uh-oh, that one's not moving. That's a good one. Got pulled over.

[00:10:39]Classic.

[00:10:40]>> Uhhuh.

[00:10:43]Let's see. Is everything the same bolt?

[00:10:45]Incredible. Look at that. This is a one tool vehicle.

[00:10:48]>> Why don't they do that anymore?

[00:10:49]>> I know, right? Can you imagine how easy life would be?

[00:10:52]>> Oh my gosh.

[00:10:55]>> I knew that was going to be tight.

[00:11:01]About to find out how much water we still have. Probably none.

[00:11:07]Yeah.

[00:11:20]Might be another leverage situation.

[00:11:22]>> Go for it.

[00:11:28]>> Yeah. That's I love that color.

[00:11:30]>> Love it.

[00:11:31]>> Here you go. You got it.

[00:11:33]>> Yeah.

[00:11:34]>> Okay. Horn bolts. Water pump bolts.

[00:11:41]Where's that one you just kept your fruit? All right.

[00:11:52]Except for all the wires. UHHUH.

[00:12:06]OKAY. Two left and they're the hard ones.

[00:12:10]this. There you go.

[00:12:13]You like it?

[00:12:13]>> Yep.

[00:12:17]Look at that. No problem at all. Right.

[00:12:19]>> Yeah. Oh, >> that one's tight.

[00:12:25]>> Yeah. I don't like that shorter socket.

[00:12:27]>> Yep.

[00:12:28]>> You know what's funny, too? I was telling my dad about it.

[00:12:30]>> Yeah.

[00:12:31]>> And he says, "Well, have fun." He goes, "Just remember it got parked for a reason."

[00:12:34]>> Yeah. Well, I bet it ran when it was parked. Unfortunately, this one. There it is.

[00:12:40]>> Here we go.

[00:12:41]>> She's free.

[00:12:43]All right. It's going to be very heavy.

[00:12:45]It's cast iron.

[00:12:49]>> Oh, no.

[00:12:50]>> Oh, no.

[00:12:51]>> No.

[00:12:54]>> We could not have found worse news inside the Model T.

[00:12:58]>> Oh, no.

[00:13:01]>> Yeah, that that's not good. It might be an engine situation. I think it is.

[00:13:05]>> Oh, well, let's do a little cleanup and put a little oil in there and see what happens.

[00:13:11]>> Okay.

[00:13:28]Heat.

[00:13:40]Heat.

[00:14:00]Well, we've got the engine absolutely soaking with knocker loose now. So, we filled all these up and they haven't taken it down in yet. You can see like your fluid will just disappear once it starts getting past the rings. So, we should have enough. This one here took all of the fluid down past the rings.

[00:14:16]So, that's probably our best chance. And this valve I was able to turn. So, that one's also in good shape. Um, we're making a little progress here. It might free up. It really might free up. And from what we're seeing, the block looks like it's in pretty good shape. I don't see any cracks in it.

[00:14:34]So, that's something. And then what? Oh, yeah. We were going to try to make it move cuz the wheels are locked up, too.

[00:14:39]All right. Well, let's get on the second thing while that takes some time.

[00:14:43]Obviously, the front tires still holding air. And I think we're going to move on.

[00:14:46]I'm going to bring the jack back here and try to get this tire to air out. I think this one will take air, too. And that would sure help us out. Austin's been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning.

[00:14:56]And look at that. Looks like a brand new car ready to drive. If you want, we could throw the interior detailer at it, too.

[00:15:03]We're not quite there yet. But, uh, we've got I think we've got the rear brakes are freed up. We know that much.

[00:15:10]And we're working towards making this thing actually move. Uh, for some reason it does not want to freewheel no matter what we do here. And it does have a high low rear end here, which is cool. And of course, the normal two-speed transmission.

[00:15:25]So, if we can make everything run again, I think we can make the wheels roll.

[00:15:28]Although, the tires are in bad shape.

[00:15:31]But up here in engine land, we have a ton of ATF in here. We pulled all the knocker loose back out, filled this thing with ATF because the knocker loose sat on there for quite a while and everybody loves their ATF/ diesel/acetone, whatever formula they have. Everybody's got their own little idea. And either way, they all work eventually. I think that's my take on freeing up engines.

[00:15:54]So, what we're going to do now is drain the oil because we don't know if it's full of water, and there's a good chance that it is full of water. So, let's get this oil drained down and fill the entire engine up with ATF so the crank has something to sit in as well. I'm going in. All we have to do is drain that right there.

[00:16:11]>> Tell me what I can do to help you, buddy.

[00:16:15]So, this is supposed to be a 15/16. It kind of fits like garbage. I don't know if it really is, but I'll tell you what, it came right off.

[00:16:22]>> Did it? It should. It sure should with it being soaked in oil. You hope. Look, I put so much in awkward loose in it.

[00:16:30]It's dripping out of the side.

[00:16:32]>> I filled it up, man.

[00:16:33]>> Hey, man.

[00:16:34]>> I wasn't gonna >> after 40 years of sitting. I think it's going to take all we got.

[00:16:38]>> Yeah, for sure.

[00:16:40]I think this is going to be a mess.

[00:16:45]>> I don't want to ruin my gloves.

[00:16:46]>> Yeah, smart man.

[00:16:47]>> Somebody put a crush washer on here, though. That's cool. Oh. Ooh. Ooh. Don't like that.

[00:16:53]>> Uh-oh. What do we got? Nothing.

[00:16:55]>> Uh, it's going to be all water. Oh >> yeah. So we can see in the sight glass here it's completely full of oil. That oil is sitting on top of water.

[00:17:03]>> Oh no.

[00:17:05]>> Oh yeah. There's sand and stuff. There it goes.

[00:17:07]>> Okay.

[00:17:09]>> Pure sand.

[00:17:10]>> Oh gosh.

[00:17:12]>> That's Oh, it's mud Dober nest. That >> is it really?

[00:17:16]>> Yeah. Yeah. Cuz it's full of grit. Oh yeah. Look at it now. It's flowing.

[00:17:21]>> Oh boy.

[00:17:22]>> Also, that's all there was.

[00:17:24]Well, I'll tell you there was a giant pile of it in the garage. It's been leaking out for decades.

[00:17:32]>> All right. Well, oh, more more gunk.

[00:17:34]>> Flush that out.

[00:17:37]>> Gross. I kind of hate sticking my hand in it, but I guess somebody's got to do it. I think that's it. It's finally empty.

[00:17:45]>> It's all she wrote.

[00:17:46]>> It's all she wrote. I think let's run a little ATF through it as a flush and then put the plug back in and fill it up.

[00:17:51]>> All right.

[00:17:57]problem. I can't find the plug. There it is. Oh, no. There it is. Okay.

[00:18:04]>> All right. Put the whole thing in.

[00:18:07]>> Well, guys, we didn't find water, so that's something. I'm actually kind of impressed that there was no water.

[00:18:13]Usually, you get like a glob of oil and then the water just starts fogging out.

[00:18:17]Well guys, Austin and I called my dad first to see what it was going to take to get tires for this. And then he told us Coker Tire is basically the only option, which is not a good option because everything Coker Tire sells is outrageously expensive. I mean, you you have to really >> you got to be into the car. Yeah. So, I think you looked it up already and it was $1,000 for just tires and tubes for this, which, you know, I guess if you're going to put a bunch of miles on it and and obviously we could get away with just the rears cuz the fronts are going to hold up for a while. These are Riverides. And he said, um, that was McGomery Ward's brand, so that's how long ago.

[00:18:55]>> Wow.

[00:18:55]>> Those tires were put on. Yeah, >> that's cool.

[00:18:57]>> And it must have been early McGomery Ward, too. Like >> '7s somewhere in there.

[00:19:02]>> Yeah. So, that's the last time this thing got tires. It's been a very long time. He also said the tires are very hard to mount because they have like a grip that goes inside the lip. Really?

[00:19:13]Yeah. It's tough to see it. It looks like a pretty standard bead, but at the same time, this is a very different tire. This is a hold tight balloon.

[00:19:23]>> This is an HD balloon. Pretty crazy. So, 440x 21, huh? Yeah, this tire is way older. We've worked pretty hard on this thing. We've got almost everything freed up. We have the crank case filled with ATF. We've got the engine filled with ATF and we're still not getting any movement out of it. Obviously, you know, it's been an hour and it's probably going to take a thousand hours before that actually soaks in and does its magic. But we've also found this car has some missing parts. Well, one missing part, it's the throttle linkage across the top of the engine. Don't know where it's at. But also, it has every single part. These are brand new chrome bumpers still wrapped up, ready to go. The seats are here. All the bumper supports are here. Austin found everything inside the car. So, it's kind of impressive. It It seems pretty complete other than the throttle linkage and the hood's here as well. But then we asked my dad what it's going to cost or what what it what the he said $1,500.

[00:20:20]If if it's flawless, it'll bring $6,000.

[00:20:23]And I guess like the market's just gone.

[00:20:25]So, where we're at right now is Austin has already paid more than 1,500 for the car. The guy wanted three for it, of course. And now it looks like it needs I mean four.

[00:20:36]>> It needs four in parts almost. It needs a head. It might need a block. And also the transmission's still locked up. And the tires are trash in the back. So, it at least needs two tires and tubes. And then what else? We had one more thing that was going to be >> We had a to-do list for this car.

[00:20:54]>> What was it?

[00:20:54]>> I forgot >> too much.

[00:20:56]>> Gas tank is dry completely. We have tried that. So, it seems like that might have gotten a little bit of water or condensate in there. So, we got to sort that out. Oh, and a battery, of course.

[00:21:07]Yeah. And whatever it takes to get the transmission sorted might end up costing a good amount of money as well. So, unfortunately, we are putting the tea back together to sell it just so Austin can try to break even because at this point, he'll be so far upside down in this car that you could have bought another car. Like, you could have bought a nice >> It's sad that it won't be worth it. It's such a cool car.

[00:21:28]>> It really is. It really is. Neither of us want to quit on this thing. This is interesting. I wonder what that was.

[00:21:34]Like the horn or something. I wonder what that was. Oh, the starter button stuck too, isn't it?

[00:21:40]>> It might It moved a little bit. So, >> well, that is what happens. Yeah, that's what happens when you buy a T.

[00:21:49]>> Uh, I think we're going to go ahead and put this thing all back together now.

[00:21:53]Let this ATF soak and it should be freed up and ready for the next owner to uh get it right back on the road. We hope.

[00:22:00]We hope because this thing does deserve to go back on the road. It's not that far away unless it's a cracked block.

[00:22:05]Just not economically feasible to fix it. At least right now. Unless you want to be the forever owner, which we tried.

[00:22:12]>> Yeah.

[00:22:12]>> The question is who wants to be a forever owner, obviously. Yeah.

[00:22:16]>> Yeah. And you know, dad's got two of them right now and they both run and drive great and he doesn't think they're worth anything. So that's not a great sign.

[00:22:25]Not a great sign. He was like, "As sell, T's don't sell." And I kind of think that's it. We tried. We tried. So I guess let's put put the head back on it.

[00:22:34]Oh man, this head is heavy. Wow. Look at those combustion chambers. Huge huge domes. Yeah, this this seems like it could be a low compression. And so the low compressions were four 4:1 or 45 one, but this has such a big ignition chamber. It seems like it couldn't really have any compression, right?

[00:22:56]>> It sure seems like this is the low compression head, but the internet says this is a high compression head based on the date. Look at all the rust coming out of her.

[00:23:06]>> Well, let's give it a cleaning here. You ready?

[00:23:10]>> Okay.

[00:23:12]Yeah. Look at that. Work great.

[00:23:15]>> Got it.

[00:23:18]>> Oh, wait. That one's coil.

[00:23:20]>> This one?

[00:23:21]>> Yep.

[00:23:23]>> Oh, it is, isn't it? I forgot to >> I don't like that one. Why is that one special? All the others went right in.

[00:23:32]Do I need to give it a wiggle?

[00:23:34]>> She's working down now.

[00:23:36]>> Nah, let's grease it.

[00:23:37]>> Okay, >> I don't like it. If it's not easy, I mean, it is going. You're It's not crossthreaded. You're definitely right.

[00:23:45]It just needs a little not >> little bit of grease. Look, we're going to get one thing working on this. Let's do it.

[00:23:54]Auga.

[00:23:55]>> No, it's not.

[00:23:56]>> Ah, >> it's There's paint all over that stud.

[00:24:00]It's kind of tough.

[00:24:01]>> Try it again.

[00:24:02]>> Yeah.

[00:24:03]>> Yeah.

[00:24:06]>> It's awesome.

[00:24:10]All right. Well, that's as close as we're getting because this thing is not turning over. Also, uh more on the to-do list here. We found out this belt, it looked like it was in great shape, but it's actually completely stuck. The water pump was stuck. We ended up getting that to move again. The fan fan is in wonderful shape. Bearings and all.

[00:24:30]Oh, yeah. The bearings on the water pump were kind of going. That was the That was on the list.

[00:24:38]It's going to clean right up. Look at that.

[00:24:42]Look at that.

[00:24:47]I just cleaned the Mercedes. It's going to be total.

[00:24:50]>> Sorry.

[00:24:50]>> It's fine.

[00:25:12]All right, I'm going to go grab a wash mitt. But it sure is making a huge difference.

[00:25:19]Huge.

[00:25:23]Wow.

[00:25:25]>> Such a big difference.

[00:25:26]>> 40 years of dirt.

[00:25:28]>> Yeah.

[00:25:29]>> Hit this tag real quick. It's cleaning up and it looks so good.

[00:25:34]Ah, that's amazing.

[00:25:54]>> Ah, very up there.

[00:26:12]It was too good of a deal to pass up.

[00:26:14]>> Yep.

[00:26:16]Well, guys, we gave it more than the old college try and we were locked in on this until we found out it was going to cost so much more than the car could possibly sell for. So, really the only chance here was to sell it now and break even. And honestly, I think the engine will be freed up for the next person. Uh the ATF is moving through it. I mean, the engine hasn't moved even a centimeter, but it will come loose and somebody can throw a head at it and a couple thousand and have a nice little driver. But, uh, they sure won't be making any money on it. It'll only be a loser, unfortunately. That's just kind of what TE's are now. Well, unfortunately, we had to throw in the towel on that Model T. It was a little bit too far gone. If it needed any of like two fixes, I think it would have been viable, right? But with the head being cracked and the fact that it needs thousand dollars of tires and the fact that he might get $3,000 back out of it, I don't know. I was like, I would not fix this, bro. And he was like, I really want to keep it on the road. I know. I get it. So, I'm right there with you guys, right there with Austin. But there's a point where you shouldn't just take a loss for no reason. And I think that's where the Model T is. So, it's out of the shop already and we are back to work. We've got E46 parts on the way.

[00:27:29]We've got Maserati parts. We are ready to fix some cars. So, that is it for today, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to head on over to shopwatchchair.com for cool shirts just like this. And please like, share, subscribe, do whatever you want to do.

[00:27:42]And I will talk to you next time. Is it bad that I want to put the Maserati back together real quick and do the E46 because Johnny just did that inspection?

[00:27:52]I've got all the E46 parts coming.