Hello I have a 1955 Ford 272 takes a lot of effort to turn the engine , I have soaked the pistons with oil with no change . The car has been sitting for almost 30 yrs I have pulled the heads today and the cylinder bore is clean yet the engine is still tight . The car has an automatic transmission I was wondering if the torque converter or some internal transmission part could be so rusty that its making the crankshaft hard to turn. I plan to disconnect the converter from the engine to see if it makes a diffrence. I would like some Ideas Byy the was today when in removed the heads I did drop the pan and removed the bearing cap from each piston the pistons all moved freely yet the engine is still hard to turn thanks again

I recently had my engine open and checked bearings. While I had the pan off, somebody apparently reinstalled a rod cap the wrong direction. The engine became impossible to turn for these old arms with that one error. Since I was the only one working on the car, it was probably trolls messing with me. If you can still turn the engine, unbolt the convertor, which is fairly easy through the starter hole and lower cover, or just loosen all the caps and retorque the one at a time. Hope this helps.

Don