So, I'm trying to make two cars into one. First of all, I have heard a lot of people talking about being able to "turn the engine by hand." What exactly do you mean "by hand"? Obviously, the spark plugs are out, but do you literally mean rotating the flywheel/fan with your bare hand? If so, how easy is it supposed to be? Is there a lot of resistance? On a second, but completely unrelated note, apparently, I'm going to need to repair the dreaded "hell hole." Do I just need to replace the whole piece, or what? Here's a pic (hopefully)

There's guys (and Gals) who know alot more about this than I do here! But...Getting some of the debris and muck out of there is gonna be a help. Try to figure out if the corrosion got down into the suspension. Make sure the weep holes under the car are clear. You can find them underneath, they look like little rubber grommets. Ours had two gallons of water just sitting be hind the drivers seat. and do a search for "hell hole". Some members are working on replacement kits for what your trying to do.
What happened to your fuel injection?
PS your battery tray looks better than ours!

turn it over by hand as oposed to by starter,either wrench on the front of the crank or fly wheel.
that hell hole doesn't look to bad from that pict. are there any rusted though holes? scrape and poke with a ice pick or other such thing.

see what I mean?
about the "hole"

what hole?

mine has a HELL HOLE....

b

The FI is completely gone. I have a set of Dellorto's that I'm planning on using, eventually. I'll try and get some better pictures and clean it up tomorrow, but as it is, if it doesn't look that bad, what do I need to do to fix it?

Hi,
engine is out...I can see that

Take off the starter and the tranny...

17mm wrench on one of the flywheel bolts...

Turn motor...

DO NOT try to turn the motor from one of the bolts that hold the fan on, or the center bolt in the front...they are to small, could break, or could be over torqued in the process...

HELL Hole

Do a search here and type hell and hole...use the and between the words to include both words...

You will find lots of pictures and lots of degrees of rust...

Basically, get that battery out of there...its the battery acid that starts the problem...

Take off th pad that is on you firewall, and take out the interior..now you should see both sides of the firewall metal..

Now you can see the extent of the damage from above..

The rest is usually below the battery area, and the rear of the floorboards...

It all depends on how far along it is...

Good luck, post pics,,,get support...get a welder...learn to weld...fix car...

Rich