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Got this idea from a website for the hit-and-miss engine enthusiasts. These guys find engines that have been abandoned in fence-rows for decades and have been rusted solid. The idea is to fill the cylinder with grease and use the pressure of a grease gun to loosen the piston. I did this with a tractor a few years ago and it worked like a charm. I had tried every idea mentioned on this website with the exception of chisling the piston out. I wanted to try to salvage the piston. It turned out the piston was so badly worn (ring grooves) that it was unusable. But I have a nice conversation piece that I use as a paperweight on my desk. Anyway, I started by removing the head and pulling the cylinders that were not stuck. I then removed the rod of the stuck piston from the crankshaft and turned the shaft away from the rod. Next task was to compress the valves on the stuck cylinder and smear some JB weld between the valves and the seats (don't worry, the JB weld is easily removed later). Then release the valves to allow them to seat. This prevents any grease from leaking past the valves later. Then fill the cylinder with grease (you can also substitute pieces of wood or other 'fillers' as long as they are incompressible). Next using the old head gasket, put the head back onto the engine. Then fashion a fitting into the spark plug hole that will attach to your grease gun. I took a donor spark plug and knocked the ceramic off. I then drilled out the center so that I was left with the metal end that threads into the spark plug hole. I took a metal fitting for a grease gun and MIG welded it to the end of the donor spark plug. Next, attach any grease gun to the fitting and start to pump with grease. For me, it took about five pumps before I noticed the piston begin to move. And it took almost no effort to pump the grease gun (those guns develop a lot of pressure). A half an hour later I had the head off, the valves cleaned, the grease removed, and the piston in my hand. Again, this was a tractor that would not budge. I had tried the block of wood with 5-lb sledge until I thought that I'd crack the block. There was no damage to the piston (other than the wear previously mentioned) and the cylinder just needed a good honing. With a new piston, set of rings, and a gasket set, the tractor has been earning it's keep at my place ever since.
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