Unsticking a long sitting engine is fun and it is nice to hear it run but 50 years of mechanical experience has taught me that once they sit long enough to freeze up there will always be issues you will fail to address by ignoring the need for a tear down and proper inspection. It's a simple case of "pay me now or pay me later".
Cylinder wear has little to do with an engine sticking from sitting. Young and old bores will both rust and rings both loose and tight will stick to the pistons and the cylinder walls. Rust means pitting and pitting means leaking. Count on the majority of "beat em to free em" engines burning oil. Breaking rings loose mechanically usually results in broken rings and broken ring lands on the pistons. These engines will run for a while with these broken parts but the detached parts do irreparable damage to the cylinder walls. The occasional bent rods result in serious catastrophic type failures later on.
The valve train suffers from sitting idle for years. Mostly rust and the pitting of the cam followers usually results in a rapid wearing away of the hard face surface of the cam lobes and the loss of valve lift on that lobe.
Invariably the "pay me now or pay me later" actually means "pay a little now or a lot later".
If you have rebuilt an engine before can you dare think about tackling it now?
Well if you know what tools you would need. If you can learn to use them properly. If you take the time to read first and act second. If you just fork out the few bucks for the book now. You can do a decent rebuild on your own with a little help from the auto-machine shop.
The Army service manual and the civvy factory manuals assume the reader is a proficient mechanic. So if you are not a proficient mechanic then it stands to reason that these books are not going to get the job done. Try getting a quality rebuild guide like Moses Ludel's "Jeep CJ 1946-71 Rebuilder's Manual" This will fill in the knowlege gaps left by the standard professional service manuals.
Finally, don't be shy. There is nothing wrong when asking for help when you have already demonstrated a honest desire to help yourself and there are no dumb questions.
