SO I beat the Scrap man to a nice EAB flathead (car engine) (alum timing cover, stamped steel half bell, attached to a T-98 trans) it came out of what the owner said was a 1950 truck but he didn't know anything else about the truck and this was all that remained of the truck as it had already been hauled off to the scrapper. paid a little more than scrap price for it, so it was a win win.
Don't know if it runs but turns over just fine, will clean it up and see what she'll do.

Cheers

Josh

 

Sounds like it might be a good deal - have fun with it!

 

Stamped steel bell-housing was from a Mercury, but works and is similiar in appearance to the cast iron truck housing.

Sometimes a pig in a poke turns out quite well. I was given an 8BA, actually a 1BA as was cast in the block, from a club member. He knew nothing about it. It had the 53 truck bell-housing and U-shaped front mount. I removed a head and saw nice clean bores and very lightly carboned pistons, no visible cracks. I then removed the intake and saw the lifter valley was almost clean enough to eat out of. The one problem I saw, which may be why it was pulled, is that one of the guide retainers had jiggled out. Not sure why, I haven't looked into it. Could have been installed incorrectly, or there could be a problem with that guide/valve. In any case, it is my belief from what I have seen on the top end, that this was a low mile rebuild.

 

You suck man! You're like a magnet for good deals! Aluminum front timing cover was usually Canadian, tho there are exceptions. Does it have the oil ports of a Canadian engine?

 

Great Score.... And great job!

 

What makes the aluminiun timing cover so special?

 

Its more aerodynamic and boosts performance. By 0.001%
. Lol. Don't really think there's any difference in them other than you used to see them sell for around $75.
There are a couple different distributors and I think these alum covers have the distributor's end shaft that goes into a little pocket? Retainer? Not sure what ya call it? Ya just don't ussually see them. I had an 8ba a while back that had one as well.

Ross. I will have to look at the oil line routing again, I also have a merc 8cm but didn't nOtice the difference. Where do I look? Thanks
Josh

 

That should make my truck really fast then. I have four motors and I think they all have aluminun covers. I will check and see if they are different on the motor side.

 

Josh, Canadian blocks have three oil holes instead of two at the back of the block (or is it two instead of one? not at home at the moment) that allowed making them full-flow oil filtered real easy. I'll post later...