Fred, I agree on the RPM's. A British guy on Ford Barn was complaining that he had a miss at 6000 RPM on his flathead, I couldn't imagine what the point of that was.

JB, I'd check the clearances on the existing pistons and see if you can get by with a re-ring. I had .010 - .012" taper and was seeing near-normal compression and it didn't smoke, even with old rings.

 

I called around today to see if I could find 0825 piston rings. Apparently that's a pretty common ford tractor size.Hastings has them but they are cast iron. I was hoping for something more modern and more forgiving in the bore. Once I get the ridges cut out I can take some measurements of the bore and piston to see what I have.

 

What do you mean by "forgiving"? Hastings haven't been aggressive on my cylinders. Are the ring widths "normal"?

 

Still tearing down the engine. Picked up a telescopic gauge set at HF today to get an idea (preliminary) of cylinder wear. With piston still in lowest I could get in a cylinder 3.272 and 3.270 in each direction. Right under ridge, 3.285 and 3.286 in each direction. Hard to know for sure the gauge is exactly level in the bore but that's what I measured. Continuing on.....

 

That's not good at all. Any idea yet what the bottom end looks like? Is there a lot of sludge?

 

I haven't opened it up yet, that is this weekend. It's taken me a while on the fan. The fan was interesting and has more parts than the 226 fan so I couldn't resist starting to restore it.

Those are bad measurements on a cylinder bored 0825 over?

 

That's roughly .015" taper. Depends what you want out of the engine.

 

I figured the same taper. Depending upon my technique on the bore gauge I was also getting 013 taper, either way on the edge of next bore size. We will see what the machine shop says about cracks. I did find pistons and rings for 100 over at egge.

 

[QUOTE=3twinridges;16613972]A buddy of mine here has a decent looking 8BA truck core for sale. The deck looks ok, a few cracks but nothing in the cylinders, valves look ok, it runs albeit poorly. Compression is in the mid 40-50's on each cylinder. Pistons are marked 0.082 and cylinders still have a ridge. Take a pass on it or does it still have a life without sleeves? Looking for a good winter rebuild project....

.080 IS a common oversize piston. My '49 Flathead is getting bored for .080"as we speak. Flatheads can be bored .120" as long as there's no core shift, and boring them out does not make them run hot. Get yours checked BEFORE you have it bored/honed. A ridge in the cylinder dictates boring oversize is mandatory or buy another block. Hope this info helps.

 

Couple of pics.....not sure what the pan is from and the engine inside the bellhousing appears to be green, which was painted over red.

 

Wait for it........block is cracked. Just what I can see I have two cracks between the water ports and head bolt holes, one on each side, I don't think those are a big deal. But I do have a worrisome crack under #7 exhaust valve that goes to the cylinder, and then down the cylinder about 1". It's a weird looking crack, has what appears to be a perfect circle? Is that a previous repair?

 

Sure looks like it from my angle.

 

Yep, it's a pinned repair, and it appears to have cracked right around it. That isn't surprising, there isn't a lot of meat there, but lots of heat and stress. Here's what it looks like underneath.
PS the engine has a car oil pan.

 

What do you think my machine shop guy is going to say? Go pound sand? I think he's a good old school flathead guy if that matters.

The good news is that I had some good practice with my cylinder ridge remover!

JB

 

Some guys will cut right into that stitch and place another or more. Beyond anything I've ever done.