Just one more reason you should always rotate your food storage at least every couple years!


this truck has been sitting under an oak tree (or forest of oaks) for the last 50 years. there was about 8" of nice composted leaves/dirt inside the cab.

then here is the food storage that has gone south. was hoping to just pour some gas in tha carb and hook up a battery and go! but the carb was full of dirt from mud dobbers, along with everything else...





this one may get some vinegar treatment someday when I make time to tear into it more. maybe disolve some of the rust from the valley. this is one of those blocks that will require the torch to remove the valves....

 

But, did it run when parked?

 

lol, Actually I dont think this one did, suprisingly...

the truck originally had a straight 6 in it and it looked like they were in the middle of installing this EAB flathead in it from a car. reason I say it didn't run is that it didn't look like they had ever finished hooking everything up when it got left to rot.

I haven't pulled the heads or pan yet and im guessing from the looks of the plug holes that the cylinders are clean inside ?? its just too bad the animals got inside it... they must have gone in through the oil fill/breather tube or the road draft tube. I think it was a low mileage clean engine (at least during the inital install) ???

 

Ugh, what a mess.....probably Very rusty under all of that.

A friend of mine bought a Model A from a guy that had it sitting in his garage for years....
When he got it home and tried starting it up, it didn't want to run. Finally it fired off and blew about 10 lbs of dry dogfood out of the tailpipe! Ran fine after that.....we nicknamed the car "dogfood express".

 

You never know, there could be a layer of sludge protecting the lifters and cam... or not

 

Try to think of it as a totally organic layer of insulation....you didn't know that you were going green on this purchase!!!

 

Packed in granola to ensure freshness...

 

Oh man!!! that one got me! hilarious!!!!

 

THANKS for the post...
Made me smile just looking at the SUBJECT... and reminded me of how far I've actually come. Sometimes it HELPS to look back, when your discouraged by how much is still to be done.
My Flattie's water pumps were chock full of stuffing (from the bench seat I suspect) when I pulled them....
But she's running now.

 

Well, for me when it comes to flatheads it's kinda like Kids at Easter time, searching for the next goody!
Here it is vacumed out!





SO I had to continue tearing into it even though I had more important things to do...


heres the valley after power washing.






AS I suspected, the bores are all fairly clean (at least on the top side) Standard bore and not even a ridge at the top! Didn't visually find any cracks in any bores! or in the valley, (but need to torch out the valves to see better)









I started to get a little bit excited when I saw this






then I removed the Pan



That orange looking stuff reminded me of what our well water looked like in Custer South Dakota!






Even the oil filter canister had water in it! the pan had 2-3 gallons of water in it, and maybe 12 oz of oil! I had a block a while ago that had a freeze crack in the valley vertically behind a valve spring, but I guess I will have to wait to get it torn down more to find out if and where the crack is?? this engine had the metal head gaskets on it too, was thinking maybe they had a head leak but there would have been rust in the cylinders??

 

Looks like you might be working on a boat anchor.

 

I see a double nut on the connecting rods...is that correct? Is that factory? I never had a flatty, very interesting.

 

Actually, I have seen a lot worse.....some I have had to bust the pistons out of to get the crank out. Take (or break) the cam gear off and see if the crank will turn. The valves and lifters will be the hardest to get out. Some of the ugliest motors turn out to be the best, but it's a bunch of work just to find out....

 

Yep, Nice pan rail crack, and inside rail. didn't notice it at first from all the gunk and it was dark.

all the flatheads I have seen have had them, they are just a rod cap nut and seem kinda flimsy but???


Me too! Iv'e use a 2.5" hole saw to cut through the tops of pistons as well! lots of fun

So I suppose the rods, pistons?? and crank may be ok? reusable ??? (assuming I can get them out without further damage)
so will probably spend more time than I should on tearing it apart enough to get them out, or ya think I should just save myself the effort and move on?
I don't need the parts nor the engine, I have 2 rebuilt engines sitting in the garage ready for a truck. plus 2 other bare blocks