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Hey everyone. I took off my intake manifold today from a 48 F1 and there was nothing but cotton and rat nest leaves trash and rusty springs etc. I was planning on eventually swapping the engine, but I wanted to fix/use the original flathead for now. I thought it would be pretty clean and try to crank today. I was very wrong on that idea. Everything is rough. Is there anyway it could be cleaned/ rust removed or does the entire engine need a total rebuild/replace?
Most of that looks like creature invasion. I'd give it a good shop vacuum treatment, spray it with some WD-40 or similar and then try to rotate it via the crank bolt and see how things are moving. Based on that picture, it could go either way - a runner (not fresh/new by any means), or something that needs a rebuild.
The crank moves freely. I put oil in spark plug holes/cylinders before I knew how bad it was and turned the crank. I am glad it's a possible fix. I'll keep cleaning it out. Is there a bolt list for a manifold that you would know of? I got two bolts confused and don't have the service manual in ye to see what goes where.
That is a lot of garbage in the valley and it will not be fun to clean out fully, and you'll want to get it 100% clean and avoid getting any of that debris in the oil pump and passages. If there's that much up top, you can bet you've got more than your fair share down below, too. It might take pulling the engine for a deeper opening up to clean out the bottom end, too.
Well the top is finally clean and I think you are correct. I'll go ahead and clean the bottom end. I was told its probably been parked 40+- years.
That's great to know this manifold has different length bolts throughout the manifold. Im guessing someone just used whatever length they had close by. I'll check valves springs etc. Never done much major engine work nows a good time to check and learn though.
I once got a flathead engine cheaply because it would only turn about 1/2 turn before locking up. It had had a rodent infestation, so I assumed their pee had corroded some lifters. It turned out to be acorns they tossed down the breather passages into the timing cover, that were jamming up the timing gears. Be sure to check there, too.
You can see how sludged-up it was, I would never try to run an engine like that. After a few thousand in machine work it is a great engine, in an FTE'er's truck.
If the oil pan is a mouse condo, I see misery in your future. Hoping the mice stayed on the upper level. Do continue to post as you check things over. A lot of good advice will come your way as you proceed.
UpdateThe engine builder that's working on my Camaro came over and checked everything. We checked the pan as well. Oil was all that was in there. I was concerned about water, but might have gotten lucky on that. We didn't see anymore signs of mice anywhere else. Ive got to figure out where a few things go and it will be put back together. The builder is coming over when I get everything back installed and see if it will crank. If it does crank it will probably run terrible and go to the shop and see what needs to be fixed. My new plan is to have this be my daily. I will probably need to go ahead and swap the engine, trans, and reared the 100hp and gearing probably won't be helpful in traffic. I am hoping for a 6 month to a year build, but we will see how fast money goes. I am sure I'll have several more questions along the way.
FYI, my 51 F1 flathead 8 with the 392 rear end and 3 speed column shift cruises on the highway at 65 and does just fine in daily traffic. With the gearing, it's plenty quick enough off the light. I can on ramp the highway and be at 55 by the end of the ramp lane and still be just over 2000 RPM.
Mine was rebuilt by a local shop. Nothing fancy, bored out .30 over, original crank and cam, running an Edelbrock 4 barrel. So probably 110 HP at most.
Remember, no matter how fast you can make it go, it's still a 1951 truck, so unless you completely change the steering and suspension, you won't ever want to drive it very fast. At least not after the first time!!
That's great to hear. All I want is the truck to go 55 mph without feeling like its falling apart. Safe breaks, probably power steering, A/c is a must its 95+ here daily.
I'd be curious to know how many flathead guys are also running a/c? It takes quite a bit of power to run the compressor and that's something a flathead doesn't have in abundance.
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