I've been doing a lot of work on my Flathead V8 getting it all ready for assembly here soon (course rest of truck isn't quite finished though). Got the intake ports cleaned up nice and smooth, and worked the exhaust ports over where the headers attach, making the outside ports D shaped as per the couple of flathead books I have suggest. One thing that just about blew my mind was cleaning out the crankshaft plugs, the 4 plugs in the crank throws. Used a new 3/8 inch drill bit to drill out the plugs, and I cannot believe how much GUNK was trapped behind them! I dug a big handful of 50 years of dried sludge out. Ran white cleaning brushes through with solvent until they came out clean and the crank is now clean as a whistle inside and out. I have new plugs on the way from LMC. If you never cleaned those out on an older motor like a flathead, I highly recommend it, if anything just to see how much crud sits in there.

I still need to drill and tap the holes for the full flow oil, but after that I'm going to try the POR-15 engine paint kit I just received. Hopefully will have a pretty sharp looking flatty in another week or two. It might be to pretty to put in the truck!

Seeing light at the end of the tunnel,

Scott

 

Scott, I've had my flatty apart for 3 years, and am also to the point of being close enough to a drive to feel it! It takes a lot of patience, doesn't it?!

Did your plugs come out "easily"? That is a miracle in itself!

 

I spent the better part of two hours with a fairly dull drill bit and a small body/slide hammer cursing the whole time. I decided to just get a new drill bit, so for $4 at sears I went after the other two plugs, and the bit chewed right through them until it got to the end of the plug, then caught and twisted the remains of the plug out just like that. A 3/8 bit is perfect size, it drills out almost the entire plug, but there's enough clearance around it that you don't chew the hole in the crank up any. 2 hours the night before on 2 plugs with the old bit, maybe 5 minutes total the next day to get the other 2 plugs out with the new bit. The crud behind the plug is so packed in I ran the bit through it to clean out most of it, then took to the brushes and cleaner. It was very worth it.

Scott