For months now I have monkeyed with the falthaed out of my 50 F1 in hopes of unfreezing it. I had pretty much given up. Today a friend of mine stopped by to visit and we started screwing with it. Six hours later it made a full revoluition for the first time since Richard Nixon's first year as President. Be patient with the Marvel mystery oil, It will soak in eventually. It took mine 8 months to do so.

What is amazing is things don't look too awful bad. I'm going to finish the tear down tomorrow evening by pulling the oil pan. Can't wait to see what the lowere end looks like.

Only one death crack so I may try to have it pinned and sleeved. Anyone have any experience with doing this/having it done??

 

I have two friends, both run engine shops, both build from mild to wild.
One won't pin an engine or build one thats been pinned
The other has a booming buisbess pinning everything from motorcycles to big rigs.
I watched him stich a 6x6 inch piece of cast into a vintage Mercedes block that had a rod go through it. When it was done and painted looked like new.
I have one to pin, I will then have it sleeved and built stock.
I won't build a thumper with a sleeved cyl, just me being me.

Check this site out lots of good Splanations: http://www.locknstitch.com/

 

Congrats on the flattie!

You should stop by the Ford Barn site,http://www.fordbarn.com/earlyv8/forum03/ or the MSN flathead forum, http://groups.msn.com/FordFlathead19...3/general.msnw. The MSN site is a pain in the butt sometimes to post but both of these sites have a lot of old flathead guys over there. I'm not saying there aren't any here but these sites are dedicated to flatheads and why not get as much advice as possible. Some of the guys from here post there too.

 

A real good product to use to unstick anything , if you can find it is areokroil. Congrats on freeing up that flathead. I've got a book on flatheads by frank oddo who worked with mark kirby from motorcity flathead on this book. They have no quams about plugging a crack in a block so long as both ends of the crack can be seen and repaired.

 

Thanks for the thoughts on pinning. I don't plant to do anything more than build a stock unit with this engine. I know these things can be hopped up somewhat but there are only three main bearings (I know they are big main bearings), they are prone to overheating, and they are old and getting tougher to find. Why push it. The truck it will go into will be a stocker 49 F-2.

Also, thanks for the tips on the FH sites. I've known about them but since I figured this flatty was a boat anchor, I never really felt the need to participate in these groups since they are likely to involve folks with engines that either run or are rebuildable. Looks like I might fit into the group now as a newby.

Man this is like finding one for free. I never figured I would ever get it to turn over by hand and based on the volume of water that came out when I drained the oil last summer, I figured the cylinders were toast as well. They actually look pretty good. It's pretty clear it was tired when it was parked. There are a couple of burnt vavles on the passenger side of the truck and the cylinders have decent size ridges. I will have to check the bore to see if it was stock. The date code on the block correlates to approximately 1-week prior to the date code from the firewall stamping so I think there is a good chnce it was the original engine.

I managed to get it free by pulling the cam gear so that I was only turning the crank. I managed to get all of the valves on the drivers side to move freely. All of the intake valves on the passenger side are free and all of the exhaust valves on the passenger side are stuck. I managed to break one of the exhaust valves on the passenger side trying to get it to move.

 

Carl,
What did I tell you? Thats good news!
Who knows it might just be salvageable after all (if you can get the valves to free up)

Maybe you better push the darkside truck into the corner for a bit and focus on the lightside one.............I don't know how you keep it all straight

Bobby

 

What I think happened is the flatty got jealous when it saw the Jag V-12 engine/tranny combo role into the garage yesterday and decided to star playing ball.

I think I'm going to play with the flatheads for a few days and see where that takes me. The one out of my truck that last spun in 1969 (and subject of this thread) has only the one crack. The other engine has an intake valve to cylinder crack on one cylinder and an exhaust valve to cylinder crack. I will at least get the blocks boiled/dipped to see what's there and maybe get all of the machine work done on both for now. Hopefully I will be pricing pistons and rings soon.

 

Congrats on your victory over Time!

Just to be clear, where is the crack? I assume since you are talking sleeving, it's from a valve seat down into the cylinder? But your last post seems to indicate otherwise? If it's just a water jacket-to-bolt hole crack, you're home free! There are hundreds of us running with those.

There are still a lot of clean blocks available, before you get too committed, take a step back and think about it. Pinning/sleeving is generally a way to save an engine that is already rebuilt and machined, ported, etc and the owner has a considerable investment in it. Putting money into the block before you know if the crank is bad, the cam, pistons, and rods all need to be replaced, wouldn't be a good plan. Remember, it could cost you $2k to put this baby right even without the pinning.

Not to cool you to the idea of restoring it, just keep an open mind!

 

Appreciate the thoughts. The cracks I was describing on both engines are from the valve seat to the cylinder. There are water jacket to bolt hole cracks as well but those I'm not too worried about.

As far as clean blocks go., I found a few in Alb-Q of all placesy but the guy wanted $400-$450 a piece for them. A lot of money to spend on one that I have to bore and rebuild. I had Bobby T. drop by and take a look at them for me. These are the only "certified" uncracked blocks I've been able to find.

I've looked here in Houston for almost a year without luck. Everything I find is a considerable distance away (out of state and most often out of time zone)and I have no way to verify the condition. The owners usually claim to know nothing about the enigne but want $1,000.00 if they run, $500.00 for them if they turn by hand, and $200.00 if they are frozen. They will rarley agre to pull heads to check for cracks.

Thought I had lucked out on a potentially good one in western Louisiana late last week but no dice.

For what I am spending in time and effort looking and what it will cost me to get one here on top of the the already inflated price someone wants for one, I might as well make a go of this engine if at all possible, especially now that I got it freed up. I think I'm going to take my chances on what I have while keeping an eye out for a better block should I find one. At least now I can get it disassembled and ready to dip to see what it looks like cleaned up. I also found a local machine shop to do the work just this past week so the timing of all this could not be better. This guy has a couple of flatheads laying around but wants $400.00 each for them as cores to bore and rebuild. The one he had apart to show me has one exhaust valve port to cylinder crack. He still wanted $400.00 for it.

 

Tex, Is the block in ABQ from Joe Abbin? I know he got a shipment of 20+ blocks from an MSN-board member in Canada --- talk about well-travelled blocks! Those are certainly good blocks if Joe says they are. (Check Joe's website, http://blownflathead.itgo.com/).

Prices are getting crazy all right, and a lot of people trying to cash in. There are still a lot of good cheap blocks but you're right, you'd have to drive out into the country and start looking under trees, and then you're still gambling that they are any better. It isn't cheap to just drive around West Texas either.

It sounds like you're on your way if you've got a good shop lined up! Good luck and keep us posted!

 

Ross,

Yep, that's they guy. Joe Appin. Nice fellow. Anyhow, many more steps to go before this gets the final OK to rebuild, we will see what happens with it but getting it free was a huge, huge step in the right direction. I think I'm going to out to the garage right now and make sure it wasn't some cruel dream.

 

Ross,
Joe Abbin has about 6 blocks left of that lot. He's a super nice guy and very interesting to talk to, plus he has some very nice toys.

Carl,
You never know, a running flattie might turn up. Keep you eyes open.

Bobby

 

I am going to be selling a flathead soon (next month). It was a good motor and was old school hotroded years ago. It turns over by hand and is complete minus carbs and starter. It has offy finned heads , dual stromburg 2x2 intake by edelbrock,remote oil filter setup.The motor has been not running in 15 years but like I said it does turn over. $1100 and a 3 speed included in columbus, ohio any intrest email me

 

You will probably get what you are asking for the enigne, especially if it is sound and in good working condition. As I look at this tihough, a few questions come to mind.

1 - Why has it not been run in 15+ years?
2 - Is it cracked?
3 - Will you pull the heads to see if it is cracked?
4 - How was it hot-rodded/what was done to it to hop it up?
5 - What was it in?
6 - Why was it pulled?
7 - Why has it been sitting for 15 years?
8 - Why has it been sitting for 15 years?
9 - How many miles were run on it after the last rebuild/hot rod.
10 - Was the engine rebuilt at the time or did someone just add the intake manifold and carbs?
11 - Do you know for certain if it actually ran when it was pulled?
12 - Why has it been sitting for 15 years?
13 - Where are the carbs and starter?
14 - How has the intake been covered with no carbs?
15 - Why has it been sitting for 15 years???

I don't mean to sound so skeptical/negative (I'm sure you are a real nice, honest, and decent person) but if I had $10.00 for everytime I've heard what you are saying and walked away disappointed, it would leterally pay pay for an all expense paid trip to Europe with my wife. Agian, please don't be offeneded by me. I really am a nice guy and a couple of folks here can actually vouch for me.

Good luck selling it but I'm afraid the risk/cost/reward equations won't play out for me for an engine that far away. I would recommend you place an ad in the FTE classifieds. I placed a wanted ad their for flatheads and rceived a number of responses. Unfortuantely, they were all too far away to for the deals to pan out.

 

its still in the truck at this time, I was given the truck from my uncle, he bought it about 12 years ago from the south. He trailered it up here and it ran at that time.(all the hotrod parts were on it already) The starter quit working and the clutch was slipping and he let a high school have it to work on as a class project, they had the truck for the next 8 years and had rewired the truck and fixed the clutch and never replaced the starter, started striping the truck as it went over to there body shop and was there for a time and they striped all the chrome ,glass out of it and primered the whole thing. Then the school stoped the auto shop class and the truck went to his farm and has sat until I got it 3 months ago. Never got the carbs from the school or the glass. He never had time to work on the truck and I showed interest and he gave it to me. My plans dont include using the flathead. I'm going with a later model drivetrain. But I know someone out there may want it for a oldschool rat rod. The money will go back into the truck when it sells. I will have to sell it as is as it has sat but it will turn over by hand ,its not junk but I myself have just aquired it so I can only go by what I see. I will not take it apart, its as it is still in the truck until someone wants it and the first one with the funds -I will take it out then.