Would you buy a 1949 8BA flathead motor that is "frozen" for $250.00? It's from Arizona, so it's been in a dry environment. Even if it's frozen, it seems like a good buy for $250.00 What do you think?

 

Go here now...thereis one left 5 minutes http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...1484987&rd=1,1

 

I bought my 51' 8BA for $500, and it supposedly ran when pulled out, it turns over, so we'll see when its time, but I'm planning on a complete rebuild anyway. Either way I love flatheads and if I can't use it I'll paint it up and use it for art in the garage.

 

There's a couple of old wrecking yards in the Fillmore/Santa Paula area that had some flatty's at one time..

Joe..there's a faded Red 1951-52 F1 in the area, ever seen it?

 

Before laying out the cash, see if you can pull the heads. Should the owner agree, let him know you may break a head bolt or two. If you can remove the heads, use a putty knife or gasket scraper and scrape the area between each cylinder and valve. You should see any cracks. Have a look in the cylinders. If they have heavy rust, the cylinders could be badly pitted.

Basically, if you see cracks between cylinders and valves, they can be fixed; it is not cheap so you could use this as a bargaining tool. If bores are badly rusted, pistons look horribly corroded, run away from it, unless you are desperate. Worst case rust could force you to sleeve every cylinder=$$$$.

Light rust wouldn't be too scary. If it is stuck it could be a valve hanging up, or rings rusted to bore; or it could be badly stuck, that's why you want to peek first.

A fellow club member called about a "running" 53 engine. The owner was passing through so he dropped by with it. He was asking $350. I asked if we could pull the heads, he agreed. I snapped 2-3 bolts, getting him a little agitated. That is until I pulled the head and we saw number one very corroded. A little scraping revealed not only a crack between valve and cylinder, not a deal- breaker, but the metal was actually displaced, creating a ridge - scary! Combine that with the pistons reading .060, and it was a pass. BTW, after seeing the bad cylinder, plus a crack on the other bank, he wasn't steamed about the broken bolts. There are various schools of thought on this, but if a piston reads .060 and you feel a heavy ridge, you may or may not need to sleeve it.

I don't think I would shell out $250 for an engine I couldn't peek at, unless the owner is willing, on paper, to refund money.

 

Flatheads are strange. I have talked to some people who say they can buy a running flathead any time for under $500, and then I talk to others who say you're lucky if you can buy a stuck one for under $500. I have bought complete, trashed trucks with good running flatties for around $250. I also sold a seized flattie to a guy for $250. I didn't even try to sell it, the guy pulled into my parking lot as I was tearing the truck apart and offered me $250 for it even after I told him it was stuck. I talked to the guy a year later and he told me the engine had a mouse nest in the oil pan and the only thing he was able to salvge was the connecting arms. I didn't twist his arm and I let him set the price, I would have settled for $50.


I would shy away from buying an engine I could not see in person, especially if the seller says it's frozen. The eBay engine would also have the added cost of shipping of I would think about $200-300, that's $500 tied up in a engine that could be total junk. From reading the seller's description this one had been sitting in a junkyard without a carb, just another place for water and junk to get in, even in the desert. I would keep an eye open for a complete truck to get the engine from. I would look for a larger truck because usually they goes for less than the smaller trucks and hopefully you would be able to crawl under the hood and do a preliminary check to see if the engine is loose or not.


Just my two cents worth.

 

Excellent advice and commentary. Only thing I would add to it is that being in Arizona it's a good bet the truck was from there and it may well have been junked becasue the engine cracked. In my expreience, good uncracked flatheads are much harder to come by in warmer climates (Phoenix certainly fits into that category). My therory is that the heat was a bad environment for an engine that was notorious for overheating and most of them got cooked. Look for one from somewhere where they get lots of snow in the winter.

 

That would be here, althought we haven't been getting a lot of snow lately. The major problem with old cars in places that have a lot of snow is where there is a lot of snow there is a lot of road salt which eats the vehicles from the outside in, instead of like heat that eats them from the inside out. The best place would be right in the middle of the two.

 

You have all of the enignes and we have all of the sheet metal. We need to find a way to get them together.

 

You are correct about "right in the middle". There are lots of them laying around eastern Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, from when they were used on irrigation pumps. That kind of duty puts a fair amount of wear on them, unless they were fired on propane, which is not uncommon.

The other problem with buying an engine unseen is that they are frequently put up with plain water in the jackets (if your water pumps leak badly, do you add antifreeze? or plain water?) and once they freeze, they're an anchor.

 

I'll find the engines if you find the sheet metal. Then we'll have to figure out how to get them together.

 

I think, generally, cracks up high in the block can (but not always) indicate a TOO HOT condition. Flatheads are havens for steam pockets.

And, cracks along the pan rail down low indicate a TOO COLD condition where it has frozen. Those and the cracks along the crankshaft webbing make it a boat anchor.

 

Flatheads that need overboring and sleeving in all eight cylinders indicate you have too much money laying around

 

Here's a thought since we're talking getting engines from different parts of the country, especially this time of year. There was a post on the Ford Barn a while back from a guy who bought a car from the south and had it shipped to his home in the northern part of the country. When the car arrived the block had a crack in it. The seller had put anti-freeze in the system but only good down to 10 below, the final destination had temps in the 40 below zone.

Just a thought for anyone finding a engine or complete vehicle down south.

 

Funny you should mention that... I bought a motorcycle (a modern water-cooled one) from a guy in the southern part of the state, about at the Mexican border about 3 years ago. Being winter and a long ways away, I drove down in my truck to pick it up. The weather turned to the teens as I worked my way back north, but I didn't think anything of it. By the time I got back home I was too tired and cold to do anything but park it out back with the bike still in the bed.

At about 3 in the morning I woke up, having somehow realized in my sleep that this was a water-cooled bike, and a Known Moron had been the PO. I slipped on some clothes, ran out and sure enough, there was an icicle hanging from the lower radiator hose!! I about threw that bike off the truck, got it into the garage, and aimed a space heater at it. Long story short, I dodged a bullet somehow. The hoses were all frozen near solid, even the water pump. but it thawed out and never leaked a drop. When I drained it all kinds of muddy water came out, not a drop of antifreeze.