all right now the still newbie-ness of my journey into flatdom is about to show !!!!!!!! 1. have not been able to find or quite figure out how in the hades to adjust the valves , so to speak , using my oe lifters . was going to buy adjustable but hades the oe peices have done an admirable job for 56 years so ... can anyone give me a detailed explanation of this procedure ?????? 2. i am going to buy a set of lincoln zephyr springs from reds amongst other things , and was wondering if they had to much spring pressure for the oe cam ??? don't wanna flat spot a lobe or eat up a lifter . 3. whats the recommended / sought after pressure and installed height on the springs ??? seen a lot of opinions and theories wandering around reading so maybe one of you has a good idea . i got more to ask but my mind isn't quite there yet { up at 2 am at work from 345 till 8 then 930am till 630 pm } so i'll try to jot 'em down as i wander throught the fog of my mind ......... here's one though . 4 . i am going to paint the bottom of the intake with a hi temp heat paint to hopefully aid in reflecting some of the heat away from it , may even try to fab a heat sheild , but what about painting the heads with it ??? any one seen this or done this ????? going to use it liberally on the headers and wrap as well , and anything else i can recoolect from the late model engine dirt days , to try and help her out . 5. is porting worth it on a basically stock flatty ????? ok im gone now , i'll be back later to be a bigger pain in the ****

 

i have heard of painting the inner surfaces of engine parts, I just cant remember if the inside is supposed to be flat white and the outside flat black or vsv. Yes porting the block and stuff is worth it becausee flatheads breath horribly. Just take a look at one of the exhaust ports int he block and look hor awful teh castings are. I believe its definately worth the hours. Im gonna do it on my build

 

what year is this engine? 52-53? 52-53 springs-86lbs at 1.60 travel---54-140lbs at 1.505 travel--zephyr--121lbs at 1,84-- are you sure these springs will work? valves on flatties are basically non adjustable. any adjustment was made by grinding stem of valve. i personally use johnson adjustables, (59ab). hope this helps

 

ita a 53 8ba. the one living under the hood of my effie . well im gonna bite the bullet and by adjustables as i finally figured out what you just said petey . im not grinding anything to make adjustments period . the info on the springs is / was very helpful also . so the zephyr's get the axe and i'll go with some stockers . now another question , exhaust baffles . to divide the center port . seen an article somewhere on the net while perusing in the wee am hours before wandering off to work , that they helped power etc. and kept the two center cylinders from poluting themselves . yes , no or just a gimmick ???

 

have no first hand experience on baffles, but have read that scavenge of exhaust is better on higher output engines. if it's mostly stock? can't hurt, but, why? using headers? probably a better investment for all cyls.

 

yep , she had headers on her when i got her , and after looking at those ridiculously restrictive manifolds of henry's , i'd never put a set of 'em back on one !!!!! so i'm gonna buy 'em . try to get as much as i can out of her . the wifey is having minor heart palpatations now with the parts list .....