Ok here are two pictures after removing the heads this weekend. Cylinders were full of junk/dirt as you can see. It actually looks really bad in these pictures but there is no ridge at the top of any cylinder and no visible cracks (but it still is rather dirty so too early to tell). Two stuck valves in this mess and one valve spring retaining clip was off/loose. Any thoughts here on freeing these pistons up from the top. These were soaking in MMO for nearly a year and when I found the truck it had all of the spark plugs in place. So do you recommend MMO, Coke, Kroil, Kerosene, (or scrap it).

Thanks in advance.





Brian

 

 

Brian, you clicked the wrong AutoInsert; click the one for Full-size.

Dang it, POS -- I've been watching for the opportunity to use that GIF!!!

 

I was going to use the Ray Charles one... but it had a no-no word in it. But this one's great!

 

Yikes... That's a serious mess! Have you pulled the pan yet? If it looks the same, I think this may end up as a block only.... A high pressure wash at the "quarter" car wash with the pan off can cut thru a lot of stuff, before you get down to business. Really hot water is good for breaking pistons loose, but obviously doesn't help with the corrosion.

 

Pulled the oil plan and pump and removed a few rods and the thing has almost no visible wear (on the crank). Valve springs look new but are original even the valves on top looked good after cleaning it up abit. I took the pictures before cleaning anything but have never seen a bigger mess in the cylinders.

 

My 49/50 Merc flathead looked about like that when I got it apart, it did check out ok and has since been rebuilt. have yet to install and or run it yet but you never know till they are apart and magnafluxed.

good luck with it.

Josh

 

With it on an engine stand and the heads off, you are not more than a couple of hours away from complete disassembly. I had to break down 3 old flatheads like you are doing to finally find one that was not cracked.

I would flip it over, disconnect the oil pump, rod bearings and remove the crank. With a little light tapping on the pistons on my 3 flatheads, I was able to work the pistons back down the cylinders, even on a few that were very tight. Save the mains, crank, rods, and pistons as these can be reused/machined if in good shape.

If you are still in good condition at this point, pulling the cam and the valve train would be next and is not all that difficult. You can get down to a bare block pretty fast. I had a local machine shop in Mobile that would then bake the block to remove crud and then do a magnaflux on it to check for cracks. I think he charged me about $100 to perform this work.

I have a book on flathead rebuilds that was a great reference. If you like I can let you borrow it... One tip I will share that worked well for me was to use ziplock bags for all of the parts I removed and mark them. Made a big difference a year later when trying to put it all back together again.

Good luck,
Fred