since this will be our daily, I just don’t feel good about the tank over my legs. @Craig Owens Thanks for the pics. Super helpful. I’ll have to look at them next week to see what I can create. Great stuff. I guess I missed the reliability run, although I don’t have anything reliable right now. Next year, Roadster Run!
love this Jeff, only I would put the fenders back on. Good job so far though and Keep er Flat!!! miss my Model A
Got the engine moved down to start fitting. Buddy loaned me a furniture dolly to move it around. Might modify it into a test stand.
Thanks, CSpidy. Yes, I do plan on running the OD behind the Merc. Should be a good driver. I pulled the plugs, gave the cylinders a squirt of oil, and cranked it over today. Slow with an old 6V battery, but it worked.
Way to go and look at the perfect lower trunk lid line and great lines all over . Thank you for sharing ... and for a boat !
Last weekend, I connected a battery to my 8BA to turn the motor over and check compression. Cylinders 4 and 8 had NO compression. I didn't have any time to diagnose before a business trip. During my trip, I searched and thought about what the issue might be. Stressed. When I got back, I went to the garage the next morning and pulled the passenger side head. Stuck valve. I put a little oil on the stem of the valve, and turned the motor over by hand. As I was turning it over, I "helped" the valve close several times. After several turns, it closed better. I also measured the bore and stroke (3.1878" X 4.00"). The cylinders are not perfectly round (off by about .002"). The cylinders are clean and smooth, and there's not much of a ridge at all. There is quite a bit of gunk I'll clean off before re-assembly. I'll pull the driver's side head today and do the same. Not sure if I need to pull the intake. I don't think it will give me any additional information... Then I think I'll install new had gaskets, button it back up, and see if I can get it running.
I'd recommend, given the grunge evident in the coolant passages, that the system could use a serious flushing! ;-)
The thing that I love about that transmission is how easy it will be to fab a custom crossmember. I have one of those from a lincoln but it's missing some of the parts. From what I hear it will have to run on 6 volts or be modified. I'm looking forward to the placement of the motor mounts. My 28 has a bitchin fire wall so clearance was not a problem. Great car, the tires look great
Agreed. I have some flush that I never used on my '34. I plan to use it. Thanks, @28fordroadster. You can get a 12V solenoid from sources easily found. I plan to run this on 12V. Motor mounts are in my sights now. The '51 water pump mounts are too wide. They almost go past the frame rails. I plan to swap them out with 8RT pumps. I think that will move the mounting points in and I can use the mounts I bought.
Not sure u plan to flush just heads or whole engine ( whole thing needs it ). If u do while still apart block will sure be messy. Be sure no crud or water left in bolt holes. I always like to run a tap down to be sure clean before reassemble
Looking good Jeff. If you have a 4 inch stroke then that's a Mercury crank shaft and that's good news. Don't stress about the stuck valves, it come from carbon and sitting. The trick is to use Marvel Oil in an oil gun, shoot it down the valve stem turn the engine over and gently tap the valve down with a soft mallet. Run a pint of Marvel Oil in the crankcase and 2 oz's of it per 5 gallons in the gas tank. You can use a carbon scrapper on the pistons and follow up with a Scotch Brite pad. Blow all the debris from around the pistons with an air nozzle. Like others have stated the cleaner the better. All the stuff you leave in the block will find it's way to the radiator, then plug it up, leaving you with a flathead that run hot..... Rich
while ya have the heads off get a 1/4 rod of stainless steel and use it to run into the water passege's to help break up the junk in there, and ya may loosen up some old casting sand in the block, then blow it out and a thorough flush with no radiator attached.......
Good idea. I built a water/air pressure blaster to clean out the flathead block in the PU that I intend to use on this block as well.
I tried to find it, but was not successful. It's just some plumbing parts I put together to flush the engine with water, but added a fitting to inject compressed air. It seems like that really drives the water hard through the block and heads. I flushed it with just water until it was running clear, but then when I injected air, I saw a lot more gunk come out. If I can find it I'll post a picture.
Got the engine put back together after getting the valves unstuck. Should be able to fire it up soon!
found the flush thingy. I mad this so I can fill the block with water and then blast it out with air. Works OK. I connect either the lower or upper hose to the union, clamp it on, fill through the hose port with the garden hose and then blast away with air from the threaded brass connector at the end.
Question: I’ve got these shackles that I would like to use for my build. The diameter of the shafts is .560. The perch and spring ID is .750. Is there a bushing available to make this work??? I know I can buy new plastic bushings but these are pretty cool.
They are missing the shackle bushings. In theory you should be able to purchase just the bushing. They are "original style" if you're looking for them. Check the A restoration places. The plastic crap is street rod garbage.
exactly! I’ll have to call the A places to find these. I agree that the plastic stuff is crap and also don’t look right. Thanks for the quick reply
No problem. I looked on Mike's A-fordable. I think these are what you need. A whole whopping .65 cents.
They were only .690 OD. I need .750 OD. Still looking. Also harvested more parts from the donor car today.
Try the bushings for the Model A rear spring, they have a larger OD. They are also longer than the front spring bushings but are easy to cut to length. A lot of the bushings available are rolled flat stock so they have a seam in them. One piece, no seam bushings are available from Bratton's Model A parts and won't distort like the seamed ones can.
The Jalopy Journal
