Just opened up my 41 ford v8 and am concerned about the amount of rust in the water jacket. It's a low mile car that has been stored for a long time without water in it. I also noticed what looked like rust on the cam lobes, but It may be sludge. I had it running and it sounded great, just need some advice on how to deal with the rust. Plans are to put alot of miles on it. Thanks
My water jackets were rusty as well on my hudson 308 motor...used coat hangers and the shop vac for the water passages then a wire brush for everything else ...Lots of good info on here from clr and vinegar to the molasses trick ...good luck ...nice Motor too Sent from my SM-G903W using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
If you're mechanicaly inclined, have it hot tanked and rebuild it. Or do the home garage thing and brush it. Hell, just hot tank it. Sent from my SM-G930T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I'd either run it as is, or tear it all the way down (keeping all bearings in the proper order) and clean the heck out of that thing. Maybe you can re-ring and touch the valves and it will be fine with the same bearings. To clean the block, first go through the usual hot tank, but after its all dried out, sandblast the water jackets thoroughly. Then wash it out again.
I guess another way to ask the question is, I had a late model engine that had rusty water jackets, and they were constant problems. Even after antifreeze, I put several water pumps and head gaskets, and I eventually tossed the van. (Ford 3.0) Will the flathead continue to rust once its started, and be a problem, or does the block not flake out as bad again. I have the car down to the frame now, and am on the bubble weather to swap to something else in light of the rust situation. Thanks again for the advice
Sounds like you're looking for an excuse to toss it. Took 75 years to get that rusty and still runs. It's a keeper. Oh and guys like to know who they're talking to, so you'll get a better response if your profile page is filled out.
I thought I did the profile page, but I'll look at it again and see what I forgot. As far as a reason to toss it, not really, I already bought the 5 speed, and geared the rear for the flattie. Just checking the brain trust here to see if it's a massive problem headed my way. Been driving wore out sloppy cars from the beginning, so I can deal with it most of the time. I still carry a tray of tools in my late model stuff!
If it's not cracked, run it. Flush it with clr or vinegar, or you can soak it in molasses and water. That's an oversimplified answer of course but flatheads are hard to kill.
If you can clean that rust out somehow it won't ever be that bad again in our lifetime (if you use proper coolant). If you leave it all crusty and run it like that you might have overheating issues. Or maybe not.
Run it down to the car wash and pressure wash the water jackets. Put some baking soda in there for abrasive that wont stay. Like Costco size bag-o-baking soda.
I guess I could make the rust an excuse to buy some aluminium heads! Ha! Little low on funds for that thought.
Hy you don't say where you are from but here in Orange County SoCal I use a use a company call Strip Clean in Garden Grove. Your block/heads will come out as "new" with no metal removed. All my GMC 6 racing engines start there. Good luck
As to rusting again when you get it clean, alchemy is right about using the right coolant. I have a couple of low mileage flatheads ('50 Ford and '51 Mercury) out of cars that were obviously maintained properly, and their insides were scale free after almost 70 years. Here is a picture I took of the Merc after I removed a water pump. Now casting sand and miscellaneous debris in the water jackets is another matter.
If it had decent compression just run it till it doesn't. I second the clothes hanger suggestion and a long screwdriver. Paying particular attention to the rear of the block. There can be a good build up of scale and sometimes even casting sand from the factory. Flush it out and your chances of a cool running block will be much better.
If it is low mileage and sounded great while it was running before you tore it down, I would put it back together and do a citric acid flush. Citric acid (a key ingredient of Gunk Super Radiator Flush, PN C2124C) removes rust but is safe on iron, brass, and aluminum and I bought citric acid (1 kg bag) from a local wine supply store. I've used in my own engine (ran acid solution for few days) and the internal passages look freshly cast I did a writeup for my car club: Cooling System. I would vacuum out any loose solids you might have created when you took it apart. After putting it back together, I would use a Heavy Duty Engine Oil and the oil's detergents slowly clean the sludge. See Corvair Oil Article, Bottom line recommendation #10)
I've always been told to use a NON-detergent oil in an un-rebuilt or unknown flattie. Leave the sludge where is is and not floating around causing problems.
Start with any tool you can to poke, scrape, brush, etc going through any water jacket hole you can find. Lots of old flatties got refilled from the closest stream while trippin' so sand added, in addition to the casting sand (and wire) that you'll find. Speedometer cables in a drill help. Then pressure wash through all the holes and do it again. Then try the chemicals. Also thourough wirebrush the block decks and check for cracks between valves and cylinders. Not a good thing but can be fixed. Cracks between cooland holes and head bolt threads are OK. Good luck!
Well, I'm inspired to keep on with the mill after all the help. I guess I'll do one bank at a time. Remove the studs scrape, poke, powerwash and chemicals and repeat wash. Clean threads and re assembly. Also check that the head is true. Who makes a decent flathead gasket kit?
Make sure you pull the frost plugs and clean out all the rust, scale and casting sand around the bottom of the cylinders. Then it should run cool.
I like to run a piece of screen wire in the rad. hoses to catch the loose , flaky rust . making a cone shape works well .
My block does not have any freeze plugs , unless they are behind the flywheel. None visible, unless they don't look like the typical freeze plugs. I like the screen idea. I have some fine stainless mesh ill try and fab up to fit in the upper hose.
What worked for me was running a hose into the head outlet, then I had a soft copper tube I could into the water jackets from the pump holes. I ran air to the line and moved it around. Got an amazing amount of crap out that way. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Look over this official scientifical test over on Ford Barn before you work up a sweat and get your hands dirty: http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123032&highlight=evaporust+vinegar&showall=1 My only worry would be that the liquidation of the rust might well free up lime, sand, mouse nests, etc. I would consider either improvised filters in the hoses or perhaps just reverse flushing the radiator in case of that. If you do have lime deposits from your local water, vinegar might be a useful followup to eat them. Doing this on a runner will also make the evapo more effective, or at least quicker, as the heat will considerably speed up its process.
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