hey ya'll so i'm working on a 1937 ford panel truck which i just bought. i was told the previous owner had it running recently but off the road since 07 so who knows. the guy died about 5 years ago and i guess some buddies had it running recently. so i brought it home and did the usual process of starting it after it sat for so long. in doing so, i found the water pumps were seized so i took them off to replace them. the engine did run but the pumps were squealing so, not for long before i shut it down. i've enclosed some pics of what i found but it was not pretty. after about 90% of the anti freeze came out, the last 10 was rust and sludge. so now i have a few questions. what should i do to make sure the water p***ages in the rest of the system are not plugged? looking at the front of the block, on the side of the pumps are two what looks like at one time, were bolts to secure the pumps. is that so? if not what are they for and should i leave them plugged? also, the heads on the engine are 59ABs. if that is correct, are the old pumps what i should get or is there another replacement? and while i'm asking, i have read that someone makes/sells upgraded pumps. better bearings, more vanes. anyone know who that is? thanks for any and all info. i appreciate it. cheers!
Flush the block and either rebuild the water pumps or buy new ones. Pull the heads and intake to see if you have gunk built up and take look at the water p***ages. Look for cracks in the block. What does the oil look like? I would change it. ORRRRR, pay the money to have the block torn down, cleaned and inspected.
If that were mine I wouldn't risk it; I'd just tear it down, see what I've got, and go from there. Probably not what you want to hear, but oh well...
^This. If it's been neglected for that long, you won't ever be sure about the condition of the p***ages, plugs, and anything else iron-based inside and around the engine unless you do a full tear down.
Just talked to Skip like 4 days ago. Price to rebuild the pumps is $220.00 including shipping to return them.
That really doesn't look too bad to me. In fact if it really hasn't been driven since 2007 it looks damn good. Any iron block will rust like that if left to sit with water in it. My main concern would be rusticles migrating into the rad. I'd just flush the hell out of it, put new pumps on it since they're off, run a quality antifreeze with a rust inhibitor, and keep an eye on the temp gauge for a little while. No reason to take a running engine out of commission.
I’m with Trevor, just clean up the gasket surface and bolt on some new or rebuilt 38-48 water pumps. Use stainless bolts. Don’t worry about the mud dobber nests in the two holes each side inboard of the pumps. That’s just where the 32 motor mounts bolt up to put a later engine in the 32 ch***is.
ok thanks for all the help. so, the holes are just old motor mount holes and no need to mess with them? thanks!
so, i took the easy way out and decided to take my chances with it and not tear it down. i think the top of the engine should be pretty clean because the majority of what came out was clean anti freeze. it was only the last bit that was really bad. i may regret it but.....so at this point, i have new water pumps on order, had the radiator cleaned and pressure tested at a local shop, (performance radiator for those in tucson az) and i want to flush the block but i don't want to flush it with all the nice new stuff. is there another way, other than sticking a hose in it and running water through it till its clean? i was thinking maybe plug the water pump holes and filling it with flush and letting it soak for a few days but not sure how effective that would be. if anyone has any thoughts, i'd certainly appreciate it. cheers!
If you have a kinda junky radiator to sacrifice- I cleaned my flathead out by letting it run on a stand with vinegar in the system. I had a big truck radiator from an F6 that was all banged up but held water. Every once in a while I'd pull the return hose off and let it puke everything out, then refill it. This will put a lot of stuff through the rad and might plug it up so better to do it with one that is at the end of its life anyway. Instead of vinegar, I bet you could dump a gallon or two of evaporust in that ****er and get some real results.
How does an inline filter work when a flat head has two separate banks of water that only mix in the radiator?
You could go back to the invoice and edit quan***y. There are also other brands/styles of coolant filters that plug right into each upper radiator hose but they have less capacity to catch contaminants.
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