Technical Truck flathead

Hi eveyone.

Im wondering if this 8RT Ive been offered is a good candidate for a build. Since it comes with the 3 speed column transmission I thought it would be a good deal. It came out of a 1951 F1 truck.
Regarding the engine Indint think there should be many differences with a 8BA ( any important I should consider ? )
But more importantly I have no idea if these transmissions are any good .

Its not a bargain also. Should I just pass ?

Thanks for any help

 

Looks clean. Can’t help, but you might also want to post on the Ford Barn as well. Plenty of knowledgeable folks there.

 

Without the heads removed you can't tell anything. My experience has been 4 out of 5 flathead blocks are cracked .

 

First, is it running? If not, will it turn over? Will the seller let you pull the plugs and run a compression test? The transmission might be good, but the only way to find out is pull the side cover and check for chipped or broken gears. If you don't mind my asking, what is the seller asking for it? I hope it works out for you.

 

Hey Alan.

Engine is running.

What Im trying to figure out is if it's worth to build an 8RT over an 8BA and if those truck transmissions are any good or just a waste of time

 

They're worth the value of the parts you see, without knowing the condition inside, unless you have valid history. Pass if the price exceeds visual estimation, or refusal to remove heads and pan.

 

Is the transmission a 4 speed or 3 speed ? Pass on the 4 speed, 3 speed be fine.

 

Ideally, the seller should offer it with a money back guarantee if it turns out to be cracked. Sometimes, they just won't do it. In the alternative, he should let you pull the heads and check for visible cracks. Any between a valve pocket and a cylinder aren't good, but should reduce the price, since they usually can be fixed. If the block is clean and free of "part number" cracks (in the middle of the block between a water passage and head bolt hole between 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 cylinders), I'd take a chance on it. Every block that I've had without those cracks has turned out to be good. Their presence (by themselves) is not a deal killer, but their absence says a lot.

An 8RT is just an 8BA with different heads, carburetor, water pumps, and distributor. Even that doesn't make a lot of difference, except the truck pumps are better to have since they facilitate mounting the engine in most cases. To put this in perspective, I got $800 for my second to last good 8BA bare block, and that was over 5 years ago.

EDIT : Since I last posted, I see that has been running. That opens up a lot more options. You can do compression and vacuum tests, check the oil pressure, and if it has a cooling system, see if it overheats.

 

I have never seen a Ford sideshift four speed in this era of vehicles.

 

I’m on my phone, so have limited vision

 

It's a valid point, though.

 

In my pic, it looks like a cover is over the transmission, on a phone, well mine anyways, if you open a thumbnail pic and try to expand it, the pic just goes away. Poof, it’s gone.

 

Ill try to do some inspection.
Bad news though. The guy just told me oil pressure drops when hot. It might not be a big issue but I dont like the idea of having to strip the engine down from the start.

 

Blocks are identical to car except, I believe trucks still received hardened seats when they started to get phased out in cars. By '53, car blocks did not have hardened seats on either the intake or exhaust.

A '51 trans should have the diamond toothed gears and needle bearings. Both are stronger than the earlier transmissions, but have different tooth counts. The gear sets can be used if all the parts are transferred over as a complete unit to an earlier case. You can not mix and match diamond toothed gears with the early type.

 

I am just asking because I really don't know and am kind of curious. I know the cars switched to the "diamond-toothed" gears in the '51 model year, but did the trucks as well? The truck transmission is very similar to the earlier (pre-'49) transmissions and I wonder if Ford would have bothered to upgrade it as well.

 

I believe the side shifts were diamond tooth, but the light duty three speed top loaders in the '48-'51 trucks were still the early toothed transmissions. I'm not 100% certain and would need to look it up. I'm just going by memory of the ones I've torn down in the past.

MacVP would be the definitive answer on this.

 

Not that important, just curious. I certainly wouldn't bother Mac with this.

 

Running a 1950 F1 flatty in my Av8 that I paid $100 for some time ago. It was cheap because the engine was locked up. I was able to tear it down, freeing up frozen pistons and so on, and do a complete rebuild. Runs sweet!

 

Any way to tell without tearing the transmission apart ?

 

You don't have to tear the tranny apart, just pull the side cover and look inside.