Who says the good scores are all gone? Got a free motor/trans complete. And yes, some people still use a pair of ladders with a few 2X6's to pull engines... with the one-use only $25.99 comealong.
Bet that was a load for the Ranchero............did it let out a sigh of relief when you lifted the flatty.
Is imagination more important that knowledge? I would guess your hoisting method will draw a lot of comments. Flatheads are cool!
You get extra points for using a HAMB-friendly vehicle to haul the flathead home. I wouldn't have the guts to load it the way you did, don't want to be known for all eternity as "the one who tried to load an engine with two ladders, 2x6's, and a $25.99 comealong."
Rancho hauled the weight like it was nuthin. I even dragged the whole pallet over the tailgate onto my dually. Nuthin. Yep Don, a 53 pickup. The guy bought it for the cab and had no use for anything else. The rest is spoken for.. ahem... Thanks guys I put a lot of work under the hood (223 better than new) though the body is just how I got it. Body by Henry. Jim
Flatheads used to follow me home,also. One showed up in my driveway,in the bucket of of a tractor. I keep hearing people whine about not being able to find a flathead,but I find them all the time. The best flathead,was all rebuilt and running,and free,delivered to my garage.
back in the stone-age 70s when guys all converted to sbcs in their mercs and shoeboxes, on more than one occasion guys said to me: "oh--you like flatheads? i've got a couple in the back yard you can have for free if you just haul them away!"
Yes, free flatheads! I scored about 9 or 10 when I had the shop...One was out of an almost completed restoration, a '37 pickup; but the engine was a 59L, new pistons, rods, Ford 3.75" stroke... I had four 8CM Mercs, all had good cranks. Some had the old hollow Johnson adjustable tappets, a Weber and two Howard cams. An old gent gave me a '38 Ford 221, with a Smith & Jones cam; J.E. pistons 1/8" over, I replaced rings & full-floating bearings and stuck it in my channeled 'A' Coupe. It went back and forth to L.A. (from San Jose) countless times, generator stopped working in Santa Barbara. Took a look, it was the upper brush spring broken. Such luck!
My bud Dave Beilby lived in Felton (Santa Cruz mtns) and had a neat ranch with a huge barn. Dave was the Fireman on the Union Pacific line, worked 4 and off 3...we would hang at his house and drink beer. Everybody 'whizzed' on this rusty old flathead in Dave's yard...we'd stand around drinking beer, then pee on the flathead. In 1975, I picked up a '57 Karmann Ghia from Dave's barn. He asked if I wanted that old engine we had been ******* on...I said I'd take it. It was a 59Z. (Unusual; first '59Z' I ever saw; factory relief, too.) Jet cleaned it, soaked it in diesel for a week. Came apart like a new one. That was my 3/8" X 3/8", no cracks, one broken piston. Hardly scarred the wall! Imagine, just peeing on that poor flattie then finding it with no cracks!
4t7flat....They're still out there and available....(ahem...) Good score,...and ditto Roseville Carl,..it IS a Ford IN a Ford ! 4TTRUK
Jay Leno has a skit where he shows what some call "ingenious" ways to do things, calls it "White Trash Repairs". Not calling any names, you gotta do what you gotta do with what you have at the time, but... I would not trust that for a minute..
Don't know what your plan might be but unless you're going to install it in a '53 truck, that bell housing (which is unique to that application) is in demand to restorers. And it's not particularly user friendly in a typical rod situation. You could flip it quite readily-over on the Ford Barn.
I'll keep that in mind, when the time comes it will probably find its way to the cl***ifieds here. I was planning on going with a car bell/trans anyway.
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