Anyway I set the head up in my small mill, to relieve the valve area while cutting one chamber I find a crack, so its back out for weld repair. Here I have the head back from weld repair just getting ready to mill the excess weld off.
I removed all the head studs, to give the block a good clean up and check, was amazed at the condition deck if perfect, cylinder bore are std size with absolutely no wear perfect still showing crosshatching almost looks like a NOS engine.
I machined up a timing pointer out of a s/s bolt to fit to the timing cover, as have twin magnetos I want to be able to set the timing for both mags to be the same. As one mag will be firing cylinders 1,4,6,7 and the other 5,8,3,2 I just used a piece of 1" tube bolted across cylinder 1 and 5 to work out TDC for both these cylinders, marked the crank pulley and filed a groove in. Now I will be able to set up initial timing with my buzz box and once running fine tune both mags to the same advance with an advance timing light.
While I was mucking around with the front of the engine, I decided to check fit of a rare SW crank driven tachometer drive that I pick up of a fellow HAMB member, as I will be running a mechanical tacho. These drives were obviously designed to be used with a stock cross member and motor mount location, I had clearance issues with the radiator, so had to machine down the crank handle bolt to clear.
After seeing how good of condition the flathead was in my initial plan was not to touch the short block and just reassemble it with the new heads, ignition and 2 x2 manifold. But after I dropped the oil out of the sump I put my finger up the drain hole and could feel sludge and grit, so I decided to pull the pan and check it out. Besides a thin layer of sludge in the bottom of the pan the bottom end was real clean.
But you know how it goes, now that the sumps off may as well check the condition of the bearings and rings. So out come the pistons and rods, main bearing caps off, that when I realizes the crank is a single slinger with rope rear seal, which I thought did not come out until 1946 on the first 59AB engines. But thanks to the ever amazing knowledge of Bruce Lancaster and other's on the HAMB I was informed that the 42 block was the first with the single slinger rope seal crank. Anyway back to the engine, you know how it goes may as well fit new crank seals now that I have gone this far. So off comes the timing cover only to discover that the cam has a press on fiber gear, I have heard to many horror story's about these stripping teeth, so now it's a full strip down for a cam change. Anyway back at work now and have ordered all the parts for the engine, will be fitting a Schneider 260F cam, aluminum cam gear, adjustable lifters new straight stem valves and one piece valve guides. Now that it's a bear block I will drill and tap the oil gallery's and fit a oil filter, will lighten the flywheel and have the rotating assembly balanced that's about it.
Plans for new paint on the body? The paint looks close to being able to be "freshened-up"? I'm a sucker for all new mechanicals yet slightly worn paint. What ever you decide, it's really looking great!
Don't know about Madness but it drives me Crazy eveytime I have to go back to work and can't work on it for a month at a time.
Alchemy there are a lot of people here on the HAMB with greater flathead knowledge than myself. But as far as I know the tanged insert bearing was introduced in 49 8BA engine. This motor has the non tanged full floating rod bearings, not sure when the two oil hole big end journal came out. Anyone.
Yep. That's how I understand it. But the pre-48 rods should go right on the late crank. Makes you engine seem like an even more mixed up piece. You've got early, late, and in-between.
Yes I think the engine was a little mixed up as well, 42 block but with 59AB heads and I think the cam gear should have been a bolt on type.
Hi Mike, I had to strip the tach drive down to machine the crank bolt, absolutely perfect condition inside like new.
Now that I can't do much more on the flathead until I get parts, I decided to sandblast and paint some parts. One of my hot rod mates gave me a call to tell me he was selling some of his stash asked if I was interested in anything, so I went and had a look. He had a set of 15" Kelsey Hayes for sale, which I purchased, due to the fact that I have a set of 15" Firestone tires at home and need to fit same size wheels and tires to get the roadster through lic over here as a left hook original car. I have ordered a set of Firestone dirt track rears and ribbed fronts so once lic I will fit them to the Kelsey Hayes and have a couple of wheel combinations I can run. This a frame I made up for when I blast my parts, just place some plywood in the frame, to catch all the garnet so I can scoop it up and re-fill the blaster. Also made this frame up to hang parts on for painting, I can roll it around where I want and it pulls apart to store flat up against a wall. Kelsey Hayes, blasted, primed and painted black.
I started work on the dash next, I did not want to weld up the original dash so I opted for a Brookville. Dash marked out for gauges ready to drill. Drilled out ready for paint.
Have painted the dash cream the original dash Royal blue was just to dark for my liking. Have all Stewart Warner gauges running 2 5/8" with 5" speedo and tach. Have a few options as to which speedo and tach to run have not made my mind up yet any thoughts, which one would you go for ??? #1 #2 #3 #4
Cully, You are the man....Boy this is looking good. The new mag is sick. I really like it, don't think I have ever seen one before. Keep it going mate.
Great work. Cool idea with the blasting frame, beats tarps. Is there any difference between dash 2 and 4? Anyway I prefer all black otherwise it looks funny, like one failed and you couldn't find the right replacement. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The Jalopy Journal
