Got bad call yesterday from the machine shop about a 8BA I was thinking about rebuilding. Went and picked it up today. It had a few of the normal cracks, bolt hole to water jacket but also had two big ones. Pan rail cracked the another from an intake port into the cylinder.
Sorry for your loss. It's rare to find a flathead without cracks. When we're rebuilding a Studebaker Champion, we figure on going through three blocks to find one good one. The parts chasing, shredding, cleaning, magging costs have to be factored into the cost of rebuilding a flathead. jack vines
I'm no engine expert by far , but it occurs to me that there might be 75 out of a 100 running flatheads with the same kind of cracks or worse. Heck, not just flatheads; I bet 75 percent of the pushrod iron block Detroit stuff has the same kind of damage yet continues to function normally. If nothing else; you've got an opportunity to try some repairs that won't cost you anything but time and a little money. That pan rail crack, I'd drill in from the side of the block a little above the rail and thread the holes for set screws long enough to reach both sides of the crack, screw them in and peen the heads slightly. I have a couple of ideas for the valve seat to cylinder but not certain of how to manage the mechanicals of it. Maybe... just floating one out there; drill a hole between the valve seat and cylinder just deep enough to weld in a plug of nickel rod... file it flat? Keep a used piston in the cylinder and a used valve in the seats... braze it , even.... just a couple of ideas before chucking the block in the scrap pile. Whaddafug do I know?
That sucks. After draining, there is still water in the pan rails. I've seen quite a few flatheads with freeze cracks at the pan rails. The block needs to be turned over to get all the water out. Unfortunately, many are drained and stored upright, only to have the remaining water freeze and crack the rail/s
Years back @Mart showed pics of welding up a pan rail crack on a FH when I was on the FordBarn. I don’t know how the final product worked, but maybe he’ll chime in and let us know.
The MS said the pan rail could probably be fixed fairly easy. But the crack between the intake port and cylinder would be tougher though. He said it looks like it had been running that way for a while. When I bought the motor, it was still in the truck with carb and air cleaner still on but had been setting for a while. Guess that explains way that cylinder was rusty when I pulled the heads.
No idea if it works .... I watched this video awhile back And wondered. He has since built the engine but not ran it yet .... wonder how it turns out? The crack between the cylinder & valve could be a bigger issue .... Can you sleeve it or that wont work? Looks like a lot of work already done to the block .... sad it is junk. Might make a good runner though?
The cracked cylinder (s) can be sleeved, and the rest of that crack can be pinned. I have left instructions on pinning with brass screws in previous posts. You will need to replace the valve seat if it has one now. Machined to accept the replacement seats available. They are a little larger diameter than the original and must be cut out to shrink fit the replacement. If it's an intake valve, it likely has no replaceable seat unless it's been rebuilt and fitted with one. You can clamp the pan rail together with stainless bolts and nuts run through the water jacket and seriously sealed with goo of your choice. Keep the bolt heads inside the crankcase and down near the rail. Before you do anything with the pan rail, check the inside carefully to see that it doesn't trail up to the center main bearing web. If it does, the block is likely warped and it's not worth trying to fix. The pan rail crack doesn't look all that bad, but(??????) I can't stress this enough: DON'T RUN THESE ENGINES WITHOUT ANTIFREEZE and NEVER put cool water in an overheated flathead. Let the thing cool off first.
We've used these stitching pins (loc & stitch) so far successfully, granted there are less of these about than a good flatty, might be worth a look. It just depends on the cost/availability of a good block compared to the cost/time of stitching.
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