Technical Cured My Flathead’s Occasional Overheating (The Hard Way)!. Updated 1-17

aussie57wag said: ↑
“Why did you let it get so hot. That was really stupid. You killed a really good engine. Just poor maintenance on your part. Your generic, cheap and easy sbc won't last long either if that how you treat engines.
A well built and maintained flathead will be every bit as dependable as a sbc.”

@aussie57wag

Oh, golly gee.
See, there IS a reason that you’re on my IGNORE list.
The American author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) once said “Better that men just perceive that you’re a fool, rather than open your mouth and remove all doubt”.
I won’t honor you with any further response than that.
I refuse to suffer fools like you. Forever.
Over and out.

 

Well, that was a really ignorant thing to say. WTF?

BTW, I'm enjoying your build hotrodA

 

There is never a need to overheat an engine so much its stuffed. One can always stop and let it cool down. Get it towed and fix the cause. Is it just an American thing to keep driving when an engine is over heating.

 

Swapping a flatty for a SBC is traditional

even if the flatty is in perfect condition

 

Interesting. How do they do as far as absorbing or isolating vibrations? Maybe a trip to Academy is in order.

 

I have a pair of pucks made "north of the border, eh?" in my roadster,

been there for years. I don't feel any extra vibration or anything. Get good ones as the cheap ones seem to erode. Drill a hole in the middle and "slap shot" them into place. Heck, get a 3rd one for the transmission mount and you would have a hat trick. Here is mine atop the overbuilt, SS, bolt on motor mount.
I hear it is traditional.

 

I've used them with great results.

 

Thanks, both of ya. Need a trip to the city and a sports store, eh?

 

No turning back now. Carter M2468 pump it is.

Close quarters for the die grinder/cutoff wheel required cutting it out in a couple of pieces.

 

I would need to that for a mechanical pump in my Merc.
Think I’ll go electric
buy 2. Keep one in the trunk

 

Probably still need to do that with the mechanical one. JUST IN CASE
Been there with the flathead. Had a backup. On the road in half an hour.

 

Well, in the usual course of events on this adventure, something else has turned to s**t.

After ALL the research, searching and measuring I did on it, the VA alternator bracket (below) won’t work.
It’s designed to be used on no-hole heads, and mount on the left side exhaust manifold, (same as Alan Grove).
Couldn’t use the stock ram’s horn mount since I’m using the C-10 right side, turned around to clear steering.
The alternator hits the raised section of the inner fender panel.! Or the rocker cover! BUGGER!!


Since I plan to add A/C sometime in the future, I had this used combo mount stashed and mocked it up (below).
Thinking that I would run ONLY the ALT for now.

Can anybody ID it? Vintage Air?

The ALT hits the filler tube, but I can slice and curve it, but I need to use it to run my early, no breather VC’s and early C4B.

Will running just the ALT give me enough WP belt wrap? Obviously running ALT and AC with two belts would give enough, just not now.

Or should I just get the smog pump bracket and use that for the time being? Position wise, it doesn’t look like it would add any wrap to the pulley.

What say you? THANKS!


.

 

Back to the fuel pump relief.
Getting close. Bevel the edges and she’s ready to weld in.

 

That'll look slick as a greased speedo!

 

Thanks! But I do not want to see you in a speedo

 

Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn!

Or, even an old man can find a solution to a problem, in this case an alternator mount, using what you have.

I wanted to use the old combo ALT/AC mount I had saved, since the new Vintage Air ALT mount would not work! See above. $$ wasted!!
But the combo piece let the ALT hit the rocker cover and oil fill tube!

I had an epiphany last night and thought why not just turn it around? DUH!

Did just that. Flipped the flat bracket over, put the ALT mount on the back side, removed the AC mount for later and threw on an adjuster arm I had left over from the 283.

VOILA!!
Now it clears the rocker cover and the oil filler tube!
May need a liitle fiddlin’ with. Or not.
It’ll do until I change out to the C4B.
It’s hillbilly Engineering, and probably looks it, but hopefully it’ll work.

 

When the patch is welded in an ground and painted it will look "factory". Nice.

 

Thanks, Seb!

 

Not to many roads in the valley head at the Bridgers - airport/valley center/ dry creek. Thanks for the pictures of home. Enjoy!

 

We’ve been two years in a row, and drove both times.
Montana is stunning, just too expensive to move. I dream and search for property all the time
Hope to go again this year.

 

Love this thread. Sorry to hear of all your troubles. Fingers crossed that you get it running by this August.
Ric

 

Well, that's just rude! I will have you know that I was a runner up for Mr. and/or Ms. December in the latest Don't ask Don't tell calendar.

 

^^^^^HAAHAHA! That is surely a collector’s item!

 

I heard there was only one contestant, and you still made runner-up.

 

Since this thing has worn me to a nub, I decided to take a break, took a week off and went down to Muscle Shoals, AL to a remembrance wake for one of the first, and best, of early rock and roll drummers, J M VanEaton, my brother-in-law through marriage.

He started out at Sun Studios in Memphis at age 16, when one of his driving buddies would pick him up after school and go down to Sun. He had started on trumpet when he was five, but gravitated to the drums and taught himself.

He became the house drummer for Sun and played for just about every record cut there except for Elvis’.
He became the drummer for ALL of Jerry Lee Lewis’s records and toured with him. He said that a lot of those gigs were honky tonks where somebody was going to get cut before the night was over!
He backed up Billy Lee Riley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and at least a dozen more.

He told me that he took his first big check and bought a new 57 Chevy!
A great guy in general, bond and securities broker in private life and Sun Studios’ early rock and roll royalty.

Inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

What does this have to do with old cars?
Well, every time you rock with music of the 50’s blasting from the speaker you’re probably keeping time with J.M.’s beat.
And Sun was right next door to Walker Radiator, FWIW.

Rock on, Sir! You were one Cool Cat.
We will miss you.

 

Trying to recover from the trip, but did get some more cleaning and picking up done.

The fuel pump relief was finished and painted good enough for this heap before I left, so the aggravating but indexed pump and carb line got mounted for good, hopefully.


With the relief and the M2468 pump’s side inlet and outlet, there’s plenty of clearance now.

 

Procrastinating on pulling the trans to find clutch problem, so I thought that I would try something easy, like cleaning up the rams horn exhaust for the right side. I’m using a new C10 pickup right side, reversed for the left side, to clear the 525 box. Just needed one with straight dump, and I had a nice, no pitted one that I had stashed just for this day.
It went pretty fast on the belt sander, but when I put it in the vise for some detail work I found this!
CRAP!!! SCRAP! Hey that rhymes! My new mantra.
Yeah, it could be welded, but I said screw it. Just not up to it at this point.


I went through the rest of my stash of rams horns and they were either left side with the Gen bracket or right side with the wrong outlet bend or too ratty and pitted to clean up. More scrap! NO straight dumps.

Then the lights came on and I had another epiphany like the alternator bracket one.
Cut the gen bracket off, grind it pretty (?) and call it good.

I took the better of the bunch and after about ten minutes on the band saw and another five on the belt sander, the problem was solved. Since it’s at the rear on the passenger side, it will never be seen! Some more hillbilly engineering! Just needed a little more love and a bolt in the hole and cut off. Bolted it on the engine and sure enough, it disappeared.
Just wait ‘til it’s covered in high temp!

“Uh yeah, that there’s one of them Duntov Shiverlay racin’ prototypes from ‘58. Very rare! Ever seen one before?”

 

Back to the alternator bracket.
When you add AC you will want the compressor and hoses on the right side running to the under dash unit.
Modify the oil fill tube as needed to get the alternator above the left valve cover.
Just my 2 cents.
https://www.alangrovecomponents.com/Small_Block_Short_Pump.htm

 

Thanks. Yes, that’s the plan. I’ll flip it back to the original configuration when the AC goes in.
This is temporary to run the 2 bbl and that intake and speed up the swap. It will get a C4B.

 

Been inactive for awhile except for some fiddling with small things on the engine.

Ran some gauge wires, along with under dash mechanical gauges to back up the Classic Instruments panel.
Covered the wiring for the front with some vintage look woven loom.

The BIG deal is that I got the BYB lift cylinder out, dropped off at the hydraulic shop 50 miles away,
and got it back with a fresh rebuild! Thanks to my neighbor, Bob, for help with the heavy lifting!
Took it for a test today and it’s working like a new one. Up, down and lock in any position.

Now to move on to the clutch problem, and the other PITA issues with this swap.
At least I can get to things easier than with the thing stuck three feet in the air.
Stay ‘tooned!!