After blasting most of the crust from my most recent flathead aquisition I pulled the #1 plug to get TDC and stab a proven distributor. The plan was for this motor to go in my car while I rebuild the Mercury. No luck - putting my thumb over the hole I couldn't feel ANY compression as I turned the motor over. I****umed stuck valve and pulled the intake to check it out. Well a valve WAS partially stuck on #1 but I discovered a collapsed lifter on #2 as well. Can't spend any money on this, so what do you think my odds are of just dropping in a lifter - and possibly complete valve****embly - scavenged from another motor and having it work correctly? Not too concerned with wiping out the cam, it's stock after all. But I would like this to work through the winter while I work on other stuff.
If it were me givin your situation, I'd do it. You already said you don't want to out any more $ into it so your only option is to use what you have. Only 2 thing can happen, it works or it don't work. I think it'll work fine. Just lap the valves in if you change them. Go for it. Billy
I have done it on SBC's......and BBC's..... Back when I was even poorer than I am now...... I changed a few wiped cams and bad lifters.........and put used stuff back in.....307's were real bad to wipe the cam..... The customers had little to NO money and I did what I could. Always worked for me.....but I did work the face of the lifter with a real fine emory cloth..... .
Just make sure you keep the lifters in order...they develop a wear pattern. Everybody talks about breaking in a cam...what you're actually doing is breaking in the lifters. Lifters rotate while they go up and down...this provides for proper lubrication. When you get new ones, they haven't developed a wear pattern, so you need to keep the rpm's up into the 2,000 range for the 20 minutes so they get enough oil while they are breaking in. If you keep them in order, you should be golden.
I'd probably go with the whole****embly but also sure just the lifter would suit your needs..........and probably more. Just make sure to check and adjust the valve clearance.........if not enough grind the valve stem, if too much weld the end of the stem and refit for the proper clearance. Obviously this is not a proper fix but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get by.........like back then Good luck,
sorry to Jack a lil, but i'd like some clarity on welding the stems, and if you need to go this route you might also,,, anyhow i have heard of doing that to clearance a valve by welding the stem,,, what welding technique do you recommend, and does the new welded end work harden pretty fast afterwards? MIG do OK for this application? Thanks
Gas weld, stick weld, mig weld, tig weld.......what ya got and what you can control the best.........just a little dab will do ya
A flathead isn't very hard on a cam, especially a stock cam. Gun it in there and it'll be fine. I actually ground my own cam for my minibike, its been worked hard and really hasn't worn at all. It might seem different, but really a ford flathead is about the equivalent of eight-ten horse lawnmower engines stuck together. Dave
I'll try putting this together tonight. I can't pull the complete****embly from the other motor - it has the same problem.
I'll second this, Grim. Spring pressures are much less compared to OHV & for what you're trying to do, the shortened life should hardly be noticeable. Go for it.
One thing I have noticed is the valve****emblies look slightly different between the two motors. Both are 8BA. The one I'm working on has a big sort of inverted cone shaped retainer with the valve stem poking out of the bottom. (and shorter spring) The one I'm robbing parts from has a longer spring and short retainer. (Valve stem still pokes out of the bottom a bit) None of this should matter anyway since I'm hoping I can just pop the retainer off, slide the valve up to get the spring out, yank the trashed lifter and drop in a new one. As long as the valve itself isn't damaged I'll be reusing it. Main thing I'm crossing my fingers for now is no cam damage.
Not the best way to go but it will probably work. I'd do figure 8s on some fine sand paper with the bottom of the lifter. Pete
Grimlok- In one of David Vizard's SBC books, he recommends the following procedure for reclaiming used lifters. Put a sheet of fine grit paper on top of a flat surface, like a piece of glass, and rub the lifter across it in a figure 8 pattern. The motion of the 8 will cause the lifters to wear more heavily on the edges, giving the lifters that slightly crowned shape that they have when new. If you'd like to try this procedure, I can dig thru my books after work and find out the exact recommended grit of paper. Ed
My dad has told me that for years! I love that quote & it really is true. Stick another one in & go for it! They aren't a fussy motor. Worse thing that can happen is that it pukes that lobe of the cam.
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