A friend called me to look at a flathead he had just purchased for his '29 tudor "project". It wouldn't be a project if he had been happy with the banger. Though I have owned a flathead or two in the last few years I haven't built one in about 50 years. I can certainly dis***emble/re***emble one. Jim has been looking for a year or so and even came to look at one I have. He got this one and said it was complete but not together. Red flags! When I showed up it was like stepping back in time. When Jim pulled the cover from the engine on the stand what I saw was an ***embled short block. The first thing I noticed were the relief cuts from the cylinder walls to the valves, then the all new valves, springs, and adjustable lifters. The new pistons have .090 stamped on top. OK! I grabbed a caliper and set it to 3 1/16, way too small. I moved it out and came up with 3.2775". I looked underneath and saw that it had the old style rods and thought 3 3/4 until I measured the stroke at 3.875. I looked it over and could see no visible cracks or signs of crack repair. I was getting excited! The timing cover was on so I couldn't see if the cam gear was aluminum or fiber. I don't know what cam it has but I'm sure it is not stock. The heads are stock iron but may be new. They are in boxes and the surface is fresh and clean, no paint anywhere on anything. Distributer is flat type dirty but complete. two sets of water pumps dirty but seem in good shape. Fly wheel on and surfaced. Generator, starter, pulleys, fan seem to all be there. So here is what Jim was told. It is a Merc engine. The guy who was building it died and it went to a relative who gave it to the guy Jim bought it from. It has been sitting covered in a garage for years. Here is the question: Where do we go from here? Do we pull it back apart to check, clean, and relube everything? That sounds like a plan to me but Jim is worried about putting it back together, I'm more worried about dirt and dried up ***embly lube. I won't get back there until next week and I'll take some pictures and write down some numbers. Where can I take a measurement on a head to see how much was removed? Where can I measure the block to see if anything was removed from the decks? Anything else? I think this thing is a treasure and deserves the best of care. Thanks for any help.
head first: if it were me I would determine which head I had and find out the CCs of the combustion chamber then CC them, that would give me some idea where I was on the head. Short block: I would tear down for inspection and then re***emble, you are correct about dried ***embly lube but there are other things that could be a problem as well that you want to know about. here is an example, I have an olds that was freshened and stuck under a bench 40+ years ago. it was a ****oned up short block and the heads. The short block cam apart for inspection and low and behold I found a rats nest in one piston. Some rust on one lifter was the worse damage done and now cleaned up and the lifter replaced it is ready for re***embly. But suppose if I had just decided to run it? remember it is just an engine and can be pulled down and re***embled like any other engine. besides you get the added benefit of checking the cam and seeing what you got.
I agree on checking it out... the flathead that's in my 28 was a complete fresh motor minus carb. looked in the spark plug holes and saw shiny clean valves. we bought the complete running gear out of a project car that was getting a small block.... he knew nothing about the motor. we spent 5 minutes looking at it and knew it was fresh and clean. took it home and considered firing it on a stand... my ole man decided we should tear it down just to see what we had. low and behold a rat had gotten in the draft tube and made a nest in the oil pan. what a mess!
LOL A couple of years ago a fella on here put a new old olds motor in his race car and went racin' it ran strong but didn't finish. When they pulled it down they found rust in the bottoms of the cylinders which took out the piston skirts. it would have cost them because a gasket set for an old rocket aint cheap but they ended up buying the gaskets anyway didn't they.
Clean it up...you probably don't need to dis***emble valve gear if things look OK after a blast of spray cleaner, but be sure all valves move, seats haven't rusted, etc., and give them some oil after your exam.
Sounds like a gem! Yes, tear it down I'd leave the internals together but pull the pan and heads to at least check for piston slop etc and check out the bottom end. Good luck
Thanks for the quick responses. the heads, pan, and intake were never put on it. That is good because I can see a lot and bad because it wasn't sealed. Everything I can see new or like new. There are no nests or rust that I can see. I got a free 292 Chevy six the other day that had been tarped in a friend's yard. It had a wasp nest in one of the intakes into a cylinder. I had an Onan power plant that had about a cup of sand in one cylinder, ants?
What about new rings, they are way better these days, less friction and don't cut the cylinders like the old ones did.
Go through it now while it's half apart anyway then you'll be certain of what you have. Old Lithuanian saying...Do it right the first time.
I have a FH that was rebuilt in a auto machine shop and not picked up . A friend bought it for his 40 in the '60s and it never was fired. I bought the car and when I tore the engine down for inspection, 2 of the floating bearings were not fit properly, the cam bearings were new but scarred (probably during cam install) and 1 wrist pin bushing was not drilled ( they were all new). All the lube was dried up. Definitely clean and inspect everything. Sound like you have a nice pile of parts; they deserve to be ***embled correctly.
wow--a 3-7/8 stroker. that used to be fairly common in grampa's day. i have a couple of 3-3/4 ford cranks i'd like to do that to, but you'd need custom pistons that would be very expensive.
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