Technical Never saw this before! Flathead

Pulled down an 8ba to see if any usable parts: even has a stamp on the ground away part...

 

Friday crankshaft ?
Never seen one like that before .

I noticed it has lock washers on the front main bolts as well.

Tommy

 

I can't come up with a good reason to hack that much away from the main except if it had been badly damaged previously, but dang that would be some major hurtin' there..

 

Boy would that be out of balance!

 

Looks to me like it was done on purpose before assembly (no marks on the connecting rod). All four lock washers are in place as well.

 

Is that the only part that's ground away?

 

Looks like the flat there has a stamp on it. The artist signed their work

 

I would like to know the story behind that. I've heard about people doing all kinds of oddball stuff to engines.

 

I've seen some of that before;Likely it was balanced that way after off set stroke added to crank an maybe some bigger pistons. Just a guess,with out knowing any history.

 

Let us know what you find out when you tear it apart more.

 

remember that almost anything that can be done, probably has been done to a flathead....................

 

Weird.
I have seen a crank that was ground like a propeller blade. But that was on every throw & weight.

 

There is a quite a bit of complex math involved in balancing an engine as I recall from one of our engineering classes. I also would like to know more about the why of such a dramatic change to the crank and how it was balanced.

 

The other thing is it's really shiny, like done not long ago.

 

Did it have a flywheel.....and/or a stock front cover ?

 

Maybe polish out all the grinding marks

 

That is baffling. Clearly not done by damage, someone did that on purpose, I really want to know what's up with that, and did it work.

It's hard to get a perspective on this picture, but that is not the counterweight side it's hacked up on, right? Is there matching grinder work done elsewhere, or just in that spot?

 

I’m not a flathead guy but I do spend time on Ford Barn and that’s where I saw the above photo some time ago. The arrow indicates what looks like a flaw, but that is only where the Ford foundry broke off a casting sprue. This was done at least on the 8BA and maybe earlier flathead cranks too.
Maybe somebody worked on that engine and thought the “blem” on the crank needed to be smoothed out.

 

Was it done to clear a piston skirt or something?

 

The possibility that someone was smoothing out a casting sounds plausible. Maybe they had been taught that any rough area was likely to concentrate stresses and become a failure point. And their only tool was a honking big grinding wheel...

 

This is weird. I just read an article the other day that mentioned cutdowns done by Ansen and C/T Automotive to lighten their cranks.

Think maybe something like that is goin' on with your crank, only not as carefully or artfully executed?



Here is a really crappy pic showing what I believe is one of Ansen's men just a grindin' away.

 

.....wait until you see the custom cam grind

 

I was thinking balancing or lightening. Lots of sketchy looking stuff has been done over the years as a tribute (sacrifice?) to the gods of speed.

I have pulled more then one motor down over the years that had some pretty sketchy looking chit done to them.

 

"There! I balanced it."

 

That's the only spot that was touched and it's not on the counterweight or throw where one would expect for balancing purposes. The rest of the engine is bone stock/ rebuilt 60 over 8ba. It's a froze up freebie so I was just pulling salvageable parts off, ie adjustable lifters, water pumps, etc...

 

what does the opposite throw look like? (the one at the back)

 

Could there have been a bubble or crack or other imperfection in the casting that they ground it away to "save the crank"?

 

Maybe it was for a low R.P.M. application like a pump or ?? so that it being off balance would not have been a huge risk?

 

Fordor's picture sheds an interesting light on this. Is it possible this was done at the factory, like when they knocked the casting off it had a big ugly knob still attached to it, so they cut it off?