I have offered to helping a friend get a 46 ford pickup flathead v8 engine started: He parked the truck that was running 20+ years ago and pickled the motor. Is my thinking ok that the timing is probably good? However I would like to check both sets of points; (.014) The radiator is in the truck. How hard will it be to set the points, can they be seen with the round cap off. I have heard that it may be easier to pull the distributor. I really don;t want to do that if at all possible. Any recommendations? Also what oil weight should ths engine be using. Its a stock 46 ford flat head 100 hp 239ci engine. Thanks. 52pu
You should have a crab dizzy. Two bolts and it's off. Only goes back on one way, so no worries. I use 30w but 10w-30-40 is fine. Some will argue every which way to sunday about this. Do a search if you don't believe me :]. Napa replacement condensor is IH-200. You running 6 volt? All specs and manual timing procedure is on this link for the crab dizzy. http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_engines_distr-timing.htm Good luck and post how it goes.
Pullit...30 second job, note drive is offset so it only goes one way. All you need to keep timing as it is is rotate it till that tab drops into slot. I just pop cap and leave it dangling (assuming here everything looks decent), pull rotor, remove all 2 of the bolts and slide it right out. Going back, I slide it behind the dangling cap, work the rotor back on (requires a bit of dexterity) and use rotor to turn distributor til slot inserts. This allows you to fully service everything in the comfort of home and reinstall ready to go. Point springs probably broken...they tend to fail when left alone for a looong time. Replace, regap. Proper timing is close to center of scale...here is a version of field expedient timing method first published in the '46 service book: http://vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_engines_distr-timing.htm
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