That's what took out my AA... I'll pull some caps later and see what's up. It looks like what was keeping this engine from turning over was a greasy amalgamation of starter chunks collected in the flywheel housing which we had to chip out with a screwdriver once we split the transmission off. I wonder if that's actually what parked this car however long ago.
Anyway, back on topic... It's extremely tempting to bolt this right on tomorrow but I think I want to play my cards carefully here and do things right. This will probably be a substantial compression bump. I don't want to snap my crank, so I'm going to take one of these extra flywheels over to the machine shop and have them take as much out of it as possible. It looks like 32-35 pounds is a good goal. I might also have them drill it for a V8 clutch, but I'm finding the Model A clutch quite drivable so maybe I won't bother. Monitoring temperature is going to be very important so I really need to get my **** in gear on adding the temp gauge to the dash. I'll need to find one with a probe that will fit in the water neck George gave me. I think I should address the valve float problem. I'll get a set of adjustable tappets and some new valve springs. SOSS offers a valve spring spacer which brings a stock valve spring from 35lbs to 52lbs. That should eliminate the float and give me more top end. I'll probably put an aluminum timing gear on it while I'm at it, just in case the 100 year old fiber gear doesn't like revving faster. Since I'll have to take the timing cover off to do that, I'm thinking about putting a B cover back on and trying this B distributor again. It was giving me fits 3 years ago, but I know a lot more now - I have rebuilt it and am now confident it should work. Anode. Anode. Anode. Also, probably time to stop running tap water in the cooling system. This engine supposedly has a "touring" cam but I haven't measured anything so who knows (or cares?). Might throw a hotter cam at it if the budget permits.
I could, or, since I'll have to pull the cam to install the adjustable tappets, I could just measure the lobes while it's out. But I'm intending to gather everything up to do the job and do it all at once so I can minimize downtime. So really by that time it would be too late to decide if I wanted to throw a cam in it or not.
I see the term thrown around a lot but specs vary. It seems that the general idea is close to B cam specs, but everyone that makes them has their own special sauce in the profile. Snyder's is a Stipe "improved" B grind. What the improvement is, I couldn't tell you. I'll try to remember to measure mine and see what it comes out to. There is a semi local shop in Denton that does a "super touring" grind which they recommend for high compression heads. No specs posted but supposedly a kick in the pants. I have a few cams sitting around I was thinking about making a spreader bar with but I settled on using a brake cross shaft. Maybe I will have them work one over. Cleaned the head up. Saul wanted to polish it, so I have turned it over to him.
This isn't the name brand pro shop stuff, but at 40 bucks, it might be something you would use on a few things. https://regismanufacturing.com/kwik...minum-other-metals-kck-ups-fedex-ground-only/
Thanks, there's a local fella with a cam grinder who is interested in doing some A cam's, but there doesn't seem to be many hot banger cams floating around, so just trying to get some references is helpful. I have one that was reground a long time ago, was told it was hot, but it seems like it might not be much different than a B
The wonderful world of banger speed equipment, where the specs don't exist, the numbers don't mean anything anyway and nobody actually knows anything lol. Seems more like alchemy than science...
Dropped one of my nicer flywheels off with the machinist for a weight loss plan. Looking for a cam grinder... Going to delete the mechanical starter ****on and make it an electric push ****on start because I keep hitting the starter ****on when I have to get on the brakes hard. Also found a 50s Delco Remy horn in an antique store that works pretty good, so I'll get a horn going while I'm messing with the wiring.
There is a fella in or around Oklahoma City OK that grinds cams for Flathead and other old stuff. Really cool old Quanset Hut. Was there a few years ago. Wish I could recall the name and phone number. If interested I can call my cousin as he is a friend of his. Dave.
These guys still have flathead cams listed, but no specs. https://www.schneidercams.com/flatheadfordmerclincoln.aspx
Me and Saul knocked a few things out on the car today. Made a spreader bar out of a brake cross shaft and painted the insides of the air horns. We also did some electrical work. Item one was to add an electric solenoid for the starter. This removes the ****on from the firewall, which was easy to hit while braking. Item two was wiring up an old delco remy horn I found. For some reason the starter solenoid keeps trying to stick on, as if the contacts are welding closed, and I'm afraid it may have damaged the starter. Need to pull it off and check it out.
Yeah... basically I trusted a parts store monkey and I shouldn't have. Told him I needed a steal me solenoid. He knew what I was asking for. Said I wanted a good one because it would be in the weather. He said oh, I've got this mercury marine one that's waterproof. I said perfect (I'm thinking inboard engines). Box didn't have any specs on it, I figured he wouldn't have sold it to me if it couldn't handle a starter. I looked it up earlier after running into the problem. It can only handle 7 amps continuously and 30 amps momentarily. Blah
Replaced the Mercruiser solenoid with a Ford one yesterday and everything's golden. Basically I just flipped the Model A starter ****on around 180 degrees which caused the screw post to be constantly in contact with the lug on the starter and ran a short cable from it over to the solenoid. Slight diversion- I'm sure I'm not the only one who is constantly gathering parts for future projects. I just got a Desoto 291 hemi. I don't think I want to put it in this car or in Sid's coupe, but it runs pretty good so I'll keep it in the back of the shop until the right body comes along.
Need to figure out the throttle linkage. It's too flexible. I wanted to do a bunch of other stuff to it before putting the Thomas head on, but I learned it is not as high compression as I thought, so I'm not super worried about it. As an original head it is only about 7.5:1 unlike the later runs. I will still be incrementally upgrading the rest of the engine, of course... and this frees up the old head for my friend who needed a good one. It is super well behaved. Runs ****er smooth & ice cold. Soon I am taking the turtle deck to work so we can start trying to finish it up.
High compression head on an A engine is the single best thing one can do to them in my opinion! Makes EVERYTHING about them better. Dave
The torque bump is incredibly noticeable. It pulls hard in third and does not bog at all. What really surprised me was how quiet it got & how much smoother it runs... like, balance a nickel on the head smooth...
Good luck with that. You need this roll of bronze mig wire? It's just sitting here. Grab it if you make it on Sunday. Drive the T if you aren't ***********!
I still don't have a MIG machine so that wire won't do me much good haha. I think we are going to use some forbidden techniques to get this thing done. I'll be there, but in the T?- probably not!
The Jalopy Journal
