8RT pulling the heads

[JSeery]

The adventure continues.

[Art Newland]

Life and old engines are like a box of chocolates...

I'll be looking for lots of advice!

[Ross F-1]

I'm surprised you got it out over the fenders, with the front end up on blocks. With my cherry picker I am barely able to clear the front end with the wheels on the ground. An A-frame would sure be nice.

[Art Newland]

Originally Posted by Ross F-1

I'm surprised you got it out over the fenders, with the front end up on blocks. With my cherry picker I am barely able to clear the front end with the wheels on the ground. An A-frame would sure be nice.

That wasn't a problem, even though I had a forward mounting point on the lift chain (tail of motor drooping) it cleared the front sheet-metal no problem. The problem was the "reach". The engine is a long way back in there! No way I could get a balanced, center pull on the engine. Wasn't really a problem however because I knew I'd have to pull it forward to clear the transmission anyway. It will not be able to go back in that way though, I'll have to figure out something different.

[estout81]

Pull the front clip. That's what I did. Don't even have to remove the hood.

[Art Newland]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

I seriously thought about removing the front clip, but I don't have the space indoors to store it.

[Ross F-1]

I used this rig to lift off the intake surface. With a short chain/hook, the engine is near level, and enough lift to clear the front end by 6". VERY nervous having that much weight up that high!

[Art Newland]

I have a couple buddies with bigger hoists than mine, I'll check them out when the time comes. I've used a chain hoist lots in the past, could do that too, chained up into the rafters.

[Ol' Ron]

Once you get this sorted out, replace the heads with EAB heads milled for .050' clearance. This will increase the CR by a point and give better fuel mileage as well.

[Art Newland]

I'll keep and eye out for the heads. Not a lot of Flathead stuff for sale that pops up around here however. Brought home a harbor freight engine stand yesterday and will soon get the engine mounted and start taking it apart. There is a large number stamped in the front under the intake area, any significance?

[tubman]

Probably only to the rebuilder who put it there.

[Art Newland]

Spent a little time getting the engine ready to mount on the stand. The clutch disk and pressure plate look very new. The clutch worked pretty good, so will probably put it back in. One of the pressure plate bolts was missing, turned out that it's broken off in the flywheel. Interesting annotations written on the clutch parts.

[rotorwrench]

The pickups usually use the 10-inch Long type with the 1/3/8" 10-spline disk. That one may be a modified 9.5 Ford Long type that was used in the Ford cars with 1" 10-spline input. Make sure the disk with fit the input on the transmission and the cover fingers fit the throw out bearing. Some folks go this route but it's not common. The clutch builder has to be pretty sharp to get the right parts together.

[Art Newland]

I had read that the car and pickup had different diameter transmission input shafts. The transmission came out of a 35 sedan after a T-5 conversion, but the fellow told me it came out 49 pickup. I did try the disk on the three speed and it fits AOK.

I have the engine on the stand now, RHS exhaust manifold and water-pumps are removed. Haven't broken of any bolts so far.

Next up will be the oil pan.

[Art Newland]

So far the only bad things I've found are;
Pulley is bent, looks like someone had a puller on it, it's not too bad I think I can straighten back out.
The driver side, front, lower exhaust manifold bolt is stripped.
When I removed the divers side exhaust most rearward bolt, engine coolant came out. I hear that's not a deal breaker.

[Art Newland]

A few updates on my “farmer” refresh. First off, apologies to tubman, I mixed things up and indeed the boogered up piston was the lowest compression hole (32 PSI). About a inch of both compression rings not only missing but the large gaps were aligned. Lots of fire shooting past the piston eventually partially melting it. Lots of carbon collected ring below, luckily the lowest ring looks to have contained it some-what. The other low cylinder (70 PSI) top ring was broken in about 5 pieces and the bottom ring had some small chips in the lower face. My guess it was broken installing the piston. Since the other piston's large pieces are missing, and there isn't any sign of the broken off pieces, I think it was installed that way as well.

[Ggmac]

Art , sending pm .
Gary

[Art Newland]

Thanks Gary, but things are looking promising enough that I think I'll put a new set of pistons in.

I snap-gauged and mic-ed all the bores, worse case was .004 taper, a few showed none. I've been driving this truck for about a year, didn't have any issues with water in the oil, overheating, and etc. Next I'll remove the crank and give it a good look over. This engine made no nasty noises, no vibration, started easily. I put a dial gauge on the valves to see how how much they are opening. I consistently read .280 on the intakes and .282 on the exhaust. So depending on the clearances it's probably close to .300, I read .307 on both is new, sound usable?

[tubman]

Wow! "Takes a likkin' and keeps on tickin'". Amazing what a flathead can take and still be reliable transportation; it's what go me through grad school.

[Ol' Ron]

One thing you want to check is the Air fuel ratio. It looks like the engine was running rich, this will wash the cylinder wall of oil causing this kind of trouble, and flathead like to run rich, unfortunately, it's not good for them