"ran when it was pulled" flat head Qs

[BKBridges]

Looking for some sage advice. Ive got a Flat head ford V8 that has been sitting for a long while (indoors), but was supposedly rebuilt sometime before it was side lined. Its complete with starter, carb, dist and generator. I dont have a radiator or an engine test stand for it. Im not even sure if its a 6 volt or 12 volt (does it matter?). Id like to see if it really does run. Im hoping I dont need to disassemble it. The oil looks good. I will change it though. Any one with experience starting these things up "in place" after a long rest? I had to take it off my trailer and stick it under the car port, so I need to do something with it soon...

[squirrel]

flattys are 6v but you can run it on 12v. support it well, make sure it has oil, run a rubber hose from a gas can to the fuel pump. Connect battery and coil and fire it up. You can run it for a few minutes without water in it, enough to see if it's a good engine or not. hint: if blue smoke keeps coming out of it it's not a good engine.

[Scott Liggett]

Take the heads off. Flatties are known for rattling until there are holes in the pistons. Also, the blocks are almost always cracked between the cylinder and the valves.

[BKBridges]

Take the heads off. Flatties are known for rattling until there are holes in the pistons. Also, the blocks are almost always cracked between the cylinder and the valves.

Sounds like good advice. I found 6 of these things, 3 with cracks between intake and cylinder bore in at least one cylinder, the Merc with a big picture window in the side of no1 cylinder, and this one. The guy I got em from didnt pull this one apart like the others and stored it in his garage (as opposed to the desert sand like the others) He was going to put the Merc crank in it. I was hoping to fire it up and then get rid of it . A friend wants it, but not if its a boat anchor. I dont want to invest anything into this though...(like a head gasket set)
Bruce

[Caveman Tony]

Compression TEST!!

And the rings have quite possibly rusted to the cylinders....

Check to see if its not frozen by yanking the plugs and squirting some penetrating oil down into the cylinders, let it sit & soak in, then spin it over with a breaker bar.

If its not frozen, step up to spinning it with the starter (with oil in it!) and see if there's oil pressure.

If either fails, your buddy will have to do some work to it whether or not its a boat anchor. And even if it passes all of those tests, it could still have a block crack by a valve, etc...

[Stich496]

pull the plugs ,put some m.m.oil in the cyl.. turn it over a few time by hand,,, and then fire it..

[SpiderGearsMan]

marval , kerosene , acetone , diesel fuel


dude just rebuild it ....or donate it to the museum of farmer engines lol

[BKBridges]

marval , kerosene , acetone , diesel fuel


dude just rebuild it ....or donate it to the museum of farmer engines lol

Ive thought of that... But I make EFI systems for these 8x lawnmower motors.. We need a demo unit. Dont ask Why I make em please, Im still trying to figure that out...
Bruce

[68 Valiant]

Take the heads off. Flatties are known for rattling until there are holes in the pistons. Also, the blocks are almost always cracked between the cylinder and the valves.

Agreed, also the merc cranks are 4" stroke so you might wanna keep that piece.

Lets hear some more about your EFI set-ups!

[BKBridges]

Agreed, also the merc cranks are 4" stroke so you might wanna keep that piece.

Lets hear some more about your EFI set-ups!

The Merc crank looked good and measured standard! Cool. Im going to try and determine the condition of the complete motor tommorrow. MM oil and a compression test to start with at least...
EFIing a flat head is sort of anachronistic and with the great port designs of the FH its a bit of a challenge to get it running right. We ended up with IAC on each throttle body (2) or on the ends (3) and had a lot of rain out in the block/manifold at low rpm giving it a bad idle and a fat off-the-line. We added some additional atomization features to the risers below the injectors and it solved the problem. The TBs are 52mm mono blades. 2= a whopping 720 CFM (kinda big). Its not MPI though as I was looking for bolt on solution to Strombergs, so its more a "below the plate" TBI with dual injectors for each riser. I need to try some more ideas out, hence my flat head Qs,. Dennis O at Painless drives the first "prototype" 2 pot system we made for the Truckster (Power tour 2010 and from then on) and doesnt want us fooling with it (read screwing it up).
Bruce

[Bob Holmes]

Man you build some good looking stuff.

[BKBridges]

Man you build some good looking stuff.

Bob,
Thank You!
I want to build more... Too many ideas, not enough machine time (or $$)
I think we are going to get back into the valve cover biz (leaves the flat heads out though...)
We used to mfg. a set I designed for the Magnum Mopar V8s (pic attached) but they were kinda costly. Sometimes youve got to pare back a bit.

[BKBridges]

ran when it was pulled 2

Alright,
Following advice, I pulled the sparkplugs and tried to turn it over. This is when you find out how sharp the timing indicator is...It turned over by hand with very little torque after I de-pinched my hand. Squirted some ATF in each hole and went back to work. came back out and jumped the starter 1 to see if the starter worked, 2 to turn over the motor.
The starter spun nicely! The motor spun smoothly and silently. The compression gage was applied to each cylinder with the carb WOT. 6 of the cylinders read 90psi. 2 of them varied between 30 and 80 psi. Im thinking stuck valves. With the uncertain compression test results Ive decided to pull the heads and check things out...
Bruce

[Brian Lohnes]

Is that flathead lying on a Jensen Interceptor?

[BKBridges]

Is that flathead lying on a Jensen Interceptor?

The Rostyle wheels on the early Interceptors make a great torque management system for Flat head V8s...
I have layered project syndrome...dig one out so you can start on the next
Bruce