The Flathead Rebuild: Part 2

Our first day here on the ranch was spent pulling the motor out of my ’39 sedan and tearing it down for inspection. Today was all about the aftermath. Unfortunately, we found quite a bit of damage in the little motor. One of the aforementioned “lash caps” came loose from a lifter and worked its way through the engine. As a result, we found ourselves staring at a mauled crank, toasty bearings, and other oddities.

Undeterred, Keith made up an action plan and we all got to work. The block went to the machine shop along with a new 4″ Scat crank and the rest of the rotating assembly. I would have preferred to use the crank that was in the motor and it is plenty salvageable, but the local machine shop doesn’t have a crank grinding tool and we are on a timeline. Graciously, Keith donated his Scat to the project and we were able to order a set of bearings to match.

With that figured, we turned our attention to the details by prepping the remaining parts for the rebuild. Fellow TJJ blogger and good pal, Jay Ward, had the day off and swung up north from Oakland to give us a hand. He joined Keith, Silva, Joyo, and myself as we went about doing the dirty work – degreasing, gasket scraping, and shit like that. Typically, this isn’t the fun part… But who can complain? Working on the ranch with your best pals on a Tuesday afternoon? Not me. We laughed more than we probably should have.

Even so, the job is done and we are ready to get the block and the rotating assembly back from the machine shop. With any luck, we will have it all back tomorrow and assembly can begin in short order. Of course, I’ll cover as much of it as I can here on The Jalopy Journal.

We were too busy busting our asses with wire brushes to do too much journalistic work with the cameras, but here’s a short selection of shots from today. Some were taken by Joyo and some by me… This place is glorious.