Not sure where to start this is my first build thread. Have lurked for years. I wanted to get the engine completed and then do one massive build thread but decided what the hell. I will apologize for the length now. Okay my Dad is working on a 51' ford coupe that is V-8 overdrive car and it is pretty solid missing some stuff but all in all a great car. Pretty sure the engine has been replaced sometime, the code stamped on the intake surface of the block is incomplete and the code cast on the back of the block is H 103. The valves were stuck when we got the car and took us about a week to free up. Put fresh oil in and fired it up ran okay but smoked and made a fair amount of valve noise. For the past 10 years or so my Dad has just piddled around fixing small thing and redoing the dash, brakes, trans/overdrive, 3.73? Rear end out of a Merc (4.11 Factory). Then about two years ago he pulled the engine and cleaned it and we measured the bore and checked for cracks, and he ordered a rebuild kit from Northern Auto Parts. It came with everything but cam and valve train. Here is where I come in two other guys and my self opened a restoration shop in 2012. I told my Dad if he wasn't in a hurry and paid for parts I would build his flat head in my spare time. This is what I have done and found on this project. First installment Getting the Block Machined and ready for powder. The block was still standard bore so were the rods and mains. I used a piece of filler rod to locate the oil passage and drill for full flow oiling and measured the block and ground out a flat spot for my fitting. I drilled the main oil passage post filter and plugged the oil passage from the oil pump to the rear main and #4&8 rods and plumbed a line out side the block behind the flywheel. I plugged off the fuel pump push rod hole and the drain hole for the rear cam bearing. So the rear cam bearing is pressurized now and the only thing not filtered. Next I measured Pistons. We went .030" over so bore size 3.2175". Here is the block set up on boring stand and my Storm Vulcan Bar doing it's thing. My hone set up for now it takes time and you have to check size and for taper(haven't had this problem yet) and adjust and go again. I had to sleeve cylinders #3&4 when I bored them out I hit rust pockets in the bore. I found some Ford dealer service sleeves for the flat head on ebay. I finally cut the rust out at .060" over. I will continue in my next post with more pics
Next Installment Valves and Ports Some of the valve seats were too pitted to grind out so I installed hardened seats in both intake and exhaust. I popped the factory seats out of the exhaust. I ordered Well-Tite W2871/020 seats for the exhaust and X505s from Martin Wells in California. I installed them with my Waterbury-Hall valve seat inserter. The hall inserter calls for .007" press fit. I blended the chamber part of the deck to get rid of the hard lines and then ground the seats. I painted the deck and scribed inside the head gasket and then worked up to that line being as careful as possible to do every area the same. I gasket matched the ports and cleaned them up a little as well as the manifolds. I made a template for the intake and used an exhaust gasket for the exhaust ports.
I then steam Cleaned the block and ran brushes through the oil passages again and then spent 2 weekends smoothing the out side of the block then another steam clean. Then I taped everything off and powder coated the block and glyptol on the inside of the block. Didn't have the stuff on hand or the time to powder the inside of the block also. The color didn't show well in the pics with the shop camera. I will try and get a shot with my good camera. I wanted something kinda like the factory paint but poppier. This is a tangerine but maybe a touch on the red side and metallic really looks good in person. Bored you guys enough for one night . Next time I will cover my GM distributor mod, Leaky dip stick boss fix, alternator bracket, and Harmonic balancer and pulley build. D Smith
Looks like you're doing a superb job. Everything looks great. One question : If you would have known that a .060 overbore was needed to clean it up, would you have skipped the sleeves and gone right to larger pistons? I have a std bore 8BA, and I am going right to 3 5/16" for a little extra "oomph" since the cost of pistons is about the same and there should be room for one more cleanup if it is ever needed. (A 3 5/16" Ford has more displacement than a Mercury with a 4" crank and correspondingly less piston speed.)
Tubman If I would have know we probably would have just gone to .060" over. The rust didn't show in the bore until I had made a cut. I was just glade it didn't go all the way to water. My Dad didn't want to take out any more than needed to clean it up. But you are right the pistons are all about the same price for size. D Smith
If you don't mind, could you explain how you set the sleeves? Stepped edge? What level of press fit? Any other details to help guide others in this process are helpful. Nice to see the drilled lifter bosses for adjustable lifters!
Mac VP I measure top-middle-bottom of the sleeve and rotated 90deg. and measured again. Then averaged the 6 measurements. I shot for .0025- .003 interference fit if it were an aluminum block you would shoot for .004". I left a 3/8" step at the bottom and squared it up so the sleeve would sit flat against it. The step at the bottom depends on engine-piston-position of piston in bore. Since I hadn't reached my final bore diameter when I hit the rust pockets the final bore and hone on the sleeve also cut the block. Hard to even see the line where the sleeve stops and the block begins. I wiped the bore and the outside of the sleeve with a rag that had brake fluid on it to lube it. I chamfered the outside of the sleeve and the top of the bore. I used a 1" thick ss plate I have and a heavy hammer and slowly and evenly drove it in. My two cylinders were right next to each other so I put one sleeve in and then bored and sleeved the other cylinder and the finish bored the sleeves and honed. Sleeveing can cause distortion in adjacent cylinders so if you are doing all of your cylinders you should jump around and do like every other one and then comeback and the others. D Smith
Okay next installment I had an old cast iron GM Distributor from a 63' Impala with a 283 according to the tag. It was worn out so I cut it up for the flathead. I found some how-to and followed them but used my measurements as my front cover didn't match. I put it in the lathe with a live center and turned the outside down and stepped it, And cut the end off. I turned the clamping pad down to the same diameter as the boss on the front cover. I cut the dist. shaft down to length and turned the end down so the 8ba gear was a palm press fit and drilled it for a pin, I left it long and turned the end of the shaft down to fit in the lower support of the front cover. Length below original clamp flange 4.675" Length of first step 1.4" Diameter 1.060" Second step 2" long Diameter 1" o-ring groove in this step 2.6" from center of groove to end of Distributor Last step 1.275" long and .9" in Diameter. My dad took everything apart and did the first clean on it with a home made hot tank but he forgot that the dip stick boss was aluminum and it got eaten up beyond use. The rivets leak all the time anyway. So I made one out of steel to sort of match the original one. I used cleckos to hold it to the pan to check fit to the exhaust manifold. and then welded it and powder coated the pan. The dip stick tube is 1/2-20 threads so it was easy just tap my new piece and use the old tube. I plug welded where the cleckos were and added a drop if weld to the other spot and the worked it with scotch-brite roloc in a 90. Not sure you can see it well in the pics but it looks like it is still riveted. I don't have a lot of pics of the alt. bracket. I have a terrible time remembering to stop when I am working on something and take pics. I used a 1/2" thick plate a 1/4" thick plate and 1/8"+/- plate these together give me the right spacing to match the original gen. bracket. I started with a chunk of 1/2" plate then drilled 8 3/8" holes in a piece of .100-.125 thick plate the same size as the 1/2" plate and plug welded the two together. I then milled the thin plate off on the edges to make the male step on the back of the bracket that fits into the intake. Then I milled the slot for the stud and nut that hold the fan and the alt. to the manifold. I then cut a piece of 1/4" plate in a y shape to hold the alt. and welded it to the other piece and milled the slot and milled the welds down and set it on parallels and milled the ends where the alt. mounts to make sure it is true to everything else and then I made some wings and welded on the sides. The last pic is of the alt. rebuilt for single wire and all powder coated. I will try and post about the balancer tomorrow, and some of the other stuff I have done along the way. If you want more details of something or pics I will try to get them. I forget and leave stuff out so just ask. D smith
The next piece I worked on for the flathead was a harmonic balancer. I did some research and most people are using a sbc balancer and turning the crank snout down. I found a smaller diameter sbc balancer (pioneer da-3270) that was used on 307-283-302-327-350 it is 6.125" od and not as thick. I grabbed it by the snout and bored about .090" out of the inside and then broached it for the 1/4" key like the flathead uses. I made a mandrel and drilled and taped it for the crank bolt so I could mount the balancer and turn and polish the seal surface to match the spiral spacer from the flathead with out the spiral groove as I am using a one piece front seal. We wanted to use the factory fan and so to make things easier? I used the factory crank pulley and cut and machined it so the balancer pulley stack was the same height as the factory pulley and spacer. I measured and matched the height of the factory pulley and spacer and cut the original pulley snout off and the mounted it on my mandrel and faced it to what I needed. I then cut a spacer from the pulley scrap to shim the hole assembly to get the pulleys the same height from the table. The balancer will have to be marked for TDC of the flathead and the pointer on the front cover will be real close to clearing the balancer but haven't mounted everything yet to check for sure. Wort case I will have to cut off the factory pointer and make sheet metal one like the sbc uses. Again I was working along and didn't get enough pics but here are some of the finished set up. Again if I skipped over to big of a part or you better measurements or just have a question just ask and I will do my best to explain, measure or post a pic. D Smith
Thanks Stillrunners I forgot to mention my engine stand adapter. You can see it in some of the pics in my first post. I used a piece of 2x2x1/4" angle and some 3/16" plate. I cut the 3/16" plate to the shape of a header flange and drilled hole to bolt it to the block. I bolted them to the block and then laid the open side of the angle on the two plates where I could get the bolts in and out of the block and then tacked it to the plates. I then removed the assembly from the block and finished welding then on. I centered the adapter on the engine stand plate with the regular arms removed and marked and then drilled holes to attach it to the stand. The flathead sits level and I was able to shift the block side to side in the slotted holes to get it almost balanced so it doesn't take me for a ride when I flip it over. D smith
I have been working on assembly of the short block. We are using stock iron heads but my cr numbers seem way off so I thought I would post what I did and measurements to see if everything looked okay. I have checked everything about 3 times and get the same numbers.I cc everything I could I used a glass 100ml burrett and a piece of clear plexi glass. For the gasket volume I ran a piece of string around the opening in the gasket and measured the length and then used the crush thickness to find the volume. Bore 3.2175" Stroke 3.75" Swept volume 499.39 cc head volume 75cc average valve relief 10cc dome volume 11.965cc dome height .255" deck clearance .075" 9.988cc gasket volume 15cc 499.39+75+10+9.988-11.965+15=597.413 /(75+10+9.988+15-11.965)=6.095-1 cr I think it is the deck clearance number that is dropping the number so much it is a little over twice the factory number. D Smith
About your deck clearance measurement : Where did you get your pistons? There was a thread on the "Ford Flathead 1932-1953" forum where a couple of members said that they had purchased pistons from Speedway that they said were so far under spec on the pin to crown measurement that they returned them. Sound familiar?
Whew - you are really doing this little flattie justice - great planning and even better work! Thanks for documenting this ....
Tubman They are Silvo-lite pistons that came in the rebuild kit purchased from Northern Auto. the pin to crown measurement is 1.703" I think I don't have them right in front of me, but the dome height is about .035" taller than the factory .220" to .255". I will have to compare the new ones with the originals more closely. My Dad bought the kit a little over 2 years ago so no sending them back now. I found a thread on the ford barn about the same pistons same issues his numbers were really close to what I have. If I were to do another one I would probably shop around for a kit but northern had the best price at the time by far,or get there re-ring kit and get better pistons from somewhere else. Cadillacoffin The engine in my avatar is a supercharged Lycoming v-8 out of an 812 Cord. The heads are reproduction factory heads. Tom T and Geoff aka Whodaky Thanks for the kind words Thanks D Smith
I have got most of the internals installed in the block. I left the oil pump and pan until last because I pack the oil pump with assembly lube to help with priming when I first crank it over and didn't want to pump it out of the pump setting up valves and TDC. I balanced all of the pistons they were a lot closer than I expected 4 grams from heavy to light. I also balanced the rods. My rods had extra long rod bolts and weren't drilled for cotter keys so I ground the bolts down to balance the big end of the rods. I also bought a set of the ARP rod nuts from Speedway. I then took everything to a machine shop to have spun balanced as I don't have a crankshaft balancer yet. I had the factory cam reground by Schneider Racing Cams. I went with the 260F grind and it cost $170 with shipping both ways. I probably could have shipped It cheaper but I insured it for the cost of a new replacement cam. The cam looked brand new even phosphated. Very happy with it so far numbers were all spot on when I degreed the cam. I also got a set of their valve springs to go with the reground cam. The cam Specs Are Intake&Exhaust 260deg 226deg at .050" lobe separation 110deg Lift .355 Here I am checking the cam and finding TDC. Another benefit to the SBC balancer is you can use what ever degree wheel you want. I had to Clearance the pointer a little to get the front cover on. I am still not sure if I will keep it or cut it off and add my own timing indicator. The balancer looks like it was meant to be there very happy with how it turned out. I also went with the one piece seal for the front crank seal. My pics are in the wrong order. I read so much about the adjustable lifters coming loose I made some jam nuts to lock them. They started as 3/8-24 jam nuts and I surface ground them .040" and then chucked them in the lathe and chamfered one side to get as much clearance as possible. I then Shortened the vale stem .030" and the lifter bolt .030" which gives me .028" adjustment. I had to set the lash (Schneiders called for .010 for the intake and .012 for exhaust) and then turn the engine over until the valve opened and then jam the lock nut and then turn it back and recheck lash. Time consuming but doable and worth the piece of mind. I put the head on to check clearances and to cc piston dome and valve relief . I didn't really take any pics of putting the cam, crank, rods&pistons, or valves in I figured everybody seen a million pics of that stuff before. I also Rebuilt and powder coated the 2g carb we are going to run since my last post. I pulled all the lead plugs and cleaned every inch of this carb and then double checked for growths in the passages after coating. I will have to wait and see about jetting after it runs a bit It has 54's in it now. My Dad bought one of Speedways adapters for the 3 to 4 bolt carb but you couldn't get a nut on the one stud so I added material to the inside and blended and gasket matched to the base of the carb and manifold and then milled a pocket for the nut and a little extra for a wrench. I have also started on my oil filter adapter. I wanted something to hide the modern filter and not look out of place so I mimicked the original. here are some teaser pics
Forgot to mention that I really like your stop nut idea for the lifters. Hopefully you will not have to adjust the valves too often.
Thanks for the kind words. With the hardened seats and stainless valves the adjustments should be good for a long time or at least that is the plan. I set the adjustment a touch on the loose side. I have stepped feeler gauges they read .010" and .012" , .012" and .014" and I set the valves where the .010" feeler slid in easy but not onto the .012" step. This also allowed for a little movement when I locked the jam nut.
certainly some neat detail going on there, great to see. Look forward to seeing more. Cheers, Drewfus
Sorry it's been awhile been busy at work and the head work took a lot longer than I wanted but we should have 7.6:1 compression now. So I went old school and filled and milled the heads. I used stock 8ba head with an average cc of 75. I blasted the snot out of them and then heated them up to 550 deg F in our powder coating oven and then brazed up everything and then back in to the oven for an hour at 550 and then I killed the oven and let the temp drop slow. I then set up in the mill with a fly cutter and cut the head until it was flat. I then set it on the engine and spun the engine over slow with clay on everything to find center and rough clearances. I center punched the the center and then drilled a hole to help center the cutter. I made a cutter that matched the piston dome as close as I could and then measured how far out of the block the dome protruded and subtracted the gasket thickness and .050" squash clearance and machined down to that depth. Then I cleaned the heads back up and put them back on the block and clayed everything again. Then back to the mill to open up the valve pockets for clearance and to machine the transfer area. I stepped the cutter up and over and then blended with a roloc and scotch brite. Then checked clearances again. The last step before coating was to cc the heads. Right out of the box all the chambers on each head were with in 2/10ths of cc but the two heads were off 2cc from each other. So that took a bit of finessing. I set up and trued the head bolt pads on the head after coating and then bolted them on. Now it is back to the oil and air filters and cleaning and coating small parts. D Smith
Well can't say I have ever seen that done before.... Great presentation of the process! Thanks for sharing!
Hey guys finally found some time to finish my oil filter set up. Not sure how well it will work leaning over a fender but it works slick on the stand. I had several Ideas on how to assemble everything but settled on a quarter turn push button lock set up. No tools required to get at the filter. I used 2 flat head screws to attach the filter block to the mounting bracket I made. I measured and marked everything and drilled for a roll pin to support the side opposite the push button. I made the push button out of a scrap piece of stainless and hit it on the buffer before I locktited everthing. The filter cover is a little tight to the head with the tall filter. I figure if it is too much of a pain we will switch to a shorter filter. I used some left over 1/2" tubing to run from the block to the filter and back. I didn't like the looks of the square tubing fitting I got so I shaped them a little, and did a quick buff job on the lines and fitting. That all I have for now picture wise, but I got the flywheel, pressure plate, clutch, bellhousing, and started bolted on the weekend. Getting close to putting it in the test stand just need to curve the distributor and figure out how I am going to run the plug wires and finish the air filter. D
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