Projects My first build. 1929/31 model A

Worked on getting the head off the engine today, but no luck. I have sprayed the studs liberally with penetrating oil the last two days. Today I used a chain around the water pump and my engine hoist to put some force on it. I heated the areas surrounding the studs with a torch and tapped with a hammer on both studs and the head. I tried to vibrate the studs by using an air chisel on the studs, but it has decided to put up a fight.

I’m thinking about tapping a steel spatula between block and head trying to break the seal.

I’ll continue this journey tomorrow.


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Tjena Tobbe
Hope it's not a stubborn as mine....(A Simple Head Gasket replacement starts here.)
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/project-30-tudor.793436/page-3#post-11698752
I can see right through between the block and head...
Good Luck Man!

 

Hejsan!

Dear god, you finally gave up on getting the head off?

I have my hoist chained to the neck of the water pump lifting the car almost clear off the ground. Threaded my lifting hooks into the spark plug holes and used a big a$$ prybar on a wooden block resting on the exhaust manifold. Adding my 230 lbs to the end of the prybar I was sure it would let go, but nope. So far I have tried torch, penetrating oil, air chisel on the head bolts and big screwdrivers rammed in between the head and block, and now lifting. Nope, zero movement.

 

Tried to lift a little bit more. Chain snapped. Going home to change underwear...


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The saga continues. Sourced a steel plate from a fellow hot rodder and borrowed a head to use as a template for drilling.

Fabbed the puller yesterday and started to work on getting the head off the block. I heated the head around the studs, used more penetrating oil and loads of force. I gained 2 millimeters of separation on the right hand side, the left is still stuck. I even used my 30” prybar between a stud and the puller, but the only result was cracking the head since the stud flexed.

 

Tobbe I would believe new, very foul words are being generated as you go through this ordeal. That super sucks Bigtime...It sounds as if you getting somewhere albeit mm per square day...

 

Amazingly foul words don’t seem to help either, this head is S T U C K. Dropped by the shop today and tightened the screws a couple of turns and sprayed some more oil, both between the head and block and on the studs. I think I gained another millimeter or two. Tomorrow I’ll release the puller and push the head down onto the block again, then try to wiggle it a little bit to see if it lets go some more. I’ll try to get a thin blade under the head and make sure I release the head from the gasket all the way. Sawsall maybe?

 

That thing is STUCK for sure! Not sure I'd have your patience to get it off. Makes one wonder how pistons/cly's are going to be.

 

The head finally gave in and let go today. We had to wiggle the head, with one person on each side of the car using two pry bars each. Up and down a couple of times and it finally came off. The sad part is that the #3 cylinder looks like a well used sewer pipe.


I cleaned out all the loose rust and added some penetrating oil (again). Will let it sit over night and clean tomorrow and see if the engine wants to rotate. Bought a big bottle of Coca Cola that I will pour in the cylinder to see if the acid will take away some of the rust. Never tried it, but seen a lot of videos on YouTube swearing by it.

 

Surprised the Alien didn’t jump out of there...man thats creepy......looking at the car you'd never expect the motor to look like that. Your persistence paid off...

 

If this works I’ll never drink Coke again..

 

Ouch!....

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No problem, I can continue to sip on a coke without worrying too much . Will try to pull the engine the coming weekend.

Have found another engine but it has a bearing knock. Does anyone know what needs to be done to fit insert bearings in the rods?


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One thing you can thank that engine for is sucking all the rust away from the rest of the car...

 

You mean like one of those humidity absorbers?


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I can not help you with babbitt bearings or humidity absorbers but I am surprised the Coke didn't do more damage to the corrosion.
Put an old R 100 engine in it with the 5 speed. A gasoline heater to boot.
You're having too much fun over there.

 

Found another engine that has been driven 3 years ago then stored on a pallet in a shop. The engine turns freely so it seems promising. Will take delivery in two weeks and install ASAP to get the car driving.

 

Old engine out today and that was a lot easier than pulling the head. I’m really enjoying wrenching on cars I’ve imported from California, all nuts and bolts are rust free and most come off real easy. Nothing was stuck!

 

New set of wheels arrived today, 18” from a ‘32 that will fill the fenders a bit more than the 16”.

The engine goes in tomorrow.

 

The new engine is in the car but I need to fix some small things and rebuild the water pump, the front bearing was shot and the fan and pulley was some kind of home brew that was totally out of wack.

 

Rub it in Tobbe...
says Rust belt Stogy...

Just kidding...

I remember working on a OT vintage aircraft and alot of fasteners looked like rust mountains...not a hex to be found and then we got a parts doner from a dry province that was outside to boot and almost all the fasteners and hardware barely had surface rust...many were still in prime.

Everyone deserves a California experience...
​

 

I know what you mean! Here in the south of Sweden everything is rusty. I replace brake lines on BMWs just 6-7 years old. I bought a blast cabinet just to clean the caliper brackets when we replace pads. I replaced pads on my friends bmw in the LA area a couple of years ago, not only was I working outside in the sunshine in January, but I just blew away the brake dust and applied a new coat of anti seize and it was done!

Amazing!


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Water pump rebuilt today. The pump wheel was disintegrated due to the pure water that have been in the engine for a long time. This pump was rebuilt not long ago and had two sealed ball bearings in the front instead of the roller bearing. I ordered a complete rebuild kit, but I ended up with just using the shaft with pump wheel

 

...Holy What Impeller Batman

 

Got some stuff done today!

Started with pulling the intake on the new engine to free up the lifter galley cover and to be able to remove the external fuel pump. Lots of loose carbon in the ports that I just cleaned out. Replaced the cover with the one from the ‘31 engine, the old one was cracked and soldered. It was bent out of shape from the heat.

Fitted the water necks from the ‘31 engine since there was fittings for a heater core in the ones on the new engine. Chief inspector Ludvig is making sure I follow procedure.

Drained the oil in the new engine and I hope the bearings are okay in spite of the glitter in the oil. Also drained the gearbox and while filling it from above I realized it is huge compared to the other gearbox that came with my first chassis. It seems like I have a four speed AA gearbox! http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/aafourspeedachassis.htm




It took 2 quarts of oil and it’s not full yet... I need to order more oil to fill the rest and to have enough for the rear axle.

 

Sun was shining today so I bolted the 18” wheels on the coupe and rolled it outside.

Pulled the intake and exhaust again since there is four rings between the exhaust ports and manifold that I knew I didn’t have. Borrowed rings and discovered that engines from early 1929 didn’t use them, Ford did however reintroduce them later on. I have now ordered copper clad gaskets instead.

Connected alternator and bolted the starter in place.

Cleaned out the oil filler tube and filled the engine with Castrol 20w50 classic. Could see the pan thru the filler tube hole and the engine looks nice and clean inside.

Now waiting for parts delivery that will arrive early next week.

 

Making good progress!!

 

Thanks! It seems like I made the correct decision when I bought this one. Chances are that I will actually drive it this season


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Picked up a Optima 6 volt battery today and was hoping to hear the engine come to life. Checked and redid the timing several times, and I’m pretty certain it’s correct. Gave up a couple of hours later after draining the battery and still no start. Will get help from a fellow model a enthusiast tomorrow evening, I hope we can get it running!

 

It’s alive! For some reason I got the engine timed 180* wrong. My guess is that the cam sprocket is 180* wrong since when the dimple, or line in this case, is visible in the cam cover hole the engine is not at TDC on cylinder #1. When we finally got that figured out, it ran on starting fluid. I have to disassemble the carb to clean it out, then it should run better. When I remove the plug below the float bowl the fuel flow is no flow, just dripping. The flow in the feed line to the carb is just fine, so something is not right in the carb.

Tried to upload a couple of screenshots from my movie clips, but since I didn’t have permission to view them myself, I didn’t see the point in keeping them.