Projects Flat Head Crack Head

Engine number one no good. Block is cracked between two exhaust valves and cylinders. On to engine number two. Lesson learned..pull the heads before purchase. Second block looks good so far. Also picked up a Mercury crank. The plan is to build a car worthy of th Race of Gentlemen.

 

The picture is too close up, I can't figure it out.
Stock flathead heads are pretty common and cheap.

 

Your thread title suggests a way different meaning.

 

What are you planning to put it in ?
The good one, - not the crack head.

 

Preferably a 30-31 coupe.
Working with a tight budget. Piecing things together. So far I have a rolling chassis 30/31 frame, 39 trans, 40 rear and the 53 block. Finding a decent body locally on a budget build hasn’t happened just yet.

 

Around these parts, folks don't understand the issues with the old flathead V8 motors.
If they have one for sale they want gold for it and refuse to let you remove heads or give a full return if cracked.
Getting very hard to source these days.

 

I got $800 for the second to the last good 8BA block I had (I'm 76, so three running and one in reserve is quite enough). That was to a guy that I knew and felt kinda sorry for as he had gone through FIVE blocks previously, all of which were fatally cracked. Good luck on your quest.

 

That's the bunk of buying flatheads, you really need to be able to see the top of the block and check for cracks.

 

I thought the crack was in a head, which is a different thing. Good heads are easy to find, good blocks, no.
The new picture makes it clear.

 

Maybe add your location to your profile and someone in your area might know of some prospects and could let you know.

 

Always a good idea to pressure check and Magnaflux a block prior to spending money at the machine shop. These cracks were not visible to the naked eye. Sometimes a running engine may have cracks not evident. A bore scope will let you look inside the exhaust ports and also check the pan rails.

 

Just updated my profile with my location. Just outside of Wildood in South Jersey.
Already met a lot of great people with beautiful cars, collections and parts. My favorite is the retired Snap On guy with seven beauties including an Auburn, 36 Ford Coupe, 73 Firebird ordered new for his wife, 62 vette etc. The good flathead is disassembled and ready for the machine shop. Considering using the EAB heads off of the first motor. The cracked block also came with a good bell housing and truck oil pan. So it wasn’t a total loss. Thought I’d use the old block to mach up while the good blocks being machined.

 

You cant catch a crack head

 

Sorry ,not really answering the question. Been wondering this for a long time . Much interest here in the Midwest in the flat head V-8's,see many in cars at the car shows .
Blocks ,heads etc are being cast and bought everywhere but not the old Ford V-8 Flat head. I am aware from my past it was hard to find a Ford V-8 block in the junk yards years ago that wasn,t cracked. Why arn't new Ford V-8 Blocks being cast for us old timers ?? Gene in Mn

 

Contact "Tod" on the Fordbarn. He is working on casting new blocks.

 

After one bad block purchase I decided to just buy a block from HandH Flatheads. It seems farmers dont pull motors because they work too well....

Sent from my SM-N950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

$800? Is that the going rate for good flattie short block these days?

 

I have a barn full of flatheads and parts!!! 50's speed equipment for 8ba, 59ba and 60 series motors. 1,2,3,and 4 carb manafolds. Top loader transmisions and flat to C4 conversions. Every type of crank you can think of for flatheads!! NOS parts for all Ford flathead motors. You know anyone that is interested I will sell all for a song. Two just rebuilt 59AB motors one ran 150 miles and one never started yet. I'm 74 years old and I'm downsizeing!!!!!

 

you should be getting smashed with pms

 

This was for a friend who was in a bind. I really wasn't looking to sell, but as I said, his project was stalled out after 5 cracked blocks. I think he would have paid a LOT more..

 

I was under the impression that you could fix that with a sleeve if that was the only thing wrong. No?

 

I had a block with a crack between the exhaust seat and cylinder repaired as Markdtn suggested, with a sleeve and seat insert quite a few years ago. It worked fine for the year or two I kept in touch with the owner.
I don't recall if there was an issue with the water jacket, or if and how it was fixed. It was a long time ago.

An old timer I knew said that back when the flatheads were still a common engine, the rebuilders initially refused a block with any crack. However they could not get enough cores, so they started accepting cracks between the water jackets and studs.

 

I understand there are plenty of them still available, but I am surprised no one sells a newly forged short block.

 

From my experience, they are becoming scarcer and scarcer. Over the last couple of years, I have seen the sources for a lot of old stuff dry up. As to new blocks, someone has already mentioned the posts on "The Ford Barn" by a guy named "Tod" who is well on his way to doing this. He hasn't been on lately as I think he has been busy with some Model "A" stuff he does (heads and blocks). He is the real deal, as he already has the Model "A" stuff in production and has done a bunch of later model Ford stuff as well. He posts on here as "427designer". If you can find some of his old posts you can get some idea of what he is doing.

Oh yeah; blocks are cast, not forged. And a flathead Ford block, since it has to contain all of the intake and exhaust passages, is probably the most difficult block to cast that there is.

 

I would think also, Back in '94 I had a flathead Cadillac block repaired. It was cracked in the valve bowl and up and back down into the cylinder, this in two cylinders. They installed new sleeves and "cold stitched" or "plug stitched" the valve bowl. Forgot what they called it but they drilled a hole, threaded it and installed a plug, drilled another hole halfway in the first plug, threaded it and plugged that .... all the way to the end of the crack. Then machine out the valve bowl. The car has been running since 1994 so it must work, but it was not cheap, had more money in the block than the car cost.

 

"46international" - since it's been 25 years, could you put a dollar figure on "not cheap"? It might put some perspective on my $800 figure.

 

If your crack dealer has all their teeth, they are the police... Just sayin'
public service announcement.
Chappy

 

I have an 8BA with 3 exhaust port to cylinder cracks. I was going to use Lock n Stitch pins in the port and across the deck and have 3 cylinders sleeved. Probably about $750-800 by the time it's all said and done. This was a running motor I took out of a customer's car because of a dead hole. It was free. Am I wasting time and money trying to save it or are they getting scarce enough to warrant the effort?

 

Fix it, run the shit out of it. If you blow it you won't be sad.

 

Pretty common on V 12 lincoln on passengers side always check for cracks on the valve seats