Technical Never saw this before! Flathead

Ok this just got stranger- pulled heads- no valve or spring/retainer in this hole. The lifter is still there. How could that damage happen to the deck? The piston would go up, and not much higher (if any) than this...
It's a hell of a dent too!

 

Jeez Louise! What does the head look like over that cylinder?

You know, I bet if you magnaflux that thing, it's cracked to hell and back.

 

Ok,I have nothing to contribute other than "subscribed"

 

• The dent is from a UFO (unidentified foreign object), most likely part of the missing valve. The missing valve is scattered on some long forgotten road, and the spring and retainer are in the oil drain pan. What does the bottom of the head look like?

The channel is caused by hot combustion gasses burning through the deck because of a burned valve.

There should be additional damage to the block near the damaged portion of the crankshaft in the first picture. Something was loose in the bottom end, and the rotating crank simply machined itself away.

Hard to tell without additional pictures, though.

 

I think Finn may have hit it pretty close, Foreign object damage in the cylinder and either someone pulled he head and then pulled the valve and spring or the engine digested them Then the engine was run until it quit or got pulled and replaced.
Years ago when I was about a Jr in high school a guy brought in a straight six Babbitt beater Chevy that he had bought cheap that didn't run too good. No compression on one cylinder at all. When we pulled the head there was no piston in the hole. There was a deep gouge in the cylinder wall where the wrist pin had ridden up and down against the wall though. We pulled the engine, bored and sleeved that hole and put a new set of rings in and did a valve job and it ran around town for years.

 

There was nothing in the pan, so I would say the valve etc.was removed. (Why the lifter remained is a ???) The head was pounded pretty good. The grinding on the crank was def. intentional, the stamp puzzles me, unless someone did it as a joke when they stuck the motor together. It looks like a fairly low mileage rebuild, no ridge at all, new-looking fiber cam gear (with three different bolts) pretty fresh 9.5" clutch etc...

 

Saw one like that one time, it had a hardwood plug in the cylinder. Guy was wondering why that plug always looked new but was missing on that cylinder. IIRC, they took out the intake pushrod but left the exhaust one.

 

Ya think someone is rolling over in their grave laughing about now? I'm serious.

I think of those stories of guys putting nuts or bolts in odd places of cars so they'd rattle...they'd go home with a smile I guess.

I wonder if someone tore the engine down, then just sorta went after it nand put it back together (too much time on my hands, rings a bell) to have folks guessing and wondering in the future.

 

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...03B850EB32FB8B265DBC03B850EB32FB8B2&FORM=VIRE

 

Haven't seen these before, I've got three other types of adj. lifters in my stash...

 

I was wondering how the crankshaft ground itself down on something loose inside and then had a stamp on the throw?
Also,,,the indentation in the deck didn’t look like a fire slot,,,Did it ?
With a broken valve head loose,,there should be no compression,,,so no fire in that cylinder,,,right ?
Maybe I overlooked something ?
The indentation looks kind of wedge shaped,,,could the engine have ingested a piece of metal of some kind ?
If a bolt of some kind got down in there,,,maybe it would cause marks like that ?

Tommy

 

I'd say that the channel was cut on purpose. What purpose? You tell me. Definitely looks like a broken valve hit the piston top,but only once? I had a piston that looked like it was shot by a shotgun from all the dents. This is getting odder by the day

 

Should have stayed with the Banger motor.....................

 

johnnielson- I got two banger motors/trans in this pile of stuff also, I'll be tearing into them over Christmas while my youngest son is home.
- Hopefully they aren't as enigmatic as this deal ...

 

All you guys following along, I'll get more/better (maybe "more better") pics as I get it torn down and cleaned up

 

I don't know flatheads, that's for sure. Is that the exhaust valve that's missing? Was the notch put there to allow the piston to move with no compression?

 

Yes, exhaust valve. The notch is hard to describe. It looks like it was ground in and then smoothed up. The metal isn't displaced like a hard hit would do.

 

I'd think when the valve let go, it may have bounced around and possibly made a crack or a dent that looked like a crack. The owner ground that area down till there was no more crack. And could it be possible the owner ground off part of the crank weight to compensate for the vibration the dead hole made? Just spit ballin it here. Anybody else notice #5 rod is in #1 cylinder? Hell, I think they're all mixed up but if all the odd number rods are all on one side I
suppose it doesn't matter...still it messes with my OCD.

 

Maybe the guy balanced the crank on end like Meadowlark used to do with a basketball??

 

Been looking at the crank pictures for a while and can’t figure out what process could cut like that.The ridges are sharp and the striations are arrow straight plus one area is concave.

Would a crankshaft be so valuable during initial manufacture that they would waste time/ money machining off blems?

Definitely a mystery and hope that the truth comes out..... that stamp really puts a cat among the pigeons.

 

Not really that straight, the more you look the more you can see the concaved shaping in all the ground out sections. Plus the heat bluing is pretty apparent too. Most likely a grinder.

Crapshot theory, there was a crack in the crank on the back of the throw and they just ground it down til it was gone, then tried to make it pretty.

 

Sorry Rocky,
That is the #5 rod in the #5 cylinder,,,this is a Ford,,,5,6,7,8 are all on the drivers side bank.

And the more I look at it,,,the more I believe that grinding was done at Ford.
That stamp font just looks factory to me,,,maybe I’m wrong?

Tommy

 

I'm thinking what Rocky is saying. If there was a dead cylinder but the engine was still running on 7 cylinders, maybe the dead piston was venting from that notch where the exhaust valve used to reside to relieve it's compression. Was the crank ground to keep the assembly in balance? I would guess the dead cylinder just going for a ride would have been a drag on the engine?

 

Are the ground or areas to clear the bores?

not sure
Is that a 4.25 Mercury crank?

just specculattin

j

 

Johnnielson-it's just a standard ford crank. I can find absolutely nothing else done to this crank. It does look for all the world like someone was trying their hand at lightening that throw and maybe got tired of messing with it haha
I just can't get a clear pic of the stamp. It really looks more like an elongated donut instead of a circle with an "o" in it.

 

Ok-Got this thing torn apart and waddaya know, the rear throw is ground off also. Not near as drastic as up front but still...

 

The rod journals are a slightly grooved but the mains are near perfect. With pistons out the crank spun easily. If you look closely, lock washers on right side only. Old racer trick...

 

What do the lock washers on one side do?


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No doubt this made a fair racket...