I like your plan, it would be a shame to scrap either of these without trying to save them, especially since you seem to be able to do the work yourself. I had a similar problem when I broke the mounting ears off the early hemi in my dirt modified when I hit a wall, hard. A good friend of mine who is a union pipefitter fixed it without a furnace using an acetylene torch for pre and post-heat It's held up well for the last 20 years on some pretty rough dirt tracks. I'm kinda wondering where these guys are finding all of these good, cheap blocks.
I picked up a nice looking (but hasn’t been boiled or magged yet) late block for $30 at a swap meet a couple weeks ago. They are out there, unless a guy is either in a hurry, or lazy.
I am neither of those, just old. I am basing my opinion on what I'm told by guys looking for them. I sold my second to last good 8BA block 5 years ago for $800; the guy had gone through 6 bad ones and was desperate. Yours is still a "pig in a poke"; if it turns out to be good, congratulations. The fact that some guy was selling it at a swap meet for that price makes me very suspicious.
Every one of these blocks is suspect . . . until proven otherwise! LOL. I've had better luck with earlier blocks than with 49-53 blocks. This is probably nothing to do with the block, but the car they were in and theis running environment. By the early 50's the cars were a lot heavier, had more accessories on them, had automatic transmissions, etc, etc, etc.. I can imagine that some of the issues for cracked blocks come from being under-powered and also over-heating issues as a result of the application they were used in. Anybody else see a lot more issues with later blocks?
Odd. I have had very good luck with 8BA blocks. Granted, I have only had 6, but 5 of them were good. The sixth, that someone gave me was a rusty, crusty, but complete unit. I ended up passing it on, as I already had two good ones, so I am not even sure it was bad, but if I had to bet.... As I have said before, I sold my second to last good block about 5 years ago for $800. The one I have left under the stairs in my shop, doesn't even have "part number" cracks. I have no experience with earlier blocks because I hate torque tubes and front-mounted ignitions.
Around here it’s about a hundred to boil out a grungy flathead, and at least a hundred to mag it properly. I’ve been thinking about doing a few of them, and then could advertise them with the pedigree. But I’m not sure how many customers I’d have here in the middle of Iowa. I do not want to be responsible for shipping one.
I’m hoping for two for two. When I lucked out with my first one, I had no idea how hard it was to find a decent block. I’ll know soon if the second is good.
It is a lot of work to take one apart - then the expense of having it cleaned, magged, sonic tested and pressure tested. By the time you've done all of that, you'll have probably $400 - $600 in costs (on top of the original block) and nothing for your time. I would probably be asking a minimum of $800 for a block - maybe even $1000+.
Agree. Probably spent the better part of two weeks stripping mine down (left the cam, lifters and valves in). I’m slow, and not 8 hrs/day, but you know what I mean. Not counting the time to drive to get it, load it, unload it, etc. If it turns out be be good, I wouldn’t sell it for less than CAN$1500, but that is cleaned, full stripped, and magna-fluxed.
Yeah, now that I think about it $1000 would be too cheap . . . considering all it takes just to get to the phase of having it checked out! Truthfully $1500 is probably about right (and even then, your time is not accounted for . . . at least much per hour).
I know lots of HAMBer's POO POO the French blocks but I've built a few, sold a few and have never felt like they were over priced or non traditional. Just before I moved from the farm shop to my present location I took 5 complete FH motors to the machine shop and after disassembly, cooking and cleaning, and a complete crack check on each one I owed the machine shop around $2500 which was a bargain and had a pile of iron. Only reason the bill wasn't more he gave me some credit for a couple cranks and a little for the rods. Over the years I've been lucky to have had several good 8BA blocks and even a couple of NOS cosmo covered 59L blocks. I just picked up another French block I'll be hauling out to the LARS. I'll probably bring it home but sooner or later someone will step up.
By the time you tear one down, check and hope it's good, French blocks aren't a bad deal considering. I'm patiently waiting for a flood of them to enter the market from that SoCal/SFFlathead auction. There were a lot of engines/blocks in that sale. Someone bought them.
Regarding Tubman’s pipe fitter friend, on the 1300MW plants of AEP and TVA, the 3500 psi/1005F main steam line to the turbine is 4” wall chrome moly and requires preheat, many passes, and postweld heat treat. The friend may have done similar.
The French block buyer has been quietly unloading some of them. There were a few on E-Bay at around $5K and apparently sold. The one I have is still covered in cosmo and is well protected. Mine has the governor bump removed and it is a clean job. I figured that was worth $500 on the price of the block. I employed a local machine shop to machine the governor bump off which of the ones I did and that was several $100 plus my machine work. It all ads up. I'm gonna ask $4500. I sold my last one for $5K plus shipping. It won't bother me to bring it back to NE.
Interesting. There were pallets of motors in that auction as well. They were being sold as singles, doubles, and multiples. Someone has them and I'd have to assume needs to sell them.
One of these days, possibly soon, flathead blocks are going to start coming out of the woodwork. I would bet there are thousands out there being hoarded by guys now in their seventies and eighties. Most of the serious flathead guys have anywhere from 5 to 20 good blocks stacked away like cordwood. Hell, I'm a dilettante, and I once had 4 good blocks put away. I built two, sold one, and have one that will probably come on the market in the next few years. The problem is that the guys who want 'em are for the most part as old as the guys that got 'em.
Great! Your odds are increasing with each one you find. Not to be one of those I told you so dudes, but don't get in the habit of mounting them by the bell housing. Side mounted using the exhaust threads or supported front and rear. There are many horror stories of motors being stored this way only to break off the upper bell housing.
This $50 motor was remanufactured. So far the block looks perfect. It’s bored 0.100 over. Replacement valves and springs. Looks balanced with the extra drilling on the crank. I’ll see more once I fully tear it down.
That one looks like it might be a good one! It is already .100 over . . . I'd bore it to .125 and go for a 3 5/16 bore. It sort of looks like the pistons might have been lightly "kissing" the heads - notice the shiny ring around the outer portions? Could just be the pictures or maybe they ran it with heads that have been milled too much.
The one that is .100" over, that was one of the two you just picked up? If so, what did you use or do to get them that clean so quickly?
I'm in the opposite camp at first. I'd put an intake and flywheel on it and see if you can get it running. You may be surprised how well it runs before doing a rebuild. Worst case, it doesn't run well and will need to be rebuilt. I believe this is the second rebuilt motor that someone has posted about here that has had the same REX- #'s stamped on the top deck. Really curious what outfit that was how rebuilt them.
Pulled the pistons out and started to clean up the bored so I could examine them. She was looking good until i got to the last cylinder to clean. Then I saw this 5” long crack. Ugh.
Isn't that the way it always goes . . . on the LAST one of the operations . . . Have the block magged first - including the pan rails - to make sure something else didn't happen to it (due to freezing) or some other issue. Then, have it sonic tested for cylinder wall thickness and potential core shift - before you invest in sleeves. You have to ask yourself --> "How the heck did this crack happen?". That is a big crack - and something was going on to cause it.
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