flathead gurus, quick question

So im working on what was supose to be a 59-ab flathead for a freind and we a running motor that had a rod knock, so we opted for a 8ba rotating assembly, got the crank ground and rods reconditioned, and i installed the pistons onto the 8ba rods, got the crank installed and went to install the first piston and ran into a snag, the 8ba rod does fit into the bore, so oviosly the motor is a 221 and not a 239, so heres the question, the bore is nice, so i dont really want to bore it out, but can a guy put all the pistons in from the bottom and then install the crank? i know itll be some pissin around to make sure i dont damage the crank in any way intalling it but other than that it should work correct? the rods dont travel far enough down to interfier with the bottom of the bore.

JEFF

 

How would you compress the rings? I'm not saying it can't be done but I'd back up re-group mixing and matching parts can work, if it has been done you will hear about it here!

 

Update.....its all together!

The bottom side of the block is pretty flat so the piston ring compressor worked to put em in from the bottom, and i actually had to pull 3 pistons off their rods and put them in from the top slide them far enought down so i could reinstall the rods then slide em back out, also after installing them i slid them all the way back out the top so the top 3 rings were back out except for cylinder # 7, that had to be up most of the way. i grabbed the crank and lined it up with #7, installed the crank then just had to trurn it stategically so i could get each rod on, it was a pain but its all together and rotates fine, the rods come no where near the bottom of the cylinder was so theres no clearance issues at all.

fun fun!

jeff

 

Its very common practice to do the 8ba or merc crank into the 59-ab's, which is what we thought we had for a motor but it turned out to be a 221 which has a smaller bore, and thats where the problem was.

 

Bump

 

I can picture somebody way in the future trying to get this engine apart, standing there scratching their head, saying WTF, this is impossible!

 

LOL i was thinking that last night when i was putting it together!!!

 

whose car is this going in Jeff?

 

the 32 survivor. we had put the motor in but it devoloped a rod knock right off the bat so we pulled it back out and pulled her down.