Projects FlatCab: 1932 Cabriolet, Hot 1941/42 Merc Flathead Build

Man! Shave that thing will yah . . . .

Well, most guys shave themselves, some girls shave their . . . . , custom car guys shave their door handles, and I decided to shave my fricking water pumps!

One thing I just hate about putting 37-48 flatheads in 32's . . . and using the original 32 motor mounts . . . is that you have those damn "Bull Horns" (motor mounts) sticking out from the water pumps! It looks just plain ugly and makes the car look like the engine doesn't belong. So - after seeing that nightmare on the 59x engine in the FlatCab (my first 32), I decided that I needed to shave the water pumps and make the engine look like it belonged in the car.

Hey Dude, it's a new age . . . it's all the rage . . . smooth baby . . . smooth . . .

1) Poor Mans Band Saw: Hmmm . . . I don't have a band saw . . . so how the hell am I going to cut those nice new 'Skips Water Pumps' up? Ahhhh Hah! - I have a 'Saws-All' (in this case a 'Shaves All') - and lets just see if it can hold up to it's name!. I threw a metal cutting blade in it and Hell, it only took about 5 minutes a pump to cut those nasty bull horns off.



Then I used a grinder, my porting tools and some other gadgetry to profile and finish the castings - such that they look like they came from the factory this way.

2) Public Opinion Poll - Clean Shaven or Not: Now I'm sure some of you guys like your water pumps "natural", I like mine smooth, clean and appealing. Take a look at what the engine looks like with regular 39-48 water pumps (another dual belt set that I have) as compared to my nicely shaved ones . . . what looks better to you? You already know my vote - as these new pumps are as smooth as a peach . . .

Enjoy . . .

a) Natural . . .



b) Clean and Smooth . . .



This engine will look so much better with these shaved pumps . . . glad I spent the time on it.

B&S

 

Very cool Dale! Do you have any AFTER pics of those coatings with some miles on them?

 

Not yet - but I'll run it for some miles, then pull the heads and have a looksee!

 

It's the detail and tech in this extensive thread that's so outstanding. The trouble and effort B&S has gone to to document his build so thoroughly. If everyone learns and puts into practice even just a couple of your tips it should make this the #1 tech thread worthwhile.
Heck me I am just blown away by how amateur it makes most flathead builds look.
Keep it up please.

 

Shaved pumps are a huge improvement. You better follow this build up with some videos!

 

As you can tell by now . . . Good, Bad or Ugly . . . it will be captured!

 

Full-Flow 'Traditional' Oil Filter . . . My 'Bright Idea' Last Night . . .

Now that I've added a 100% full-flow oil system to this motor, I've been pondering the obvious question - "What the Hell do I do for an oil filter?". This has been bugging me for a few weeks . . . and I just about "punted" and hung an ugly, modern and very non-traditional remote oil filter somewhere under the frame (to hide the sucker). But - I hate that idea . . . as there is nothing else hanging anyplace that doesn't look like it came from back in the 30's or 40's. So . . . what to do . . .

So, after watching it rain for the last 4 weeks and sanding, prepping and painting shit for the last 3 days (which gets a bit old), I decided yesterday that I was going to try something I've never seen done (and I'm sure somebody else has done it, but I haven't seen it). Why not take the good ole 'trickle' flathead oil filter system (it is NOT full-flow by any means) and convert that sucker over to full-flow? The idea is to build a special filter mount the uses a full-flow modern filter and hide it all inside the head-mounted canister. Yippee, full-flow black gold flowing through the good ole' Fram 'accessory' oil filter . . . Jed's a fricking millionaire baby!

I convinced myself that since I was sick and tired of painting, that I could get this done in about 6 hours or so. You see, without ignorance and optimism . . . nobody would every start a project like this! Of course it took TWICE as long - but I didn't scrap any parts and the idea worked out 100% - so I best be happy. I think I have about $75 of parts in it . . . not too bad.

I ordered a Milodon remote oil-filter adapter from Jegs (looked like a candidate to chop up and make work), grabbed some steel pipe fittings form the local hardware store, picked up some other crap that I could rework and off I went.

1) Here is what I started with: Milodon bolt-up filter adapter - with in/out lines on the sides. Shorty Fram oil filter for mock-up (ordered a Mobil 1 oil filter to use for actual running - I think Fram filters are the low-end of the food chain). And . . . drum roll please . . . the famous Fram accessory filter that we all have laying around in our "stuff" piles.



2) Milodon Remote Filter Adapter Modifications: I chucked it in my lathe and between it and my saws-all, cut the flange off and reduced the diameter to match the filter.





3) Fram Head-Mount Canister Modifications: I eye-balled where I thought the side-ports for the #8 AN fittings should come out and put the canister in my mill and hacked some new holes. I only made them about 2/3 the final size - did the rest of the work with a porting tool and a carbide bit - as I could look in the hole and align it with the filter adapter in place.



I then hand made some steel 'bungs' out of seamless tubing to weld up to the sides of the canister. These will give my special fittings a place to seal against and it will look like it was made this way.

4) Made Three Fittings: These are what took about 6 - 8 hours today. I had to combine pieces of steel pipe, make steel gasket flanges, weld on steel AN fittings, etc. Lots of time on the lathe and TIG welder.

a) Bottom Fitting: It will hold the filter assembly down to the bottom of the canister and will also provide a port for an oil pressure gauge or other device. I put a 1/8 NPT port into it. This was the first time I TIG welded in many months . . . a bit 'rusty', but I got back into it. This was made from 3 separate pieces - welded together.

b) Side Fittings - #8 AN Tubing: They go from 1/2 NPT (what the filter adapter uses), to a special flange that seals against the canister (with some copper gasket rings I made) to a steel #8 AN fitting on the outside. These are made from 3 separate pieces, all welded together.



5) Top Lid-Mount: I imagined all sorts of 'hinged brackets' and other fine gadgetry, but then thought better . . . Hell, I already had 12 hours in this damn "easy job" and just how often was I actually going to change a filter? Maybe once a year - not because of mileage, just for the heck of it I imagine.



So, I welded two 'ears' on the inside of the canister and they are tapped for 10-32 screws. I then made a 1/8" steel strap that has a 7/16 NF nut welded to it . . . so I can use the standard cover and fastener.





There yah have it . . . will post more pictures once the heads are on the engine and I've plumbed it. I hope to make 1/2" stainless steel lines - with flared fittings . . . so I don't have to put modern "race car" AN stuff on it. Hell, they had tubing and flared fittings back in the day . . . at least that is my story!

Enjoy . . .

 

Sir its a pleasure to watch your work!Absolute pleasure thanks for posting this,i can,t wait to hear this engine roar.Johnny

 

Thanks! Just trying to overcome problems (perceived or not) along the way.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to post this information. The detail and descriptions are outstanding and you have more tricks up your sleeve than a magician.

 

Well it's more then a gentle reminder to me how things should be done right!and the time and patience it takes, I,d hate to imagine how many hours you actually have in this engine but it'll be worth it.Johnny

 

Okay, now you're just showing off! Just kidding of course, and I am enjoying the hell out of this build.

 

Shit dale you say it would only take 6 hrs hell that means it took 6 days in dale time lmfao looking good my friend

 

Thanks for posting this. An old style filter canister was one of the first things I purchased for 32pu (that will be running Windsor power) years ago. I too have been saving this mod for one of those days that ya need a break from hard labor.

 

Ive got a single NOS flatty water pump without any side mounts... have wondered what it was from, 32?
Love your work, its looking great!

 

Thanks for showing all the fine details of your work. Very inspirational.

Mart.

 

Yea Randy that's it "Dale time!!" as opposed to ordinary time or time allocated by ordinary people to do ordinary things. Dale does extraordinary things in Dale Time...........Kinda like when we used to do estimates, figure it out then triple it and just maybe you would be close. You better quadruple Dale time to get to yours......

 

Yes Carl dale does fantastic work for sure his attention to detail is what has kept the flatcad together so far but if dale says two hours it will take two days lol it's a long story from bonneville we just coined it "dale time" his favorite saying was it will only take two hours and low and behold two days later it happened lol keep up the good work dale this ought to be a real strong flattie

 

The real issue is the constant verbal abuse from Bastards like Randy . . . which pretty much describes the whole FlatCad crew! LOL They somehow manage to find their "chairs" while the slave labor work is going on!

 

Hey Dale if it wasn't for the abuse you'd get no attention at all.................


ooops

 

Lmfao dale I seem to remember it a whole nother way like I was the one who tore the whole car apart and put it back together while you were hooking up 3 wires lmao but hey who's counting right lol ..... And now back to the dale show lol

 

You got that right carl lol

 

Have I mentioned how much I love this thread?

 

I've been going like mad on the 32 Cab - got it ready to bring to the Pittsburgh Race Week event . . . as down there twice last week. There has been a ton of progress on the engine, some necessary changes and it is almost ready to drop in. I'll be making a lot of updates to this thread in the next few days.

Stay tuned . . .

 

Aluminum Flywheel - .525 Thick:
When I attempted to mount the Fidanza aluminum flywheel to the crankshaft - found that it had an extremely tight fitment around the crankshaft flange. It was just a bit too tight to 'coax' with a deadblow hammer, so I took it back off - polished the crank flange a bit (by hand) and then heated the flywheel up with a plumber's torch - to get it to expand a bit . . . then I used a block of wood and the hammer to get it into the correct place.

Note: Even though the assembly was 'zero-balanced', they still marked the crankshaft flange, flywheel and clutch as to where they were in the machine - I use these same marks upon assembly!.

I grabbed the stock flathead crankshaft bolts (the ones that use a tie-wire through them) and the round 'washer plate' and looked at the bolt length. Hmmmm - seems this aluminum flywheel is a lot thicker in the flange area than a stocker or steel one and the stock bolts will be too short (only about .250 engagement at best). So - now I need to find new flywheel bolts that will work. This is a great example of one needing to pay attention and not be in a super hurry to throw an engine together - fasteners are key to your safety and those around you!

Did some measurements and found that I needed about a 1.00" length flywheel bolt - saw some on Jeg's from ARP and ordered them (for Chevy applications). These will give me the necessary 7/16+ engagement with the crank flange that I'm looking for. Went to install them - and they won't work! Crap! They have a shoulder at the top that is .441 or so in diameter and they won't go through the flywheel holes. Called ARP - they have nothing with a smaller shoulder that is the necessary 1.00" length. Okay - what else can I use?

I found a 'Chevrolet Performance Flywheel Bolt - # 12337973' at Summit Racing. These bolts are the correct length and don't have the large shoulder.

Flywheel Bolts and Washers: When I talked to ARP about aluminum flywheels and washers, they said that they recommend that you DON'T use any, just a bit of anti-seize under the heads and torque to spec. Yes, I know that this will be a bit of a gall on the flywheel surface, but how often are you taking it out? When you open up ARP flywheel bolt packages, they specifically say that their warranty is voided if you run any washers of any kind!

I did use Red LocTite - as I like the extra margin of safety!

 

Eddie Meyer Intake Porting:
I used a 'Best Gasket Big-Port' intake gasket. I really like to use their product when I have to hand match it to my ports (which is every time). Also, they have a nice profiled edge around the gasket that matched the raised intake mounting area on the 42 'Keystone' style block - just looks a LOT better than the ones that Speedway sells.

1) Port Match the Intake Gasket to the Block: I put the gasket on the block and use four short 3/8 bolts and flat washers and just barely tighten them to hold the gasket in place. Then I use an X-Acto knife to cut the gasket to match the ports on the block. This becomes my template to then match the intake manifold to the block - using the gasket as the 'pattern'.

2) Porting the Intake Manifold: I just use blue DieChem to mark the port locations, mount my template gasket and scribe around the manifold. Now just to back up a bit . . . Long before I ported the block, I made sure that this specific manifold had enough material to actually handle the large port sizes I was going to use. This old Eddie Meyer manifold was very generous around the port areas as well as inside the manifold where the carburetor "riser extension" mounts. I knew I had plenty of material to still make a good gasket sealing surface . . . more so than most of the other popular manifolds.

3) Sand Paper Rolls and Smoothness: I use my carbide 'roughing' bits to do the majority of the work, then follow up with 36 grit sandpaper rolls, then 60 grit and finally 80 grit. I know we all want to make the ports nice and smooth, shiny and pretty - to take pictures and impress our friends . . . that is not what you want to do. You want some roughness in the ports to keep the gas from dripping/pooling down the sides of them. So - just finish with 80 or 100 grit as your final step.

3) Finer Points of The Job - I Think this Baby is Going to Flow!: One would think this old manifold couldn't possibly flow like some of the later ones from Edelbrock, Offy, Navarro, Evans, etc . . . but after spending a lot of porting time on it, I'm quite impressed with how well I "believe" it will flow and the direct line-of-sight flow paths I was able to create. As noted earlier, the top mounting flange was almost 3/4" thick (where the 2-pot riser bolts to) - so I could really enlarge the four holes and direct them to the ports. This was particularly important for the outside 4 cylinders (the furthest away from the center). I expanded the riser holes toward the 'outside cylinders' with a bit of a 'D' shape (checkout the pictures).

Frankly, I think that the plenum area could be TOO BIG if there were carbs just mounted where the riser mounts. I think that port velocity would suffer and low/mid-range would suck big time. I'm thinking/hoping that the riser will really help create some much needed velocity to help ram the mixture down the large ports. That is my theory and we'll find out shortly!

4) Future: 'Big 97's': I'm deliberately running Stromberg 48's and they flow about 20 CFM more per carb than the 97's do. Since I have a 2-carb requirement (self imposed), I'm sure they will not be enough for this engine.

I'm going to talk to Clive at Stromberg 97's and see if he is interested in doing a dyno run that compares the 48's versus two of his new 'Big 97's' (with 1.175 throttle bores and 250 cfm each!). I'll port the riser some more to handle the larger throttle bores. If he doesn't want to dance, then I'll put a set of Holley 2110's on it - as they flow 210 CFM. Will be interesting to what bigger carbs do to the dyno torque/HP curve.

Checkout the porting fun . . . about 12 or so hours into this "easy job"!

Note: The following pictures are in order of the work . . . so you'll see pictures of the manifold before I started, what the ports and flow/paths looked like, etc --- then you'll see the progress through the porting job. Checkout the last picture - you'll looking directly down the intake port!

Enjoy . . .



Checkout the thick mounting pad below - gave me a LOT to work with.



This shows a couple ports that are at the 36 grit 'roughed' stage . . . two more grits to go!


Even for the outside cylinders - I have a large and direct flow path to the ports . . . not too bad in my mind.


The manifold riser was reworked to match the new 'D-Port' shapes on the outside. There is a really nice flow path from the base of the carbs . . . all the way down to the intake valves.



This is with the manifold mounted to the block - you're looking directly down the intake port . . . I believe it has more than enough flow potential and I'll be "chocked off" by the 170 cfm carb limitations.

 

How's the clutch disk clearance to those bolts?

 

Hi Dale:
Brilliant! Thanks. TEB

 

'Punting' on the Eddie Meyer Heads - $%&#$$#@!
The intention on this engine was to rework my original Eddie Meyer heads (circa about 1939 or so). There was a crack in the combustion chamber that went all the way into the plug threads (Jeff Fowler welded the heads up - said the aluminum was really a mess to weld!). Then we put steel spark plug inserts in all the plug holes, then surfaced them, then started taking some measurements to see how much CNC work they'd need.

I first got out my trusty Sonic Tester and it showed I had about .250 thickness in the valve area. I created a CAD model of the chambers, with the appropriate valve angles and locations and then calculated how deep we'd have to go to give the necessary clearance above the .420 lift cam. Well . . . these old heads were made back in the day when there were no big-ass cams and there is no way we could remove enough material to clear the valves AND have any plug threads left (or necessary material thickness in the chambers). Double fricking crap . . . crap, crap, major turds of crap . . .

So, I pondered putting extra thick head gaskets from Cometic on the engine, but that would screw my .040 piston to head quench measurement . . .

Bottom Line - Eddie is Out, Navarro is In: There is no way to rework these heads for this engine . . . I've gone too big on the cam and I'm not about to change that. So - time for a 'Plan B'. Hmmmmm . . . guess I'm going to have to give up on my 'Pre-War' heads plan and get over it.

Well, the very first aluminum heads that I ran were Navarro (when I was 15), and I happen to have a brand new set that I bought from Barney about 8 years ago - kept them "stashed" for a special project. Since I have always liked Navarro products, and I broke my 'flathead cherry' with them - guess this is a decent work around . . .

Ran and picked up the heads and Fowler proceeded to do the CNC work to rework the dome profiles to match my pistons and set my .040 quench height . . . and also we did some work to relieve the tops of the valve pockets where the valves will hit (the Driver's side is the biggest issue - as the valves are .040 higher on that side . . . it is the way these engines are designed).

We used a .020 step with a 1/4" ball mill to do the work - leaving very little clean-up work on my end. I used my porting tools and associated polishing crap to finish the domes and valve pocket areas (after I checked the clearances - needed a bit more work in the top of the valve pockets).

1) Checking Piston and Valve Clearances - Driver's Side First: I used some of that children's modeling clay and put little rolls of it across the domes and in the areas where the valves are closest to the pockets. Then I installed the heads with a gasket and made sure nothing was hitting - before I tightened them a fair amount (say 10 lbs or torque). Then I slowly turned the engine over by hand (making sure the pistons and valves weren't binding on the heads) - I did two full rotations.

Then I pulled the heads back off and used an X-Acto knife to cut the clay and measure the thickness. I had exactly .040 on the pistons to heads and about .040 on the valves (which is tight, but what I wanted). I also checked the Passenger's side - knowing that I'd have a lot more valve clearance (per Ford's design).






Note: As you can tell, the very top of the valve is a bit 'tight' for clearance, so I used my porting tools to open up these areas on both heads (to keep the chamber sizes the same on both sides).

Here you can see the work in the 'eyebrow' areas and the polished domes . . . good by me!



Everything was cool, time to install the heads and button the top-end up.

2) Putting the Engine on TDC Compression Stroke on #1 Cylinder: I used my dial indicator and rotated the crankshaft until I was on TDC for the #1 cylinder. I then put my degree wheel back on and set the pointer. One needs to do this before the heads go on for the final time - if you want to mark TDC on your crankshaft pulley (which I will do shortly). I will put markings for TDC, and every 5 degrees up to 25 before TDC.

3) Head Gaskets - Cometic MLS: I decided to purchase a set of Cometic .051 thick MLS head gaskets - just to see how they work out. They are 3 times as expensive as what I normally run (Best Garkets), but I wanted to see how they work out and how well they seal the water passages in the deck. I'm thinking about using them for blown applications and also for Ardun's - so as this is my 'experimental engine', why not try them here. After selling my body parts . . . they showed up (they make them to order - takes a week or so).

Enough for now . . .

 

Final Assembly, Carbs, Oil Lines, etc:
I won't bore you with all the little details of final assembly - but a couple things to note are:

1) Oil Lines - Temporary Solution!: I have 1/2" stainless hard line material that I wanted to use. Well, I tried my cheapo tubing bender and it was completely worthless. So, I decided to put "modern" braided lines and nickel plated fittings on for now . . . and I'll have some mandrel bent tubing done this winter so I can replace these modern eye-sores. They don't look completely horrible, but they are definitely nowhere near 'period looking' (which is what I want), so I'll swallow some pride for a bit and get them replaced in the dull drums of Winter.

2) Stromberg 48 Carbs - Another Experiment - Ceramic Coatings: I'm running Stromberg 48's due to them having about 15 CFM more flow than the 97's. Picked up a 'matched' pain of used ones and reworked them with a lot of new parts from Clive at 'Stromberg 97's' - so nice to have affordable new parts! I used their 'Premium' rebuild kits - as they come with new idle screws and other small parts I like.

I rebuilt my first 97 carb when I was 15 - have done countless ones of them. Stromberg carbs are kind of like having aluminum polished - they look really great before you run them . . . and over time, they look like shit. Some amount of gas will leak someplace and ruin the black paint on the bases and the bodies themselves will become tarnished and stained as well. So - time to try something new (at least to me). I decided to use ceramic "gun" coatings on the bases and bodies - as it is supposed to be tough as hell, impervious to solvents and protects against corrosion. Well - if if does all that crap, then I'd be happy . . . so lets try it.

The process is very similar to the ceramic coatings I did on the pistons and other parts - but one area where I learned a bit and will need to fine-tune a bit in the cast bodies. I put them in the oven at 250 degrees for 2 hours - to "gas out" any oils or other impurities in the castings - but even with 2 hours of baking (before I applied the ceramic coatings), I have a few 'blister spots' in a couple areas. I'm probably the only one who will notice, but it still aggravates me! I think I'll need to soak the bodies in Acetone for a longer period and use a longer "gas out bake" cycle.

3) I used a satin nickle type color for the carb bodies - I'm 'okay' with it . . . might go more 'silver' next time. I used a flat black coating on the bases, linkages and 'small parts' items.



Overall, they turned out pretty nice - will be very interesting to see if these coatings hold up and perform as I would like them too . . .