I'm going thru another flathead, a 59 block in a 48 Merc. I was kinda surprised to find later (49/53) rods with the insert bearings instead of floaters. Crank is junk and I have a nice spare crank out of another 59 block. Can I still use the later rods on a crank that had floating bearings or do i need to find earlier rods and buy the floating ($$$) bearings? Still learnin this flat head stuff, haven't needed to be swapping parts before on the other motors I've built. Motor had a miss, sounded like a vacuum leak. I found the leak when I pulled the intake. Looks like someone had gotten a little aggressive with the valve tool! Suggestions on best way to fix this intake port? I know, "metalman" should know how to weld this but I've never messed with welding cast iron.
No. The floating bearing crank has the oil hole in the center of the journal. To use the later fixed bearing shell rods, you need the later crank with an oil hole for each rod. Bob
Thanks bobscogin, I was worried about fit, didn't think of oiling but it makes since. I have a spare later crank but it's in a way crusty old block, really didn't want to work that hard to get it out. Yeah, checked to make sure it wasn't a 4" crank right away. Now I got to look at it and see what type of oiling holes it has, maybe that's why it's scored so bad.
" Sure it's not a 4" crank ?" 4" cranks used fixed bearings and two oil holes per journal, so his floating bearing crank wouldn't be 4". Bob
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