Pull the heads before you really get into cleaning it. I would not clean it up too much until I knew it was a builder.
Pulled the heads. All bolts came out safely. Everything in here looks good to me. What do y'all think?
Looks quite promising. How deep is the ring ridge? (ring wear at tops of cylinders) Dirty oil sludge 'Down in the Valley' looks minimal...I've seen 'em so bad that NO valve springs were visible. My present one was not as dirty, but it had been rebuilt. (oversize bore .040")
The only ridge I can see is maybe the thickness of the over bore? Not sure how that works but there is a small ridge. Got a piston cleaned up and it is stamped 040. It turns over nice and smooth.
Pictures are blurry. Look for the odd cylinder. Does one look cleaner or more rusty than the others? Get a wire or nylon hard bristle brush....looks like a big artist brush but stiff....and using a can of diesel or kerosene for a " brush dipper" scrub around those valves. Look for cracks at or running through the seats. Cracks here are problematic. Look for cracks at the head bolt holes between the cylinders. These cracks are not a deal breaker as they were standard equipment on flat head V8s. No cracks there? Count yourself lucky. The cracks between the cylinders are no big deal unless they run down into the cylinder. Most of the time they just run on the deck and again are no big deal. I have a 8BA core block that had teeny tiny pits down in the cylimder. This along with what I suspect was a casting flaw or rusting from the water jacket side caused a crack deep in the cylinder. This crack would catch your finger nail when the block was warm. The crack would allow compression gasses into the cooling system but not oil or water into the crankcase or water jackets. It would idle all day. Give it gas or drive it and it would blow coolant out the radiator over flow and run hot. The coolant smelled more of exhaust (gasoline) than it did antifreeze. This block could be sleeved. So look for anomalies in the cylinders. As said, it all looks promising.
Those cylinders look great! If they all look like that I would be very very tempted to just clean it it up. With a oil can....I would squirt some oil on the mains and rod bearing to turn it. I would pull each cap and look at being condition. No obvious problems....I would then get mash gauges and check clearances. Messy but worth it in my opinion.....I would get a tub and manually scrub it down. What I'm getting at is it may be possible to clean her up....clean all the passages.....oil it when you turn it.....if she cleans up.....get a gasket set, put it back together and do a compression check. It's very possible it just needs a clean up and maybe a valve lap. All you would be out is gasket set. I would try it.
My lifter valley looked just like yours. I scraped as much sludge as I could with a variety of spatulas and flat screwdrivers. Then used gunk engine cleaner. The lip at the top of the cylinders can be removed with a ridge reamer-google that. Excellent tool. I used a borrowed one for mine, re-ringed the Pistons and it runs great. Good luck Sent from my E6810 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Everything on pass side looks great. One questionable thing. The front first valve area has what seamed to be a little rust pitting but very little like maybe from before the previous build. F 1 I hope your rite and she works out that way.
It really does look promising! Other sludge enhancers: Previous owners who discarded the thermostats poor ventilation...Ford installed PCV on many wartime engies These things allowed everything that got past the rings to stay and slowly stew into sludge.
Hell, I don’t even see any cracks running along the valve seats or coolant passage. Pull the pan yet and look at the rails? Good luck. Maybe a back yard over haul.
Haven't pulled the pan yet but as soon as I figure a way to turn this pig over it's next. I'm excited about how good she's looking for sure.
with pan off, you could get a lot of the sludge to move on down hill pretty easily. I say that because when looking at a probably survivor it's just seems fascinating to find out what would happen if changed the sparkplugs, screwed it all back together, and tried to light it up. A shopping cart full of carb cleaner spray and a NAPA gasket set...hmmm.
I suppose this is a bit anal. But I take a set of number stamps and number the cyl head bolts in the proper torque sequence. That way the bolt is always put in the same location that it came from. I also use cardboard and keep track of the push rods on a over head valve engine. number the main cap bolts also. Little things like that make assembly go faster. for instance some engines had a special bolt to facilitate rocker oiling. like a chevy six. and the FE ford has a special skinny bolt that holds the rocker shaft that needs to be installed in the right place for the rockers to oil.
Yep those black oils like Pennzoil and Quaker state would under normal driving create sludge. They where great for a leaking engine. pretty quick you has a thick coating of good inside the engine sealing the leaks.
Do yourself and everyone a favor and take the partially scraped out block to an engine rebuilder who has a heat cleaning line. The block gets baked to burn out all carbon and remaining sludge, moves to a shot blaster, and then to a shaker to remove any remaining shot.
Myself I prefer the studs. just remove the nuts and squit a 50-50 mixture od auto trans fluid and diesel or acetone around the studs let it set a few days and they will slide off. I have a 53 flathead that has studs. it has gotten rusty and one piston is really stuck. It was stored in the dry. but mice got inside. the fuel pump mount was missing. and the carb and exhaust manifolds and they certainly ruined it. I intend to put the block in a electroliss vat with molasses and let that eat the piston. Ive got a set of .030 pistons from a Sears Allstate 53 engine that had a busted block. That sears mill also had adjustable lifters. Not gonna really use the engine for anything. just get it running on a stand with a radiator and fire it up every so often.
That's fine and dandy if you are going to remachine the entire block. But heat could possibly warp the machined surfaces and cyls. I use oven cleaner. A high pressure hot water power washer diesel fuel. rifle cleaning kit. elbow grease to clean parts. Ive even boiled pistons in a coffee can of water on the kitchen stove.
This is my first one so just learning the ends and outs of them without spending ten grand. If everything checks out good put new gaskets on her and fire it up. Have fun with it and build a new one while enjoying a cheap engine.
The Jalopy Journal
