48 ford 4 door shoebox

[Creeped Out Customs]

Well the last few days i pulled the intake off to expose the valves and got the valves loosened and free moving. Went to move the crank and still nothing,well about a 1/4 in both directions . Pulled the starter to make sure it wasnt engaged against the flywheel ...still nothing .So my next move is pulling the tranny back to see if the tranny input shaft is frozen or a clutch issue. So far the clutch feels fine but 30 years of sitting ya never know. Just right now I'm looking to see if the engine is good or put a 305 or 350 setup in it.

 

[Neverdone]

Nice looking project for sure!!!

Don't give up on the flatty. You can always make a motor run it just depends on how much time you got to spend on it. Personally I would dump a little tranny fluid down the cylinders or marvel mystery oil then let it sit a couple days and try turning it again.

 

[MercuryMac]

another guess

Hi Creeped,
What if mice crawled in through the open exhaust valve and stored grain in one cylinder for years. You might be surprised at the amount of wheat the little buggers can carry into weird places. My vote would be to keep struggling along fixing the Flathead and DON'T put a SBC in a Ford.
Keep on tinkering.

 

[Creeped Out Customs]

decisions ,decisions

Well guys the verdict is in . I started with pulling the heads off today and found that the passenger #3 cylinder valves stayed open and water got in the cylinder and rusted . Not good .My question is this can the cylinder sleeves be pulled out?
My other alternative is to see how much machining on a flathead
or find another car that has the drive line I want and gut it.

 

[dmw56]

Probably won't need sleeved. Flatheads can be overbored quite a bit. I've heard up to .250". Just got to be sure you have good crack free block.

If you are serious about rebuilding it have it magnafluxed first and don't go into shock when you find out how much $$$ it's going to cost to build.

But they do look cool for 100hp.

 

[Torchie]

Since you have the heads off visually check the area between the valves and the cylinders. This is where most of the flatheads blocks crack.
If that looks good then you can procede to the next step of total dissasembly and magnuflux, cleaned, ect.
Two things to be aware of.
1. Flatheads are not cheap to rebuild anymore.
2. Make sure your machine shop knows how and has rebuilt Flatheads before.
These motors aren't like your average SBC.....

I have been running flatheads off and on since the 70's when you couldn't give them away and love the way they sound.
Have fun with your project.
Torchie.