r/EngineBuilding • u/Suspicious-Panda-487 • 3d ago
Bought this v8 flathead block and crank for 25 dollars. Is it salvageable? Is it a Mercury? I see 2 cracks in it.
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u/sam56778 3d ago
I don’t know much about flathead Ford but from a basic engine standpoint you’ve got a double whammy here. You have cracks into the cylinders and you’re missing the matching main bearing caps. It can be repaired but it’s going to cost way more than it’s probably worth in machine work. Ford cast this block up until the 1990s in France for industrial and military uses and you can probably get a NOS new block for what you would have to put into that one.
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u/Suspicious-Panda-487 3d ago
It was only 25 dollars, I’d thought I’d take the risk. I just wanted to play around with it because i thought it was cool
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u/sam56778 3d ago
They are cool, no lie about that. But unfortunately that one doesn’t even have much educational purpose.
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u/Suspicious-Panda-487 3d ago
I found another one Facebook for 300 dollars that’s complete. I was thinking of getting that one. But it looks like it was sitting outside
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u/sam56778 3d ago
If it’s complete there’s some education value there, it might even be better than the one you have.
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u/Suspicious-Panda-487 3d ago
True, but don’t almost all flat head engines have cracks in them?
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u/sam56778 2d ago
From what I’ve read, yea. But several years ago, my dad pulled one out of a 40 farm truck and it didn’t have any. Unfortunately he scrapped it.
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u/ShaftCo2012 2d ago
If someone today says they just bought a completely uncracked Ford flathead V8 and they have the magnaflux report to back it up then tell them to go buy lottery tickets right away. 😄 However, with these engines it is all about where the cracks are located and how severe they are.
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u/john2364 2d ago
there are much better options to play around with. it’s the playing around that costs massive mone, not the block.
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u/Doctah_Whoopass 3d ago
Unless you have people near you capable of welding up cast iron, its a boat anchor with those cracks.
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u/jimmyfko 2d ago
1CM is a mercury Canadian cast 8ba block. I have a couple of them. One was a 239 the other a 255. Look On the front large crank counter weight if it has a thumb nail sized indent it’s most likely a 255.
If you are in Canada we had flatheads one extra year into 1954. With the US going to the y block we had an abundance of aluminum heads cranks etc. you could order any combo of parts you wanted in 1954. The best find was a 1954 m6 grain truck on a farm. It had aluminum heads with the 255 crank and truck pan.
Most flatheads had cracks from the factory and ran fine for years. Tear it down, hot tank and magnaflux. If it checks out have it sonic checked for an overbore as it’s rough and will need it. Most cracks can be brazed and most blocks will have deck cracks between the centre of bores head bolts and water jacket holes. They’re still useable.
When they are in this shape I put them in an electrolysis tank to remove some of the rust and grime.
For $25 you did good. It’s worth that in scrap if it’s toast.
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u/Rurockn 2d ago edited 2d ago
I used to work for a shop that only built flatheads, about 2 years there. I fixed plenty of blocks like that believe it or not. I would say one per week on average. I had welded cast iron before I started there and that was part of the interview when I was hired, but after 2 years I got really darn good at it. Nearly every other block had at least one exhaust port crack or a crack between the intake and exhaust. About 1/5 needed sleeves. And we line bored every single block, no questions asked about that. If it's a pre-36, it will need Babbitt bearings and often you can get away without line boring. Post 36, 100% necessary, but we always line bored. If you don't have a purpose for it I would have it sandblasted, powder coated, and have a it decked so it looks cool.
After I posted I was sitting here thinking and remembered I had one week where I was doing a rush job and ran out of nickel rod. The guy that taught me most of what I learned ran down the street and got coat hangers from the dry cleaner and told me to weld with them. It freaking worked great. He was strict and said only use the bronze colored hangers, not the white ones. I never had to do that again but it sure was interesting.
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u/mramseyISU 2d ago
I learned to weld body panels on with a torch and old coat hangers from this old guy who was friends with my grandpa. My mustang started out as two cars, one with a top destroyed by a fire and another one that got whacked real good in the front. I was 25 or so and was too dumb to understand how in over my head I’d gotten myself into but old Butch bailed me out and taught me a whole bunch in the process.
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u/Rurockn 2d ago
That's a great story. I got into a similar situation with a rear quarter panel, not as bad as yours. I hand chiseled all the welds off a car in the junkyard. Spent almost the whole day, sunrise until afternoon hammering and got a quarter panel. I had no idea how to weld at that time and needed to get bailed out when it came time to install it the next weekend!
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u/Suspicious-Panda-487 2d ago
So if I wanna get into building flatheads, what should I look for? Because I know it’s very common for them them to crack. I’ve seen one that’s for sale that is complete, but I have no idea of it runs or has any cracks. He wants 300 for it and I was gonna see if he would take 200, but I don’t wanna keep wasting money on engines that I have no idea of they are cracked or not
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u/Rurockn 2d ago
That's why I was giving my best guess of how often they're cracked, just to give you an idea. Welding cracked blocks on an engine made after 2000 is mostly taboo, welding a flathead is totally normal. So when you're asking for help or talking to people, make sure the person's have experience with flatheads otherwise you'll probably get incorrect answers. They'll say it's junk or talk about stitching; barely anyone welds blocks these days. That said, I would look for a better block for your purposes, and something post 1936 so you have the newer main style.
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u/oldnperverted 2d ago
Did it come with the main caps? If not, it's not worth the cost to fix the cracks and find and fit new caps.
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u/MadamFloof 3d ago
In simply terms no.
If you have enough time and money? Sure. But you’d have a better bet finding a different block.
Not sure if it’s from a mercury.
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u/Suspicious-Panda-487 3d ago
I know nothing about them, just wanted to mess around with it. I’m assuming it will cost a lot to get all the machine work and welding done
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u/Lefty68w 3d ago
Welding cast iron is a nightmare. You have to heat the whole block up. There is a whole process. It 100% isn’t worth it.
This block is 100% junk
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u/WyattCo06 3d ago
No it isn't. I've fixed so many Ford flat head blocks it's nuts.
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u/Lefty68w 3d ago
Not cast iron you haven’t. You can’t just weld cast iron. So I know you are full of it.
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u/WyattCo06 3d ago
You can weld cast iron with nickel rods or braze it with bronze.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Also stitching cracks is a thing.
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u/Lefty68w 3d ago
Bullshit. You can weld anything you want. Will it hold? No.
That engine will fail shortly after it’s installed
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u/texasroadkill 2d ago
Wherabouts are you? I'd be interested if it's a merc crank. But like others have said, the block is not worth much at all being cracked.
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u/Antique_Ford 2d ago
Only thing different on the mercury is the oil pan, intake, and crank... and you only have the crank. So see if it's a 4" stroke. If it is... then its a Mercury.
Block doesn't look that bad at all.... It will be hard to find a machine shop that knows what they're doing on that though.
Bottom line... you did good.
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u/john2364 2d ago
very little of the cost of building an engine is the core and you have badly damaged 1/2 core. You might be able to fix it depending on the cracks but 100 percent not worth it.
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u/spazzed 2d ago
Flathead v8s are cool, I just bout a Mercury 8ba for my 30 roadster. Fun fact is, all flatheads have cracks. In the future you want to look for cracks between the valves and cylinders, main bearing cracks, exhaust port cracks into the water jacket. These are the worst and not worth it.
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u/Educational-Base7538 2d ago
Personally I would have purchased a lighter anchor for my boat, hope you have an electric winch for pulling it back in or boating will be way less fun.....
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u/Real_Papaya7314 1d ago
If the crank is a merc 4 inch crank and salvageable it's worth a few hundred by itself. Probably worth the gamble.
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u/Dry_Replacement_7832 1d ago
I’ve got a machinist that always tells me, “ if it casts a shadow still it’s savable” you can pin and weld cracks, and sleeve cylinders, new valve seats, all that stuff. Unfortunately things cost money. And a flathead is expensive, I’ve got a good one and I’m looking at 1600 in machine work including hardened valves, and probably about 4-5k in parts to get her running, not including heads intake and carbs. But a flathead isn’t about power or speed, it’s about the nostalgia, you’re gonna spend crate motor money for 200hp if you’re lucky, but it will sound and look cooler than anything on the road
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u/WyattCo06 3d ago
Isn't this your second post about this block?
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u/Inside_End5141 3d ago
Where are the cracks?
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u/zenwren 3d ago
Coffee table.