The Ford Barn

GordonC · 12-11-2017, 03:14 PM

It has been suggested by a couple of folks that I should post up my problem with my rebuilt flathead. So here goes. This may get a little long winded so bear with me please.

I have a 1950 Ford 8ba that was rebuilt at a local engine rebuilder. He did all of the machine work and assembly to deliver me a completed short block approximately a year ago. I provided all new parts except for the crank and rods. I put everything else on the engine, heads, intake and so on... I recently installed it into my A roadster and got it ready to fire up. I have all new everything here, new battery, new starter, new flywheel, fuel pump, lines, Bubbas distributor, everything. I set the TDC by putting my finger over #1 plug hole and when I felt compression I rotated it until the timing dot on the pulley aligned with the pointer on the cover and stopped it there. I put the distributor in with the rotor pointing to the #1 plug at approximately 12 o'clock on the distributor. I then ran the plug wires going clockwise using the normal flathead firing order, 15486372. Added my oil and zinc via the remote filter lines. Cranked it with no plugs in to build some pressure. Have oil showing in the oil gauge line. I then attempted to get it to fire and nothing. Its got gas, its got spark and turning over real nice. Advanced the distributor nothing. Retarded it, nothing. No kick, no backfire except for just 1 time. Other than that it just spins. Took a compression reading and all cylinders are at 50 lbs. Which was odd to me. Thought maybe valves were hanging open so I went back through setting the lash and all of the valves were within .003 of where they should have been. Tried again to start with no luck. Decided to pull the timing cover off to check the crank and cam gears to see if they are set up properly with the engine still sitting at what I thought was TDC on compression stroke. Looked at cam gear and can see its dot at about the 7 o'clock position. No dot showing on the crank gear? I have spun this crank 360 degrees multiple times and cannot find a mark on it anywhere to indicate where the initial crank position was set. As I understand it the cam dot and the crank dot are aligned at 12 and 6 respectively and from there you should be good to go. I am not sure the cam gear is installed properly either as the machinist has used socket head allen screws to install it?

So I am at a point where I need some direction on how to proceed. I can pull the heads, the intake, drop the oil pan and so on, but wanted to see if I can somehow straighten this mess out without doing all that and get this running. Now before you say take it back to the guy who did the work he has moved his business and I found some other things done to the engine that indicate to me he shouldn't have touched it in the first place so I have no faith in his ability to correct whatever he did to it.

I can take whatever pictures might help and post them up but I need help on this one.

12-11-2017, 03:14 PM	#1
GordonC Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 201	Rebuilt Flathead Problems. It has been suggested by a couple of folks that I should post up my problem with my rebuilt flathead. So here goes. This may get a little long winded so bear with me please. I have a 1950 Ford 8ba that was rebuilt at a local engine rebuilder. He did all of the machine work and assembly to deliver me a completed short block approximately a year ago. I provided all new parts except for the crank and rods. I put everything else on the engine, heads, intake and so on... I recently installed it into my A roadster and got it ready to fire up. I have all new everything here, new battery, new starter, new flywheel, fuel pump, lines, Bubbas distributor, everything. I set the TDC by putting my finger over #1 plug hole and when I felt compression I rotated it until the timing dot on the pulley aligned with the pointer on the cover and stopped it there. I put the distributor in with the rotor pointing to the #1 plug at approximately 12 o'clock on the distributor. I then ran the plug wires going clockwise using the normal flathead firing order, 15486372. Added my oil and zinc via the remote filter lines. Cranked it with no plugs in to build some pressure. Have oil showing in the oil gauge line. I then attempted to get it to fire and nothing. Its got gas, its got spark and turning over real nice. Advanced the distributor nothing. Retarded it, nothing. No kick, no backfire except for just 1 time. Other than that it just spins. Took a compression reading and all cylinders are at 50 lbs. Which was odd to me. Thought maybe valves were hanging open so I went back through setting the lash and all of the valves were within .003 of where they should have been. Tried again to start with no luck. Decided to pull the timing cover off to check the crank and cam gears to see if they are set up properly with the engine still sitting at what I thought was TDC on compression stroke. Looked at cam gear and can see its dot at about the 7 o'clock position. No dot showing on the crank gear? I have spun this crank 360 degrees multiple times and cannot find a mark on it anywhere to indicate where the initial crank position was set. As I understand it the cam dot and the crank dot are aligned at 12 and 6 respectively and from there you should be good to go. I am not sure the cam gear is installed properly either as the machinist has used socket head allen screws to install it? So I am at a point where I need some direction on how to proceed. I can pull the heads, the intake, drop the oil pan and so on, but wanted to see if I can somehow straighten this mess out without doing all that and get this running. Now before you say take it back to the guy who did the work he has moved his business and I found some other things done to the engine that indicate to me he shouldn't have touched it in the first place so I have no faith in his ability to correct whatever he did to it. I can take whatever pictures might help and post them up but I need help on this one.