Flat head Motor Stuck

[bputhuff]

One slick method I read about was to jack up the front end, put a socket wrench with a long handle on the crank pulley bolt and lower the car such that the weight of the car rests on the socket handle end. Go away for a day or so, then check if anything has moved. A piece of pipe over the wrench handle helps in this setup.

[Hoop]

"Is the motor free now?"

Guess we'll never know. One post then ... gone. A drive-by poster.

Spent the last two days "freeing" an 8BA that truly sat in a barn for 25 years. This thread kept coming back to me.

About the "rocking the car" technique. The younger guys tried that before older, cooler heads arrived. The pistons freed up but they popped two valve guide clips off(!) and shoved the valves open with the one-piece guides firmed attached ... three valves were so stuck that only removal and careful heating loosened them. Half of the rest of the valves were so stuck that no long term soaking would have cleared them.

Point is, if you spray some stuff in the spark plug hole and dump a little something or other in there ... and the engine frees up, the engine was just "stuck a little." It was not "stuck."

I hope that anyone tackling a seized flathead will go gently and as some others cautioned ... make sure the valves are free. If you are unwilling to at least remove the intake, maybe you shouldn't be messing with it. With the cost of machine work and the difficulty in finding good flathead shops, try not to damage more than you "fix."

[Capn John]

Penetrating Oils Compared

Machinist's Workshop magazine tested various penetrants for break-
out torque on rusted nuts. Significant results! They arranged a subjective
test of all the popular penetrants, with the control being the torque
required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.
Penetrating oil ..... Average load
None ..................... 516 pounds
WD-40 .................. 238 pounds
PB Blaster ............. 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ...... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil ............ 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix... 53 pounds
The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic
transmission fluid and acetone.
Note that the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this
one particular test. A local machinist group has mixed up a batch and all now
of them use it with equally good results.

Notice also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.

[Scott H]

Any idea on how long they let the different rust-busters sit before attempting to remove the rusted parts? Since it was a scientific test I'm sure they would have allowed them all the same amount of time, just wondering what that time was.