1950 Mercury Flathead

J

Justin446

New member
Hey guys, I'm new to flatheads. I've got a 1950 Mercury with flathead in that I've owned for about a year. Car had sat for 25 some years. The guy I bought it from said it had some valves that were sticking and he pulled engine and redid valves. Yesterday I was driving car and it started making a ticking noise then die. Could not get it to restart, but turns over pretty easy. I'm thinking something with valves again, but I'm not sure.. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
 
The nice thing about a flathead is you can remove the intake manifold without draining the coolant. Since the valves are the last thing changed, that's the first place I'd look. Pull the intake (with fuel pump and carburetor) and take a gander to see if anything is remiss.
 
You could pull the intake, but just a few questions… How much have you driven it since you owned it? How has it been running prior to this? How long before you bought it did he claim that he did the valves? Did it just die instantly, or was it acting up and gradually failed?

What exactly did he do? If he did do them, and he did it properly, there’s no good reason to assume it’s valves again… unless he didn’t or he didn’t!

First thing I’d do with any non starter is check you have spark and fuel. Then pull the plugs and do a compression test before I pulled the intake.

Always start with the basics and eliminate the simplest and most common issues first. Nothing worse that chasing a gremlin down a rabbit hole looking for a valve issue, only to find a broken low tension wire in the Distributor.
 
leon bee said:
If a valve was stuck open there would be no compression in that cylinder?
Click to expand...

Yes. Low or no compression would indicate a valve or other compression related issue.

Worth doing before pulling the intake… a cheap compression tester is less than a new intake gasket and you can use it more than once… knowing the compression readings on each cylinder is useful to know anyhow… it will also give you a general sense of overall wear, and easy to do while you’re checking plugs anyhow. (Particularly on a Flathead!)
 
My dads'32 roadster was fine when it was parked 15 years ago. I started it and it has two stuck open valves. I just need to pull the intake and unstick them. Too many projects.

It's strange it won't run even if it has a valve that's stuck. I'm not sure that's your problem. It should at least try to start. I'd do a compression check.

Years ago, I bought a '51 Merc engine from a guy. He had a customer that had owned the car since it was new, and it had a problem with the engine. He convinced the guy to put a Chevy in it. I was thinking here's a guy has driven it all those years and now someone has convinced him it won't run without a Chevy???? When I pulled the intake manifold one of the valve guide keepers had come out, so the valve and guide was just floating. A new keeper and a gasket and I bet it would have been fixed for under $20.00. I still have that engine sitting on a KRW stand, standard bore block, Merc crank and no cracks.
 
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