51 flathead v8 teardown update

[timcharles]

Well, I'm making progress. I just got the eigth piston and rod out. I had three that were tough getting out. Two of them weren't stuck, just dry. I couldn't get to the rod bolts because of the position of the crank. The other piston was very stuck. After spray with penetrating oil every so often it was still very stuck. I finally managed to get a wrench on the rod bolt nuts. Then I could turn the crank to get to the other rod bolts and got those two pistons out. Now the crank is free so I took it out. Then I had good access to the stuck piston. I had to hit it with alot of force to get it to move down. It was at top dead center. It finally moved some. More oil and it moved somemore. It wouldn't come out the top, so I kept driving it down and out the bottom. HOORAY!!! Now the next task is to get the valves and guides out. Still don't have the correct tools. \
Oh, one more thing . The bolt on the inside of one water pump was rusted away some. My socket just kept slipping around it a few days ago. Well, I tried it again today and drove a socket on the bolt with small taps of the hammer. Walla! . The socket stuck on there and the bolt came out with ease. Today was beginners luck. I've said before that this is my first try at this engine stuff. Patience is paying off. Tim

 

[ford1]

when you put the water pumps back on use stainless steel bolts inside the water outlet hole, i bet your going to have to cut the valves and springs in order to get then out, they probably need replacing any way, if you do cut them cut the valve about half way down so you have enough valve stem left to pry up on, remove all the cut stuff and then drive the guides down into the valley, a word of caution if you do decied to cut clean all the grease out of the valve valley, so it wont splatter on you and catch fire

 

[Ronnie]

Buy some stainless bolts for the pumps when you build it use some anti seize and worries are over.
Lots of good info here for engine builds.

Ronnie