Casting sand in Flathead coolant passages?

John Kennedy

John Kennedy

Senior Member
I've heard that these engines were known to have a layer of casting sand left in the bottom of the water jackets, which helped them overheat. Is this true? I'm sure if it is true, it would be a hard-packed mess, and molasses soaking wouldn't touch it. Any thoughts on this? I did a search on here and the HAMB first.

Thanks!
John

Oh, mine's a 1948 59AB
 
Well, I used a long screwdriver and a nozzle on my shop vac to work out all I could in the engine in my avatar. I pulled the heads and dug into any open port into the water jackets. I filled nearly a 1 gallon can of sand from both sides when I was done. I also flushed it many, many times with water as well during the process with my low-speed (1600 psi) power washer. Worked pretty well.

Another way is to take it to an engine rebuild shop that has a shake and bake machine - I always forget the actual name for it. It sits in an enclosed fixture, is heated up, turned this way and that, all the while shotpeened with media. The block will come out as clean as a new born's behind, let me tell you, and you will NOT find any sand in the block after that!
 
I took an 8BA type block to a Ready Strip place about 20 years ago to get it de-rusted. When I went to pick it up , it looked like new. The guy running the shop showed me a coffey can full of core wire and sand that had come out during the process. I guess he wasn't used to processing to many old flatheads because he'd never taken that much crap out before. The amusing part is that the motor never really had any prior tendency to overheat at all, even with all that crap in there.

Kerby
 
A lot of crap in some of those blocks. The key to good cooling is to get it as clean as possible. I made a nozzle from refrigeration tubing that could also be put on the shop vac.
 
Just rebuilt an 8BA. Used cabinet screwdrivers, air hose, long sharpened rods, etc. to get into the bottom of the water jacket. Freed up several pounds of sand, lime, etc. I thought I'd done a good job. Sent the block to an excellent machine shop (Whetsel Automotive in Greenfield, IN) for work and they found and removed more crud prior to the "shake & bake" routine. Engine will run at just over 100*F unless thermostats are used. You'll be glad you cleaned the block thoroughly.
 
Any of you ever wonder if a lot of the crud that is found in the water jacket
could be the result of muddy water dipped out of the ditch alongside the road and dumped in the radiator in order to get an overheated flathead back home?

Bob
 
John Kennedy said:
I've heard that these engines were known to have a layer of casting sand left in the bottom of the water jackets, which helped them overheat. Is this true? I'm sure if it is true, it would be a hard-packed mess, and molasses soaking wouldn't touch it. Any thoughts on this? I did a search on here and the HAMB first.

Thanks!
John

Oh, mine's a 1948 59AB
Click to expand...

John:

You wouldn't believe how true it is. My block was baked and boiled. I still managed to find little traces of casting sand/vintage crud/etc. in some of the deepest nooks in there. Mine block is also a 59AB.
 
My Grand parents bought a new 1950 6 cylinder Ford. The car always ran hot. A lot of work was done at the dealership when new. Did not help. Many years later I Replaced a rusty freeze plug and found the water jacket in the block was full of casting sand. I removed all of the freeze plugs and spent several hours running air and water through it till it was clean. Mistery was solved! Runs cool now.
 
Rotorwrench. As you found in most engines the small amount of sand, rust and crud doesn't have much effect on cooling. This sand is laying at the lowest part of the cooling system which is down on top of the pan rails. If a mouse or rat stores nuts, cotton or cardboard in an open engine that's another story, this is hard to get out. G.M.
 
I purchased a rebuilt engine that was run only a few miles, owner said it ran hot. I pulled the water pumps off and cleaned out sand, bits of metal core support and then I water/sand blasted from the top down (thru the heads) you should have seen the dirty sand, crud come out, also did it into the water pump holes again more dirty junk, engine runs cool now and even cooler after some of Skip's pumps were installed
 
just finished cleaning out the passages on a 59ab i can understand now why some of the flatheads run hot. rust and sand or whatever was packed between the cyl and and around the valve cavities..i dont think any cleaning process would have gotten this out, but its clean now after about a week of chipping and scraping, dp
 
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