EAB flathead, noise pushing it under load

r_reed

r_reed

Senior Member
my EAB is about 6 years, 12,000 miles into a rebuild. it runs great, has lots of power (merc crank, schneider cam, .060 bore, ports smoothed up, bubba distributer, mech advance only, large diameter 3 bolt carb). just recently when hauling up hills, when the revs are up i get a squeaking noise. i wonder what it is, how bad? i can avoid it by just not pushing it so much, which of course, is what i do now, (don't push it). any ideas?
 
actually, i was hoping it would something simple like the belts. since i just put it away for the winter, that will be first on the list next spring. actually my belts are 13 years old with about 25K miles, maybe i'll just get two new ones while i'm at it. even if the noise is from something else, belt replacement makes sense.
 
Most likely it is spark knock. The huge chambers in our Flathead engines tend to "squeak" rather than ping or rattle. The possible causes can be several including, but not limited to, carbon build-up in the chambers or low grade fuel or over advanced ignition or hotter than normal operating temperature.
 
thanks, guys, for the suggestions. i will look in to all of them. since this just started after 6 years of perfect running, i'm thinking belt or carbon build up. it is not running hot, in fact, i would like it to run a little hotter. but we'll check it all. thanks.
 
I remember years ago when we had an old tractor that would squeek under load. It was the head gasket leak causing the noise. I don't recall if it had any other signs of leakage except the squeek.
 
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