engine tear down

fts1966

fts1966

Member
last weekend i was going to remove oil pan and clean it as well as the head gasket. well now it is going to have to be removed and complete disassemble the engine. found large metal in the oil pan. the piston bore is not original it is over i think about to .004 over. my cousin that is 65 said her dad did not rebuild the engine she said that her uncle did sometime in the late 50's before his death. that is what her dad, my uncle had said.
 

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also found out the car was a very dark blue color not all black as i was cleaning some crud off the fire wall with cleaner.
 
we are going to remove the engine tomorrow and tear it apart and see what we have then go from there. i want to do a full rebuild now with modern updates and reliability as well. we did have it running we drove it a couple different times.
 
'Looks like that red battery cable is a 12 volt. For better cranking, order the specially-made for Model A's battery-to-starter 6 volt cable, which is thicker. This will be especially important if you rebuild the engine. It will be tight and will need all the battery power it can get, which will be lost traveling through a thin 12 volt cable. Better check the ground strap, too. It would appear that a previous mechanic/restorer skipped a few important areas.
Marshall
 
I agree with Big Hammer. It looks lie your babbit went south. That much babbit looks like a total lower end failure.
 
Yes, a couple of those larger Babbitt pieces look as though they might have chipped off the side thrust surfaces of a main and/or rod bearing. Not a good omen for the future of this "rebuild". When you find Babbitt pieces on the bottom of the oil pan or lying in one of the dipper troughs, you know a lot of work and money will be expended to correct the problem. 'Sorry to give you this bit of bad news. But I suspect you already knew your engine was among the walking wounded, didn't you?
 
the car is still 6 volt system. after i found those in the oil pan i knew it had to be rebuilt. not an issue it needs to be done. i did not know how the car was to sound it sounded like an old car but nothing terrible as far as sound. so now i guess i will tear the car down in the morning and see what the damage is and go from there.

thank you all
 
Yeah, that engine is shot. Rebuilding one of these things is a very expensive and time consuming project. You would probably save some money and headaches by finding a good used or rebuilt engine. There are several listed here and on the HAMB classifieds.
Good luck........
 
okay got it torn down to the crank don't have the 9/16 square socket for the bolts but you can see the rear main and middle bearings have spun. so now we will get the crank out and have evening checked and machined and start the rebuild. going to go ahead and do the transmission and drive shaved and clutch while its apart as well.
 
Sit down and "guesstimate" the potential rebuild cost. Then compare to the cost of either a "short or long block" available from one of the regular vendors.
Decide how much of the work you can do and how much has to be farmed out. The total cost grows quickly when you get this snowball rolling.
 
If you choose to keep the original poured Babbitt bearings, make sure you find a shop that has a lot of experience doing this work AND has a good reputation! Lots of horror stories out there! And, the same advice applies if you convert to modern insert bearings!
 
we will do the work ourselves for rebuild its not that big a deal we will have the machining done in the area. we are going to have the new bearings and updated parts. we are going to spend the money so it will be done right and be reliable for us to us weekly and enjoy for the next 30 years we are the care takers.
 
fts1966 said:
we will do the work ourselves for rebuild its not that big a deal we will have the machining done in the area. we are going to have the new bearings and updated parts. we are going to spend the money so it will be done right and be reliable for us to us weekly and enjoy for the next 30 years we are the care takers.
Click to expand...

Good decision. Make sure your rebuilder is familiar with the peculiarities of the Model A engine. There is a knowledgeable man in Missouri named Jim Spawn. He is the retiring editor of The Restorer, the national magazine for MAFCA. He would be glad to help you.
 
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