Sticking valve.

denverslim

denverslim

Senior Member
I have, what I believe, is a stuck valve in my 8BA flattie. Last fall, when moving the car from one garage bay to another, it ran really rough when it started, needing a LOT of throttle and sounded like it was hitting on only a few cylinders. Needing to take care of other more important things, I shut the flattie off and it has been sitting all winter. It runs the same with start up today.
I tried pouring some MMO in the carb and each cylinder but I notice very little or no improvement. So much for the easy way out.

What would you guys do next? Start pulling heads to locate the stuck valve? And what is the fix? This engine doesn't have very many miles on it, --4 or 5k, and it should not need a full rebuild. If it is just carbon build up and a stuck valve, would you just address the bad valve and sew it back up? Due to some family crisis' and illness, I am guilty of not running the flattie as often as I would have liked to and usually do.

Advice, please...slim
 
I'd pull the intake manifold so you can identify the sticking valve(s), and get at them. Relatively easy and quick to do.
 
Seems to be a common problem on the flathead v8s. Both of mine had some stuck exhaust valves after sitting for a few years. I unstuck them all without any disassembly. Just time, patience, pentrating oil , hammer and punch applications. Now I just need to remember to run them more often so this does not happen again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn8q0ygd3k4
 
I usually respond to these specific issues, like Ralph (above) states, this IS a very common occurence.

It won't be much help at this time for "slim" here, but for anyone contemplating a present or future build by all means have the guides lined with the bronze inserts.

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. Over a period of 45 years now I've lost track of how many Flathead guides we've lined, I know it's high in the "hundreds" and so far we haven't had one single "stuck" valve! The procedure works really well!!
 
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