Walt's Model B spare engine
- Thread starter Walt Dupont--Me.
- Start date
hardtimes
Well-known member
Hey Ed,
Yeah, Bruce is correct, as they 'could' be cranked ! However, YOU are correct in this particular case and my brain went to sleep on that one. If you look at the front end of crank, there is a Winfield harmonic balancer...and thus...no way to crank this B. Frankly, I don't think that there is anyone alive who would be able to crank this one before it is run in. I tried when I had the crank nut on...and now have a 'bum' shoulder ! Hm, supposed to get smarter as get older, eh
Looks like Walt doesn't have a crank nut on his either.
Last edited:
32 ford barn
Senior Member
Looks great! Where can I get a large oil filler cap? Jim
hardtimes
Well-known member
Hey Jim,
If you referencing the one on my B, a Barner named Bill Stipe makes those custom. Look him up on Barn roster
! LOTS of talented Barners, like Walt, have contributed skills/parts to my engine. PETE here with hot cam, Stipe with oil filler, barner bud with oil pump, Walt with teachings, etc !!Even with an easy spinning engine you'll never crank start it without the flywheel! You need the weight of the flywheel for enough inertia to carry the crankshaft from one firing event to the next. Without the 'wheel it'll just pop and quit, pop and quit,,,,,,,,,,,.
hardtimes
Well-known member
Hm, never thought that one through, but sounds right ! Balancer has the diaphragm pressure plate and aluminum flywheel now. Anyway , that will keep me out of trouble till it's back and bolted on. Thanks !
Walt Dupont--Me.
Well-known member
BOY, that sounds like quite an engine. What is it going in? You got to use some common sense on running an engine on a test stand. The main thing is don't let it set there and idle for 2 days. Walt
hardtimes
Well-known member
Hey Walt,
Well, it's going into a beat up '30 ford roadster that I pieced together from all over the USA , years ago
!Ha, that's funny..'common sense', as they say , is not so common , eh
!Boy, I'd love to hear that engine of yours running !! Are you a modern man type that can post here something for us to hear/see it running ?
Walt, do you 'break in' / 'seat the rings' on an engine stand. If so, what procedure do YOU use
Walt Dupont--Me.
Well-known member
I don't use a test stand to break in an engine. When I first start an engine, make sure you have good oil pressure, if it hitting all cyl, speed the engine up 1500-1800 rpm and let it sing 10-15 min. jass the throttle every now and then, keep an eye on the oil pressure and temp ( assume you have a radiator on this test stand ) NOW, you slow it down check timing, ajust carb so it idles .That should only take a couple of min. NOW, don't start it up every time a friend come over. NOW, the rings are not really broke in, the right thing to do put it in the car, take it out on a piece of road where you can peddle to the meddle up to 50-60, slack off back down to 30, peddle to the meddle to 50-60 back to 30, do that 10-12 times and drive it normal, the main thing is don't let a new engine set and idle for a long time. Most of you cain't imagine how many tractor engines and industrial engines I've built in over 60yr's. Do you think they went all went through this BS when they put these engines back in. How do you think all these old stock car engine myself and Old Ron ect got broke in. Put em on the track and wind the s-t out of em. I realize the word common since left the dictionary years ago, maybe we should invent another word for it. Walt
Walt Dupont--Me.
Well-known member
I learned this off an old time banger man. First you find yourself a 5 gal pal to set on, mark the weights so there go back on the same place, those weights are pressed on with two 3/16 cold roll pins one on each side, stand the crank on end on the floor, take a heavy sledge hammer with a short handle, start tapping the weight around it, it will surprise you, you tap the weight off and sheer those pin off, now do the next one up, turn the crank over do the same on the other 2 weights. Then you can have the crank ground, then when I put mine back on I warmed them up and they tapped on easier, make sure you line up the marks you made, I drill and tapped where the roll pin were 1/4in course then installed 1/4in allen head set screws and tightened them up, brought the crank back to my balancer and had it balanced. It 's not as hard as it looks. Walt
Tom Walker
Senior Member
Tom Walker
Senior Member
Tom Walker
Senior Member
I've often thought that silly shape crank is a big power limiter on the four cylinder. To get power we need torque and the ability to maintain that torque at high rpm. That crank limits the rpm of those engines.
If you look at the little four cylinder Ford engines, the 10hp Prefect and Popular (Anglia) with 1172cc (71ci) the guys raving them in the 1172 formula were getting high 70's to low 80's in brake horse power at 8500 rpm. This made the little home built race cars attain speeds upto 130mph on the straight at Silverstone circuit. These were flathead engines! The rpm limit was the camshaft, by all accounts the rear cam bearing would exit the bottom of the pan at 8600-8700 rpm.
Be amazing to get one of these big fours to that level, wounder how much power could be got if you scaled up the modifications on the little fours to the big fours? The saying "no replacement for displacement" does make me smile in this case, 130mph! And the car wasn't built for outright top speed, it had to accelerate and corner and last longer than a return run of seven or so miles on straight Line salt. The guys made there own heads, some from melted down milk bottle tops for the aluminium, some ground there own cams, by hand, on an off hand grinder (bench grinder) some of these guys ran radius lifter re entry camshaft profiles ground on billets, using Austin seven radius lifters and profiles.
The A and B engines are around three times as big, with the same porting layout. Now you have a good design crank for yours, and a monkey motion head.
I'm just letting you know what I expect from you and that engine!
Only kidding, on the expectations.
Maybe,
Might be serious,
Have fun
Martin.