A year or so ago I bought a take out engine with a rebuild date of Jul 74 on the tag. I finally got it tore down for inspection yesterday. It was sleeved to standard bore and the crank was turned .010 undersized. The engine is super clean on the inside and the crank, cam and rods look great. The bearings looked odd to us so they are going in the trash...it was almost as if they used "pretested" bearings in it.
The cam bearings all appear to be rotated a few degrees from what I would call correct. So they are coming out too.
The thing we are trying to figure out is why this engine had all the exhaust valves stuck open or nearly so. The exhaust valves in cylinders number 1 and 2 were broken. But there are no signs of damage to the head or deck surface. Once we drove the valves out and wiped the oil from them, they went back and and were fine. Could it be some gorrilla tried to unstick them with a prybar and broke two of them? We think the head had been off as the headbolts were not torqued down.
Is sticking valves a feature of these engines?
Also, any preferences on where to get main, rod and cam bearings?
-John
Member of Dixie Division MVC
1953 USAF M37 wow, restored
1962 M151 Ford Production, on the rotisserie now
1953 USMC M37 w/w -in storage
1942 M6 Bomb Service Truck (sold to UK collector)
1967 M116A1 Pioneer Trailer
1968 M101A1 Trailer
S-89 Comm box
Refit,
Also check your valve guides. I accidentally bent an exhaust valve removing a head stud also broke the valve guide. You explaination is the only reason I could think of if there is no other visible damage.
Yes sticking valves on dormant flat head engines are a perpetual problem.
All bearings, rings and gaskets can be had from local suppliers, if you know what to ask for. These Dodge engines
were made for decades and parts are still readily available.
You might also ck. with John at Midwest Military or Jens at Vintage Dodge.
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