Thread: I've got a flathead Ford question.

Tweet

It seems to me that the 8CM Merc blocks were relieved from the factory; I am probably all wet, but that little "---toid" sort of sticks in my head. I do know that my 8BA was not, as I did a mild reliving job on it, and it came out looking similar to that picture, only not as deep and more tapered up from the valves to the cylinder wall. Cracks are most common between the valves and almost any adjacent hole, as they get the brunt of the heat during combustion; also between the cylinder wall and the water jacket; less so to the bolt holes. Sometimes they can be hard to detect without a dye job or magnaflux. Last one I checked out, it was an 8CM, they were very obvious; I went to get some tools, and the guy selling it had the heads off by the time I got my toolbox open. I took one look, and told him "no thanks". Then he tried to give the thing to me. We flipped it over and pulled the pan and some bearing caps; the crank was beautiful, and I pulled a couple of pistons, and the rods were in good shape, so I told him he could get a pretty penny for the crank and rods by themselves, but I had no use for a cracked up engine block, nor for a crank without it. Tried to make it worth the guys while; could have taken the stuff and sold it myself, but that didn't seem right to me.