1939 Chrysler Flathead 6, Paranoid About the Block

[MercMontMars]

I haven’t worked on my Windsor in a while now, last thing I did was pull the head and free up the valves. Due to time constraints and where the car is located, I couldn’t really do the best job on the head. Cleaned the threads as best I could and sprayed all the bolt holes with some WD-40. I put them back in after hand-threading the bolts a few times to try and get the excess fluid out, then torqued them with the head on. Didn’t use an impact or anything, just my old torque wrench. The car is currently stored outside so I wasn’t comfortable leaving the head off or loose. 

 

Alright.. after all that.. my concern is if I could’ve messed my block up. I’ve heard the horror stories of folks cracking their blocks because they didn’t clean the threads well enough or there was liquid in them. Really hoping I didn’t harm anything.. but if I did, where’s the first place to look? Probably sounds silly, but that’s just how my mind works. Won’t be quiet until I post about it. Thanks for any help or advice! 

[c49er]

Don't worry about that...you will be fine...most all the tapped head bolt holes go thru into the water jacket.

...as long as the head bolts threaded into the threaded holes readonably well...not reqiring excessive high torque to seat them against the head.

Edited May 16 by c49er (see edit history)

[MercMontMars]

@c49er That’s reassuring, thank you. Nope, they all went in reasonably well. Makes a little more sense now why some of them were rusty, I was super confused by that when I removed them. Was thinking they looked like cast iron that was left wet.

[Rusty_OToole]

If you are in an area that gets hard frost in winter have a look a the left side of the block an inch or 2 above the pan rail. That is where these engines crack if they are going to. The problem is, you can drain the radiator but the water stays in the block unless you remove a drain plug in the side of the block. Here in Canada I have seen more than one motor cracked in this way.

Edited May 16 by Rusty_OToole (see edit history)

[MercMontMars]

@Rusty_OToole Will definitely check there. There’s a registration sticker from New Hampshire on the windshield from 1988 so that’s where the car once was, now it’s here in FL. Not sure how kind NH was to it.

[DFeeney]

You will find a lot of "Urban Myths " in the hobby.

[Rusty_OToole]

Mercmont you need to check out this guy's work. Notice what a wreck he started with and how nice it runs after a little work. He did not even spend much money.

Watch this video then go back and watch last week's to get the full story. This should encourage you as to what can be done. Those old Chrysler flatheads are hard to kill.

 

 

 

[MercMontMars]

@Rusty_OToole Oh wow.. seeing that made my old Chrysler look like a “clean example.” ColdWarMotors is great, I’ve watched some of his work before. Amazing to see the stuff he makes move  again.

[Rusty_OToole]

To quote Scott's friend old Tom "you worry too much over f*ck all".

[kramaton]

On 5/16/2024 at 2:32 PM, Rusty_OToole said:

If you are in an area that gets hard frost in winter have a look a the left side of the block an inch or 2 above the pan rail. That is where these engines crack if they are going to. The problem is, you can drain the radiator but the water stays in the block unless you remove a drain plug in the side of the block. Here in Canada I have seen more than one motor cracked in this way.

Yep. Had a 37 Chrysler six cracked like that. About 6 inches long.  About 1973. My dad stick welded it with an old AC welder. Stayed leak free till I sold the car About 15 years ago.