flathead 4 banger

[jetboat]

My father in-law is clearing out a bunch of junk that has been collecting in his warehouse for the past 65+ years. His dad started the business with a surplus Jeep with trencher that he still has shoved in the back of the shop. When they bought the Jeep it came with a spare motor that they never needed. Well I saw the motor and asked what he was doing with it and got the response "Scrappers coming for it". I convinced him it needed loaded in my truck instead. I ran it to the car wash and checked the casting/engine numbers.

Its a 41-45 L134 MB motor.

My plan is to restore the motor, find a 2wd trans and build a Bantam roadster. After all, Bantam came up with the Jeep so its a perfect fit :mrgreen: .

Filled up the cylinders with wd40 for a few day soak.

 

[old man 52]

Thats a nice find.

 

[RootBreaker]

cant find stuff like that anymore..

there is a junkyard by us with gto's, chargers, challengers, camaros... AND THEY WILL NOT SELL THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BJoe]

Wow, great find and nice save there Jeff!

 

[jetboat]

I've been doing some research on performance of these motors... There are guys running well over 100mph with it on the salt flats and vintage sprint cars sporting them. I'm making a list of performance things to do...

Shave Head
Build Dual Carb intake
Custom build Header
Custom Grind Cam
Bore Cylinder

I'm not going to get the 90hp some people claim but, I think I can get 75hp out of it. That's well above what you can get out of a T motor.

The problem I am having though, figuring out a 2wd trans that will bolt to it. They made a 2wd t90 but its very rare. The other option is a dodge np435 and adapter kit.

 

[BJoe]

That is a Willys motor, there has to be a Willys passenger car or truck trans somewhere that has to fit it. Wasn't that one of the Go-Devil motors?

 

[sweli]

Was it a Go-Devil or Hurricane?

Would fit in one of these "thumbsup"

Someone near me has a CJ-2A FS, restored and dressed up in olive-drab with a star and all.

.

 

[BJoe]

Forgot about the Hurricane's, that is a nice looking Willys p/u too!

 

[jetboat]

its a go-devil.

I've been starring at CL ad for a willys truck for a while. Always wanted one. I've got a not so restored cj2a that I have been tearing apart. I considered rebuilding it but I think its too far gone.

 

[BigSki]

great find, it brought back memories of my high school days when I rebuilt a CJ2A. I was able to drag the 134" L4 into my Vo.Tech. class where my teacher helped me through a complete tear down, machine work and rebuild. We even got the welding class involved by building a stand so that we could start the engine.

My teacher showed me a trick for the carb, we had the machine shop build a simple adapter to mount up a Carter WO carb onto the intake, it made the engine run really strong.

That engine that you have, if the serial number support it being for a MB jeep, is worth BIG $$$$ to someone doing a full blown restoration project on a MB military Jeep.

 

[jetboat]

Some more tear downs... The bolts are coming off way too easy, I think its been apart before.

 

[BJoe]

Some more tear downs... The bolts are coming off way too easy, I think its been apart before.

Is that going to be good or bad then?

 

[jetboat]

it depends why it was apart... The head bolts where tight on the perimeter but the center bolts where loose, that leads me to believe they used those bolts for lifting. The front motor mount/timing chain rear cover is missing thus the timing chain bolts etc are loose, that could have been to replace a broken one on another motor.

As the rust slowly leaves the cylinders, I see very very little wear. I'm hoping to get the pistons to free up without too much effort as I don't want to damage the cylinder walls.

 

[jetboat]

I gave up on just freeing it so, I flipped her right over and found something...

so where did it come from?

Found it... #3 bearing

Amazingly, the crank looks ok. Its almost like it fell out when it was being assembled and never actually ran.

A little motivation and the pistons came out. I used a nice soft 2x2 so no damage to the cylinder walls.

Check out the tiny bore and LOOOONG stroke (thats what she said)

 

[BJoe]

A certain Aerosmith song just came to mind with that last picture:ror:

Aerosmith - Big Ten Inch Record - YouTube

 

[jetboat]

I ran the hone thru the bores (until the stone broke) so that I could get a good measurement. Turns out that the motor has been bored .01 over already. I need to get a bore micrometer so I can check to make sure the bore is straight. I might just get away without boring.

I checked the measurements on the crank and all the bearing surfaces are the same so, I don't think there was any damage done by the bearing I found. I need to track down the factory specs so I can find out if its been cut.

 

[BigSki]

So was the #3 bearing cap missing?

 

[jetboat]

nope... bearing cap was installed but, bearing was laying in the block. Its almost like it was rebuilt in a rush and never fired. All the bearings looked brand new. The pistons don't even look to have been actually ran.