Trying to make 1 running Flathead out of 2

[Detritus]

The title is basically the goal.  I started a restoration thread  the "barn find if i put it there" car.

I got a rolling chassis now, and I dragged out the motor and transmission a while back and started tearing into that.  Found 2 bad 322 pistons, and the 322 block is pretty trash anyway because of freeze damage from who knows when.  Tried to get a couple pistons to just get it running again, no luck.

Moved on to look at building my 346 engine I have, which is a stripped block, and some boxes of parts, and a crank that goes with it.  I spent a bunch of hours cleaning up the 346 pistons, only to find out one of them had a cracked skirt.  It was the last one that I picked up to clean, and redo, lucky me.  Why couldn't it have been the first one?  Looking for a standard 346 piston for that now.

This past week i started taking apart the valve train in the 322, to see what I could salvage.  The 346 valve train is in boxes, unlabled, some of it seized and rusty, and there's probably 3 camshafts lying next to the block on the floor, no idea what goes to what.  There are 4 oil, or lifter galleries, or whatever they are called in boxes, for the 346, but the tappets and hydraulic lifters are stuck in them, and the bores don't look great in the galleries if you take a tappet out.

The 322 Valve train on the other hand looks pretty good.  One bad pitted exhaust valve, and 1 other valve guide that doesn't look good either.  Camshaft looks good, brass or bronze gears or whatever look great.  I took several hours and disassembled it all and cleaned it with a bucket of diesel fuel.  Tons of sludge in the motor, gumming everything up.  I've got all of the parts bagged and labeled as to which lobe of the camshaft that they go to.

Here's my question.  What problems am I going to run into if I do the following plan.

New main bearings on the 346 crank
New Cam bearings, use 322 cam in 346 block
Transplant Valve Train from 322 into 346 block, including the 4 Galleries
Replace the 1 bad valve guide and exhaust valve with other good ones from my pile of 346 parts

Also, 1 other thing that looks strage from engine to engine, is the rear main bearing cap on the 322 has what looks like an oil return tube extending 4-5" down into the oil pan, and the rear main bearing cap on the 346 that I found in a box with the block, has a flat spot in the casting where the tube is on the 322, but there is no tube, no hole, no nothing.  The 37 shop manual I have has a picture of the rear main bearing cap installed, and it has the tube.  Can I build the 346 without that tube? can I move the 322 main bearing cap with the tube over to the 346?

I know what you Should do.  Send block, crank, cam out to a machine shop, get checked, bored over, New Master engine rebuild kit, all that.  But, for one thing, I don't have 6-$8k lying around for that, and for another, this is a 5019 sedan that won't be worth much even in great condition. 

I'm really just trying to get a halfway decent runner here, out of spare parts, and the minimum of new ones.  At the end of the day, I doubt this car will see 1000mi a year, even when it's done.  It's such a low horsepower primitive engine, there has got to be some of this stuff a guy can get away with.  I remember hearing a story about henry ford driving a bunch of Model T's a few hundred miles, disassembling all of them right down to the pistons, scrambling the pile, and reassembling the cars with the mismatched parts to prove how simple, reliable, and practical the horseless carriage can be, not just a one off custom rig like a lot of cars of the day were. 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.

[Poncholover]

It will be fun to watch this tread!
Experts will chime in but the cams are supposed to be the same, valves too.
DON'T switch main caps.
Since these are low compression, low rpm engines and not for the circle track, it may last many years?
I may be in the same "boat" next Spring...

[Detritus]

Thanks for the reply Flattie,

I'll get some pictures up, I know everybody likes to look at pictures and stuff.

I'm not super concerned about sticking a used valve in there as long as the dimensions mic up within reason of the old ones, maybe ream the guide.  Lap all the valves and stuff, get the clearance right.  Same with an oddball used piston.

The biggest question mark for me right now, is on the oil galleries, if that's what they're called.  I'm hoping since they don't actually "hard connect" with the valve stems or anything, there should be some tolerance.

Just as a For Everybody's Information too, If I end up really backed into a corner on this money wise, I'm going to do all of the stuff you're not supposed to anyway, and see if it blows up or what.  Doubt my car's value would change much if I stuck a 350/350 in it.  I'd really rather not though, I like old stuff. 

[Detritus]

Ok, so what I have been calling "galleries" is actually called a lifter bracket.  I found a picture with it labeled on another lifter thread on here.  It's the cast piece that holds 4 lifter bodies, and there are 4 of them in these engines.  The lifter brackets are the things I'm wondering the most right now about swapping from the 322 into the 346 block.

Doing that reading through those other threads though, I apparently reinvented the wheel by messing with my gummy parts for all of those hours and figuring it out the long way, but, I did it right, so, that's a win I guess.

[wheikkila]

You can purchase one piston through Egge Machine. If you take a measurement of the piston they should be able to match it. The valve guides are $2.00 and the valves are around $7.00. I would think as long as you hand polish the crank and lap the vales. Doing this will give it a fighting chance. The only other item is the valve clearance. You need between .30 and .70 thousand with the plunger all the way to the bottom to the top of the valve stem. Good luck on this and I hope it works out for you. I will be keeping an eye out for this post.
               Thanks Wayne

                                             

[Carfreak]

If you don't get the flathead running, go for an LS1 not a 350

[harry s]

Jack, I have some used 346 pistons and miscellaneous flathead engine parts. Even the standard bore pistons vary by a few thousands due to wear on the machining tools. The block should be marked with a letter at the bottom of the bore which corresponds with the piston size. Hopefully you can match it up. If not mic the piston.
     Be sure and use the bearing caps from the 346 as the '37 ones are different as you have noted. The '37 engine has an oil slinger as opposed to a seal.
Harry

[Detritus]

Boy, what a bunch of nice helpful guys.  Thanks so much for the replies.

So, Wayne, I had no idea the guides and valves could be found so cheap.  I think i did a quick search and found some inflated prices, and gave up.  Looking a little harder, I found prices similar to what you said.  And for that, the car is getting new valves and guides, haha.  Thank you for refraining from the whole "why in the blue heck would you not just buy all new internals" talk I see everywhere else on the internet.  It is appreciated.

Harry, thank you for the information on the slinger, and the pistons.  This week I will be digging out the 346 block, and put it on the stand, and start looking it over.

With your guys' help, this old girl will see the road again someday, I have no doubt!

I'll keep you posted.

Jack

[wheikkila]

The valve springs are around $2.00 each also. Happy to see it coming together. I might have tried to just fix mine. But it was to far gone. It had to many scars in the cylinders.
                     Thanks Wayne