Flathead Rebuild

There are definatly things that you can screw up if you don't know what your are doing. That having been said, the L134 Go Devil engine is a pretty basic engine, and a good one to learn on. In fact, in my high school auto shop in the 70's, our practice engines were L134's in crates. They got pulled apart and reassembled every semester by a new group of 10th graders and they always started up again at the end.

I think Carl has offered some sound advise already, pulling the engine is not a big deal and most rental shops offer engine hoists, I have pulled many using a tree branch and a come-along, granted not the handiest way but effective. IMHO the only savings you will find is in the teardown and assembly, A good manual will guide you through this process. I have not gone through an L head in a long time, several friends have in recent years and I have seen costs run from $2500-$3500 for a complete OH, yes you will save $ doing the assembly work yourself but you will get no warranty doing that as you are assuming the risk, can you do it, Yes, you need to decide this.

MHO, Lee

http://g503.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=439d16b3229023292b7bee5fe0babb4b

if you have someone near you who is experienced with building engines and is willing to help or at least give advice, I'd go for it!  Sounds like you have plenty of shop space and tools.  Just find out what he likes (beer, cookies, steak, whatever) and keep him supplied while he's there 

I had never pulled a motor before, but I'm fairly good with a wrench (or at least I like to think I am, haha!)  I tackled a diesel engine swap and alot of other upgrades/changes to my 2a over the passed few months (just doing the finishing touches now!) My neighbor/landlord is an old school hotrodder, he gave me alot of tips and advice when ever I got stuck and wasn't sure what to do next (not just with the engine swap, but with other things on the jeep too),.  That, combined with alot of online research and asking questions on various internet forums was a huge help.  Without those, I'd probably still be near square one, haha! 

I'll tell you this, at least in my experience, everything seems to take alot longer than I would have expected it to.  But that's fine, I'm not on a schedule.  I guess I just work slow


Edited by Daniel_Buck - 05 Nov. 2013 at 10:42pm

A bit off topic but how often do you guys find these blocks with cracks in them? Talking to a guy recently that went through two cracked blocks before he found a good one. That has me a bit worried. 

Here is a link to my engine teardown. The only specialized tool I needed was a valve spring compressor and a torch to heat the frozen studs. Take it from me, if there is a broken stud, find someone who has the proper tools for removal.

http://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/the-voyage-begins_topic28247.html?KW=


Let me know if you have any questions. I haven't done any more work to it, life got in the way. But I am planning on finishing it this winter.

With all the resources out there, and the knowledge on here, rebuilding should be simple. The machine shop cost me between $1000-1100 for the engine decking, boring, crankshaft, canshaft, and everything else


.

I took a welding class, where I magna fluxed my block, after discussing welding repair on a cast iron block, one of the old time instructors (who I respected) told me how to do it. Then he suggested I take a cutting wheel to my block and make an incision so I could practice the repair... ah no.

But I was hoping to have a cracked block so I can learn a repair, but my MB block was crack free. I would have liked to repair a block in class, but oh well.

A little asssist   http://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/the-voyage-begins_topic28247.html?KW=

My full rebuild was about $3400.  That replaced everything except the block, head, pan, crank, and connecting rods, even the oil pickup was trashed. I luckily found a NOS cam for $75 so i have my original as a spare.  Like most other people I had hardened valve seats installed.  A lot of it depends on how bad your engine is, which usually isn't known until the machine shops gets started.  My engine needed to be over bored to .060.  The block was planed and so was the head.  One of the head bolts pulled out so that required a helicoil.  Another consideration that you need to keep in mind is the larger the bore the more important the cooling capability is.  You can get an over bored engine back to standard size by sleeving it, but that is at least another $500.  I had to have my radiator recored  since if you so much as looked at it too long it would spring a new leak.  My radiator is now 4 cores deep with 154 cooling tubes.  I could run a large V6 on it if i ever decide to.  The radiator rebuild was almost $900. 


Edited by 52 M38 - 10 Nov. 2013 at 1:24pm