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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Request for comment - new member

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Request for comment - new member -- page: 1 2     stevenwham 02-12-2012 @ 12:37 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 5 Joined: Feb 2012 Hello folks .. I'm a new member (in my USAF days I would be referred to as a "green bean"). I'm trying to figure out what I have. I recently bought a 35 five window coupe off Ebay. Of course, it was to some extent mis-represented. Nevertheless, it is a cosmetic beauty, with over $120k in documented restoration receipts with the work accomplished through the spring of 2011. THE PROBLEM: the engine was "cleaned and reassembled" with functional parts but was not "restored" or "rebuilt" with the result being that the engine DOES NOT HOLD OIL PRESSURE. Why in the world the owner/restorer would spend all this $ without installing a sound engine is beyond me. My cost is $30k and I'm trying to figure out what to do next. So, I would appreciate your comments on the market value of this vehicle "as is" and on what I should expect to spend to have the engine rebuilt to make it a meaningful "classic". There are 12 miles on the engine post-reassembly. Thanks! TonyM 02-12-2012 @ 1:00 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 458 Joined: Sep 2010 Welcome. Nice looking car. TM flathead4rd 02-12-2012 @ 4:16 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 169 Joined: Oct 2009 Could you be a little more specific about not holding oil pressure. Have you put a mechanical oil gauge on it to check for accuracy? What weight oil are you using? Lots of flatheads idle a less than 10 psi oil pressure, especially when hot. ford38v8 02-12-2012 @ 5:45 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 2762 Joined: Oct 2009 I agree. If the pressure n eedle moves at all while at slow idle, the engine will ber happy. Anything over 20 lbs at 25 mph is good. Alan Old Henry 02-12-2012 @ 7:51 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 738 Joined: Apr 2010 I agree with Alan. After having my engine rebuilt by one of the best in the country the oil pressure still reads low. He said mechanical gauge read normal. Could just be my gauge or sender. I've decided pressure is not as important as flow and figure if any pressure shows I've got oil flowing through and don't worry too much about pressure. I've put 20,000 miles on the engine with the gauge showing low oil pressure without any problems. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Certainly not consider rebuilding the engine again just for that. Old Henry (The older I get, the better old looks.) trjford8 02-12-2012 @ 8:24 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4215 Joined: Oct 2009 As others have said check the pressure with a mechanical gauge. Spending 120K on a restoration without rebuilding the motor tells me the previous owner had more money than horse sense. I suspect all he wanted to do was show the car and not drive it. There are those folks out there who trailer their cars to every show and don't drive them. It's a great looking 35 and $30,00K for a restored car is not out of line on price. Nice paint jobs today are $6000-8000. Upholstery is $5000-7000. Add in bodywork, tires, radiator, clean up of the running gear, and other miscellaneous parts, etc. you will spend another $7000-9000. Now add the purchase price of the original car prior to restoration and you easily get to $30,000. If you have to rebuild the flathead you will probably spend $5000-6000. If it's an original 35 motor you will have to have the main bearings poured by a shop experienced in building older motors. Again, recheck the oil pressure with a mechanical gauge and get back to us with the results. You may get lucky and not have to do anything but drive and enjoy your new treasure. This message was edited by trjford8 on 2-12-12 @ 8:25 PM TomO 02-13-2012 @ 7:24 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7253 Joined: Oct 2009 Your car is very nice and well worth the money to rebuild the engine if necessary. I agree with the other posts that you get a mechanical gauge to check the oil pressure and post the readings here. Tom stevenwham 02-13-2012 @ 5:57 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 5 Joined: Feb 2012 Thanks for all these comments .. I really appreciate the thoughts and advice. I will definitely get the mechanical oil pressure check soon. I drove the car today (for the second time) and noted the following: cold start with temperature around 40 F, the oil pressure read about 18-20. As the engine warmed up the temp dropped to 10-12 and continued to drop while driving around at about 30 mph, eventually settling around 5 (at 30 mph). At idle and relatively warm, the pressure dropped to 2 or so. New gauges. I'll get the mechanical check and report back. Thanks again for your comments. TomO 02-15-2012 @ 9:05 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7253 Joined: Oct 2009 Steve, try removing the sending unit and cleaning the threads on it and in the block. The sending unit needs a good ground in order to give an accurate reading. You may have an 80# sending unit with a 50#oil pump. The sending unit should have 50 stamped on the brass fitting. If the 80# unit is installed, your readings would be normal with 10w30 oil. The 50# sending units are getting hard to find. Most of us use 20w 50 oil or straight 30 weight oil. Tom stevenwham 02-15-2012 @ 4:49 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 5 Joined: Feb 2012 Thanks for your comments, Tom .. and others .. I'll do some evaluation this weekend. Steve

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