JBNeal

I've been whittling away at replacing pics linked to pb with pics that I've uploaded in albums on this site and subsequently removing those pics from my pb account. I'm about halfway through the pics on my pb account, and got an email yesterday, back with the ominous tone and red text boxes, reiterating that hosting is not allowed and that I should upgrade asap...in small print, if I opt to not upgrade, I'm being urged to immediately login and stop hosting images. This might be the first time that these yahoos have explicitly advised against doing the very thing that made me get a gmail account so that I could use pb...so I reckon I appreciate their eventual transparency in this matter

Did this engine find its way into a WC?

If'n ya are gonna replace the water pump, then that's the time to flush the engine block. Removal of the block drain should give ya a sneak peek at any buildup in the water jacket. A malfunctioning water pump will not be moving coolant at an acceptable flow rate to maintain a heat exchange to the environment in order to keep engine temperatures in an acceptable range. A poorly functioning WDT will create hot spots near #s 4, 5 & 6, which can be observed with an infrared thermometer. With the water pump removed, water can be forced into the WDT and observed draining to see if it trickles out or is colored with contaminants. Also, a stiff wire or hook can be used to probe the WDT openings to see if they are blocked or have changed shape from erosion.

What you're seeing is a contributing factor to that engine's inefficiency: what is the volume of charged air in the sealed combustion chamber vs the volume of charged air in the leaking combustion chamber...what is the hp generated in the sealed combustion chamber vs the hp generated in the leaking combustion chamber. Ideally, the spark plug sealing washer is compressed once for maximum hp, but each time the sealing washer is deformed, hp production declines. But the reduction in hp here is probably <5%, so it's not debilitating to the engine. Flatheads aren't really known for high hp or efficiency anyway, so we can only hope to get close to maximizing hp during usage...it's part of the flathead fun factor

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