Farmall Cub

I picked up my nos block yesterday and I think it's great. Thanks Noish!

My first question is about the valve seats. Do they need to be ground or can I just lap them with the new valves?

Second, I found some things in the water cavities that probably aren't suppoded to be there.

http://core.federated.com/~dennis/Pictures/2004/Cub/pages/IMG_2026_jpg.htm

and

http://core.federated.com/~dennis/Pictures/2004/Cub/pages/IMG_2030_jpg.htm

They have to have been in there since it was packaged, I was just wondering if anyone else found anything similar. The first one seems to be stuck down in there and is about the size of an 8 penny nail. The second one looks to be about the size of a piece of coat hanger, but is loose enough to pull out.

And finally, are there any recomendataions for removing the cosmolie besides kerosene?

Thanks.

Haven't looked mine over that close, but I've seen posts on different forums before about eople finding similiar items in blocks, and that they were reamins of items that had been put in before tumbling to knock loose casting scale, etc., and didn't fall out after the process. Regarding the cosmoline, that stuff is a booger to remove. I plan to take mine to a machine shop and have them do the valves, transfer gallery plugs, etc.. The hot tank at the shop should take care of the cosmoline. If some of it were left plugging an oil gallery passage, the results could be disastrous.

The only ways I know to remove cosmo easily are with kerosene, or with some heat. A heat gun might help you remove the stuff you can see easily, or if you had a giant oven, put the whole block in there and let it drip out. But I think the most practical way is kerosene. It makes it very runny, and easily wiped off. I would even try filling a rubbermaid tub with kerosene and let the block soak in it, then rinse it with a pressure washer or something. As far as the oil passages, I would pump some kerosene through them to at least make sure they are not completely blocked. Once they have a little passage, I would think that any residual cosmo will be rinsed out with the engine heat and oil. But if they are blocked solid, they probably won't clear out for a while. You would need to snake them out.

Dennis,

I found similar wires (see below) inside the water jacket of my cub block. I was advised by the forum that they were left behind during the casting process, and removed them. I did however, run across this comment by Spencer Yost in his book Antique Tractor Bible: "If you see these wires in the water jacket portion of your engine's block, don't assume trash is in the jacket. These wires help to dissipate the heat in an engine block". As an engineer, I fail to see how these wires will serve any useful purpose in dissipating a significant amount of heat.

If they were attached I can see them helping dissipate heat, but being loose, I also fail to see that application.

Could they have been used to hold the casting sand in place before and while the blocs were cast? With all the hollows for water and oil something may have been needed. Just a guess. Do we have any foundry guys available to help us here?
Sure wish I had the E-mail address of of my cousins son in Art school in Kansas city. They do a lot of castin of statues, Sure must be many hollows just to conserve metal. He told me one time, they scour abandoned buildings and junk yards for old radiators and cast boilers for the metal.
Bill

These are called Jaggers, the molding process in the 40's thru mid sixties was termed as "Green Sand Process" of which there are sill foundries today that use this process. The Jaggers are (and where) used to hold fingers of sand together, just like wire in concrete. They are more than likely just cut pieces of rod, and during the shakeout process were never taken from the casting.