'39 Six not running...

Posted by Packard Newbie On 2016/12/8 17:32:03

I have posted several queries on this vehicle and have never been able to pinpoint what the actual problem is. I bought the car about 9 months ago, the engine numbers suggest it is the original block; it was freshly painted and has what looks like a fresh head gasket in it. As previously stated, the car starts, idles, revs at idle, but as soon as one attempts to drive it, there is almost no power, it bogs and will not rev up in 1st gear, and as soon as the first stop sign is encountered and the clutch is depressed, it dies. Will not restart right away, but if left for 4 or 5 minutes, it will restart, but only if the gas pedal is floored and it sounds to me like it is flooded. I have done all the obvious things including a rebuilt carb and other than idling a little smoother, no change has been effected. I am in a small town with 2 or 3 garages and nobody wants to work on older vehicles so I am left trying to solve this on my own, as a very amateur mechanic! I have spoken with countless people on it and did have one old retired, licensed mechanic take it into his home shop where he puttered on it for almost a month and could not find out what was wrong. Sorry for all the 'pre-setup' but it is necessary in order to remotely diagnose the problem. Here is my question: Could this be valve timing??? I.E. a really worn timing chain and gears, maybe even a jumped gear tooth?? To any responding, I had a compression test done on the engine (wet and dry) and the results were uniform and between 100 and 105 #'s per cylinder. One thing that is noticeable is the exhaust gets REALLY hot, right away, which seems odd to me, but I have never dealt with a flathead six before. I am thinking that I should maybe just have the engine pulled, sent to a machine shop and completely rebuilt from top to bottom, but was hoping if it was cam/valve/chain & gears related, I might get away with 'just' a timing gear job and possibly a camshaft, not having to remove the engine. Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions????