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Well, this is a bit disappointing....

I'm in the middle of bringing a ratty '40 110 back to life. Upon disassembly of the front end, I discovered the engine in it was out of a '47, had stuck valves, among other issues, I had another '47 that came with my '37 115c and was cleaned up, appeared to be nearly complete, just not fully assembled by the prior owner who was in health decline. I picked up a third '47 engine for parts, in case I needed them.

I completed some inspection and some reassembly of the cleaned up engine; cylinders had cross hatching but the pistons were not new, it appeared to have had a ring job and bearings; valves were all clean and seats were good, with two exceptions--two lifters and valves were missing--I replaced those with parts from the spare engine. Timing chain looked good, not new though. Timing marks were aligned; very little deflection in the chain.

Reassembled and repainted the engine, replaced the water pump, installed all accessories and reinstalled it. Most costly part of this was the gasket set and the paint.

Last weekend tried to start it; no joy. Good spark and fuel. Checked compression--25 psi across almost all cylinders. Pulled the manifold (there is no way to access the rear valve cover without doing so on this one; some previous owner decided to make the exhaust manifold a dual and cut a hole/welded in a second exhaust to the manifold--hot valve adjustments are therefore impossible) and readjusted the valves at TDC for each cylinder.

Compression came up to 35PSI. At this point I noticed that I'm not getting any oil flow from the pump up to the lifters; this is very unlike my '37 115c where I had oil pressure immediately flowing oil into this area. Oil filter is also dry.

Concerns:

1) Adjusting all valves with lifters 'down' was completed but made as you see above, little difference. I have not added oil to the cylinders and re-checked to see if the cross hatching fooled me and it needs rings after all.

2) The more concerning thing to me at the moment is utter lack of oil flow. Oil pumps are generally pretty bullet-proof; I did not disassemble mine; the distributor engages it fine. I did pull the distributor and used a borescope to see that the pump gear is engaged with the camshaft; I did not engage the remote starter to ensure the shaft is moving however.

Thoughts? Did that timing chain fail/jump? Ideas on the oil pump?

I'm not sure this engine is going to be the path ahead for this 110....

The once-running engine that was in the car when I bought it is sitting on it's pallet, complete, and since I didn't invest much in the one that's now giving me issues, I might just get that one back on an engine stand and tear into it. It's not like these engines are all that complicated.

Any thoughts appreciated.

It's very unlikely that reassembling used pistons and rings in an old engine will give satisfactory results.Re-assembling used inserts usually doesn't pan out either. Mixing old lifters on an old cam may give trouble. (Or not) If you can get oil some oil pressure, running the engine may get better ring action after some run time. If you have to adjust the lifters cold, adding two to three thousandths clearance to the spec should assure that the valves can seat with the engine warm.

On your oil issue - you could pull one of the galley plugs, or just use where your oil pressure gauge taps off, and force feed oil using a pressure pot. You could even do this on the stand, with the oil pan and valve covers off, to inspect the oil flow at each critical point.

Summit Racing and Jegs both sell pressure pots; I'm sure others do as well. You essentially just pressurize a can of oil with shop air and use that to force feed the engine, bypassing the oil pump entirely.

Thanks--with the compression issue plus the oil pressure concern, that engine has been buttoned up for the winter in the car, and the engine that I pulled out of it in the first place is now on the engine stand.

Steam cleaning it today, and I'll tear into that one starting tomorrow. I know that it has (at least!) several stuck valves among other offenses. The car is now outside and under a car cover perhaps for a few weeks. A few other projects need to be done as long as the '40's outside the shop.

The subject engine was mostly assembled when I picked it up in 2019, so I'd thought that it had (at least) had rings--one rod bearing cap was off the engine, the bearings were all checked with plastigage and were within spec; the crank had been turned, inserts were not original. I did not pull the pistons, as they were clean (not new) and the cylinders cross hatched. Innards of the engine were perfectly clean. I did not check any of the galley plugs though.

Today, I taped up the head to keep critters out of the nice, shiny Packard-green engine,(manifold is off) reinserted the new plugs, and pushed her out in the field for at least a few weeks (if not all winter). Covered her over with a couple of car covers and strapped them down. Then took the skidsteer, happily equipped with pallet forks, grabbed the engine that I removed from the '40, put that on the engine stand, and started tearing her down.

Significant amount of sludge in the valve area; haven't pulled the pan yet but I'm expecting about the same amount of crap that I had in my **other** 245, meaning, a ****whole lot****.

The 245 engine that was in the '40 when I bought it in 1989 turned out to be from 1947. I bought another running, good compression 1947 245 a couple of years ago(saw a video of it running, saw a compression check, good vacuum). Paid $500, opened it up and it was a sludge fest, the entire valve gallery was nearly one big block of crud, the pan had 3/4" of crap in it and had rusted through, the crud sealed up the holes though. Used it for parts for the 245 that was part of the package deal for my '37 115c (that still has it's original engine).

Turns out the '47 engines were made about a month apart, if serial numbers are to be believed.

Another mechanical adventure awaits. Oh, joy.

Anyone need a '47 Clipper Six 3 speed? (My '40 has an OD, so I don't need it). Free to a good home....

Your oil pump has lost its prime, or it was assembled dry and cannot draw a vacuum sufficient to pull the oil up from the pan.

Take the cover off and smear the gears generously with heavy gear oil or STP. Check that your cover gasket is very thin, about .005 at the most. Some of the older gasket sets had very thick gaskets which caused a lot of oil to bypass around the ends of the gears. I have made those gaskets from standard notebook paper with good results.