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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.