A friend of mine sent me this clip on the Ford flathead engine. I realized how much things have changed during my stint here on earth. These flathead engines were what I started with when I bought my first car...a 47 Ford Club Coupe. It was the first engine I built up. These flatheads were THE engine back in my day and, although I have nearly forgotten about them, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for them and I will always love them. These were the engines that I built back in the day. They got me started on the Hot Rod road. My second car was a 51 Merc convertible that I built up. My friend, the one who sent this clip to me, has a 51 Merc that he got with 40K miles on it and then restored anything that needed it and built up the flathead. It's a gorgeous car. He brings the car out often and, to this day, I love the sound of the old Ford flathead V8. Great memories. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mioo4mXutM&feature=related
Cool vidio..... in the early 90's for a short time I had a Canadian 53 Meteor 2 door, it had the flat head V8. Car was complete except for front bumber, not a dent or body rust through but weathered...however having sat siince 71 in a field there was no floors or trunk left. It never ran, but it did turn by hand and was a roller. Had alot of big dreams about that car and all of us young guys would stare and talk about that motor and the old school hot rods. I traded a few hours of de-rimming tires on my still have it Coats 10/10 tire machine, my shop niehbour ran a auto salvage. I sold it a couple months later for $300, of witch I had to buy and drink a box of beer with the salvage guy. Another one.....wish it was still mine.............
My dad's '52 Ford has a flathead, and people keep asking why we don't swap it out for a 350. We do NOT want to get rid of such a cool engine.
Keep that flathead. If it needs work....find a guy like one of those in the clip and have him rebuild it. I love those engines. They may not have the snort of a BB overhead but they are good runners and trustworthy.
Verrrrrry interesting. But like most of those youtube things, I can't resist looking at more videos listed. As for the Ford flathead engine, many perfectly good engines were replaced when GM came out with the small block V-8 engines, mostly the Chevy. The 1939 Ford I've had since mid 70's has a 283 and Powerglide. It had a racing SBC in it before that. As far as I can tell the car is still a fairly low mileage car. I often wonder what happened to that Flathead. I also have a 1941 Ford with a 350 Chevy and a 1946 Mercury with no running gear. Both were flathead V-8 cars. Out back is a 1947 Mercury flathead just sitting, unstarted for at least 10 years. Ran good when I got it. Before that, i had several other old Fords with original good running flathead engines. All of the talk about them running hot and being trouble was never a problem for me, winter or summer. I believe the problems were with highly modified engines and later on rusty and dirty cooling componants. I also love the sound and performance of a Ford flathead. Other engines which got no respect were the straight sixes and straight eights. Oddly most of these engines got decent fuel mileage without computers, fuel injection, etc.
It runs like brand new. Very smooth and starts easily. People just like 'new.' The issue we have is dad wants to make it an AOD, and in '52 the bellhousing is part of the engine, and the adapter is around 2,000 dollars.
You are right about those straight sixes and eights, Cat. Some of those were great engines....and I mean great. I had a friend who built up Chevy 6's and would blow off the Ford flatheads. And...remember the Hudson? The big cars had the straight 8's that would pull like crazy. I love those days!
I think the Hudsons you are remembering were the 'Step Down' models, and they were exclusively straight sixes, and the fast ones had "Twin H Power", or 2 carburetors. They were seriously fast, running with, and beating a lot of the 8 cylinder cars of their time. The first car I wanted to buy was a Ford flat head. A 1942 Ford convertible, from the original owners, for $500, including safety certificate. Too bad Ma wouldn't let me buy it. I even had somewhere to put it to fix the few things it needed. Oh, the problems of being a 14 year old city kid!
