A Peculiar Engine Swap

[Studdley]

Has anyone ever considered doing the most unnecessary and underpowered engine swap of all time, a flathead ford into a mach 1? Would it even come close to fitting?

 

[Stanglover]

Has anyone ever considered doing the most unnecessary and underpowered engine swap of all time, a flathead ford into a mach 1? Would it even come close to fitting?

WHY!!!!

 

[Don C]

I'm sure it would fit, you can get bellhousing adapters for just about any transmission for flatheads.

I like flathead V8s, but even as cool as this one is with Ardun heads I would have to pass.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

At one time I was going to put a 8-BA flathead in a 65 mustang convertible. I use to run in the 15's in the 80's with it in a 1950 Ford 2 door sedan. Use to love to outrun stock mustangs with it and  show them that tiny engine. Small but so darn heavy. Mine is bored .125" over, Melling, cam, Melling oil pump, ported, dual valve springs, adjustable lifters and balanced. I also probably cut 10 lbs. off the flywheel and adapted a 10" shafer clutch disc to my pressure plate I built. It also has a 1962 Chevy Corvette dual point centrifugal advance distributor. 

The car has sat in the barn since 1972 was fun to drive just had so many over the years. BTW I have I think 7 or 8 more flatheads and couple Mercury. I found two more sets of Jahns Racing pistons I bought back in the 60's from Honest Charlie.

Knock on wood. That car would turn all the spark plugs cherry red at night on a hard run and by a hard run a 10 mile road race. I still used Iron heads my boss always said were better than the aluminum heads. Never had an overheating issue like some. I drove it from 1964 till 1971 when I got a new Maverick Grabber. The second day I had the Maverick I tried to make a turn the same speed I did in the 50 Ford and slid into a traffic island and flipped the car up on two wheels on the drivers side. We a ways on the two wheels like a stunt driver. Got so far up it ruined both hub caps and trim rings. I got two new wheels, caps and trim rings and took back to the Ford dealer. Told the service boss I thought it was out of alignment. When I came back he was crazy. Said they had to chain the car down and pull the rear end back in place and was the worst out of any new car he had ever seen, lol.

Flatheads are a cool engine and sure you would get lots of attention. I always wanted to put two turbos on one off the SVO mustang 4 cylinder. As long as you built the engine for torque and not rpm they will live but if you try for rpm with just three main bearings it will blow. I never blew an engine. Had one valve head pop off but stayed in the pocket and did not hurt anything.

When we raced WKA box stock Briggs and Stratton engines 5 hp use to do the same things to them as we did the Ford and they ran great.

How about a Lincoln V-12 flathead converted to Ardun hemi heads? Talk about smooth V-12 can have perfect balance unlike a V-8.

If you want to build one I have boxes of FelPro Big Bore copper head gaskets. There is a guy in Ohio that casts and machines aluminum flathead blocks with 5 main bearings. I do not have his info. Note the original price on the box for the gaskets, $1.95 I get $25.00 when I sell them, lol.

 

[keiths71]

Seriously???

 

[Don C]

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Seriously???

You had to grow up with flatheads to understand. They do go over 200 mph on the salt flats. David Pearson use to race one in vintage racing in Spartanburg SC until his health got bad and would beat SBC and SBF with a flathead.

I had Jach Rousch got in touch wanting to buy one to build for some hot rod run once maybe 15 years ago. I did lots of prototype work in Michigan and one of the guys I worked with gave him my info knew I had several.

It was a lot of fun to win between red lights and they want to see your engine and you open a hood to a flathead and you just beat a 65 mustang with 289.

It just got cheaper to build OHV so they went away.

The French military bought equipment from Ford and continued to build the Ford flathead up into the 60's for use in military vehicles. It was so dependable. The French blocks were so much better they are banned to run at Bonneville or for record trials.

When I drag raced I had to run head to head with 265 cheys and never had problem beating them.

My dad drove the one I had from 1952 until he gave to me in 1964 to work. It never failed to start even in sub zero weather and only once did not get home in the snow. Was in sight of house and could not get up the last hill.

They were fun, easy to built and very dependable as long as you do not over rev. That is true with any engine. BTW they use to cost $10.00 for a complete engine at the crusher yard in Asheville.

 

[keiths71]

I agree that flatheads are cool, so are y blocks. But if we are talking about putting one in a 71-73 mustang. Sorry but it would have have to be one seriously bad was one. I associate David Pearson with 427s and Boss 429s #21

 

[Ron Tanzi]

There are better Ford options.

 

[Don C]

At least he wasn't talking about LS b.s.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

You just do not get the point. Everyone does the normal engine swap. He just wants to do something different and I think it is great. No Monkey see Monkey do.

BTW David Pearson raced for years after his retirement in a 1950 Ford Coupe. He had it screaming and of course he knew how to drive it. I saw it once at cars show near by. He had the best of everything in the suspension. I guess he went with the flathead because that is what he grew up with and enjoyed the most. Anyone can put a Coyote or FE or build a Boss 9 and put in a mustang but how many have you seen with a flathead?

 

[c9zx]

Once again an idea falls into the "Because something can be doesn't mean it should be done." category. You could probably put an IBM 286 processor into a Dell PC but, why?

 

[Studdley]

I was considering doing a flathead in an rx7 too, that would start some riots

 

[Ron Tanzi]

Once again an idea falls into the "Because something can be doesn't mean it should be done." category. You could probably put an IBM 286 processor into a Dell PC but, why?

Actually that would fall under Commodore 64 territory. Which I had so I guess I am old. LOL.

Ron

 

[Stanglover]

Once again an idea falls into the "Because something can be doesn't mean it should be done." category. You could probably put an IBM 286 processor into a Dell PC but, why?

Actually that would fall under Commodore 64 territory. Which I had so I guess I am old. LOL.

Ron

 Commodore 64!! I had a Vic 20, so that must make me even older!!

Actually as far as the engine swap thing goes, as long as it's Ford.

I know zero about flat heads...…. thought they were caps (for the head)lol!

For me, if I were to do an engine swap, it would be the venerable Coyote with a 6 speed behind it. At 420 hp out the box, that's plenty for a 3500 lb car.

Geoff.

 

[Ron Tanzi]

Well, Geoff I have to admit that I still have the Commodore in a box in the basement. I know if I hooked that bad boy up (green screen,floppy disk drive ) it would work. I do not have my IBM 286 anymore though. LOL. As for engine swaps I am a purist. Period correct power plants only and swapping out the 6 for an 8 is fine by me. And for the love of God no F$#%^@& GM engines in Fords.

Ron

 

[Bentworker]

For some reason I’d like to see a flathead in a Prius.

 

[Don C]

For some reason I’d like to see a flathead in a Prius.

+1 lollerz

 

[Ron Tanzi]

For some reason I’d like to see a flathead in a Prius.

Yes.