Really useful Ford Flathead V8 specification reference page from VanPelt Sales
The Flathead V8 engines produced by Ford Motor Company included basically three versions. The most popular being the 85-125hp that was first produced in 1932, and continued until 1953 (except for Canadian and Australian production which ended in 1954). Ford also designed and produced a smaller 60hp flathead V8 engine from 1937 until 1940. Lastly, the big 337 cubic inch flathead V8 engine, which was produced mainly for truck use and for Lincoln cars from 1948 to 1951. Ford’s flathead V8 engines when introduced in 1932 were the first mass-production V8’s where the block and cylinder assembly were poured as one single casting.
Click on the links below for general descriptions, general specifications, and tune-up specifications on each series engine. Horsepower and torque curves are available on some
A brand new Flathead V8 block with a lot of the inherent issues from the original engineered out.
Description
The perfect Ford-Mercury block! Outstanding casting quality thanks to modern foundry technology.
– Brand new, no cracks, no rust. High nickel content steel.
– Stronger everywhere it needs to be with thicker decks and main bearing bulkheads and larger main-bearing caps.
– Mains are aligned honed.
– 3-3/16-inch standard bore.
– 59AB-type bellhousing with 8BA refinements for improved coolant flow. Requires 1938-1948 oil pan.
– Drilled and tapped to accept 8BA or truck waterpumps.
– Drilled and tapped to accept either early (center outlet) or late (forward outlet) heads.
– Factory relieved (won’t accept Ardun heads).
– Bellhousing CNC-machined to fit Ford firewalls without modification.
– Long center head bolts (required) and rear main seal retainer are included.
– Glyptol painted valve-lifter valley, timing case, and crankshaft chamber for fast oil drain back
In their stock configuration and the way French flathead blocks have been sold previously the bosses, casting numbers, and pads for military applications do not fit most Ford passenger car applications without firewall modifications. SF Flathead blocks are precision milled to remove the unsightly “lumps.” Only a pad remains that carries a SF Flatheads serial number. Stop searching for a savable old Henry lump. This strong, high-nickel casting is the last flathead block you’ll ever need! Please call for availability. Truck shipping required. Rate quoted at order
Stage 2
Description
Same high-quality new casting as the standard block plus:
– Original flow restriction in bowl removed and enlarged for uniform volume and increased flow.
– Intake ports machined larger and straightened for improved flow.
– Exhaust ports machined larger and radiused to improve exhaust gas flow.
Please call for availability. Truck shipping required. Rate quoted at order.
Stage 3
Description
All features of our stage – 1 and 2 block plus the following:
– Lifter bores cut and drilled for ease of adjusting lifters
– Grind valve seats open to 1.6 on either intake, exhaust, or both at customer request
– Valve bowls smoothed and polished
– Exhaust ports polished and matched to customer provided headers
– Intake ports polished and matched to customer provided intake manifold
– Rear oil galley drilled and opened for full flow oil filter adapter system
Footnote – The engines have disappeared from the So-Cal site the link now goes to their Flathead page
I’d also suggest watching this thread on the HAMB as it appears a little lively on this subject!
Before there was NASCAR, before twisting race tracks were known for their road-racing antics, and almost before the Indianapolis 500, there was Elgin, Illinois. Located roughly 35 miles from Chicago, Elgin was the place where speed came of age, and terms such as “stock cars” were used in their truest sense.
We often think of hot rodding as a post-WWII phenomenon, but if one traveled the streets of Elgin, even before the first World War, you might have a different reality. Starting in 1910, the streets of Elgin, Illinois would once a year, turn from the typical commuter route to a roaring race track featuring some of the biggest names in racing. Noted drivers such as Eddie Rickenbacker, Cliff Durant, the son of GM founder, Billy Durant; Ralph DePalma, and Fred Frame all competed with others on this early version of automotive competition.
The Elgin Road Races were held in 1910-1915, 1919, and 1920. They were halted during World War I and were only brought back after the 1920 race as part of the World’s Fair that was being held in Chicago in 1933. In 1933, there were actually two races held. There was an “open” class, which was won by Phil “Red” Shafer, and a “stock car” race, comprised of production vehicles powered by engines less than 231 cubic-inches. It was during this race that this particular car came into prominence. One year after Henry Ford introduced the all-new flathead Ford V8, several automobiles powered by this new engine were dominating the twisting course at Elgin. The video below shows antics from both classes of cars during that race.
At a recent birthday supper, Sonny Thurmond, Bill Boswell and I entertained our wives with stories of our underage driving while growing up in Greensboro. The ability to drive, the freedom to do it and an available automobile marked a dramatic rite of passage out of the world of childhood—a trip we were longing to take. If you couldn’t drive, you were still just a kid.
Bill’s family had a new Buick and a long driveway, and they early on allowed him to drive on their lot. We would all pile in, and Bill would chauffeur us to the end of the driveway, returning in reverse: back and forth all afternoon. We admired Bill extravagantly, and he became a very good driver and put it to good use when he managed concessions at his father’s drive-in movie, picking up the food to be prepared and the preparers and taking them all out to work. Not sure if this occurred before or after his learner’s license.
When you got your learner’s license, that was it. You were street legal in Greensboro. The chief of police and the sheriff knew exactly how old we were, but around town, we were OK, even without the learner’s. Without wheels, though, we couldn’t compete, a fact painfully impressed upon me the last time my mother drove me to my girlfriend’s home, so that we could walk to a movie. Plenty of older boys were ready to drive her to the movies, and they soon did. She was no longer a kid, but I still was, because my driving at that point was only when my father needed me.
We had a 1951 Ford flathead V-8, in case that means anything to you. Those things would run. My father was a fast driver and taught me how to drive fast—I suppose on the assumption that the best he could do was at least prepare me for it.
The Forgotten “Elvis Roadster” is For Sale! – Zach Martin @HotRod
The Forgotten “Elvis Roadster” is For Sale! – Zach Martin @HotRod
On August 31, 2019 the roadster that Elvis Presley drove in the hit film Loving You will be auctioned off in the Kruse GWS Auction titled The Artifacts of Hollywood & Music at the Hollywood Hard Rock Café. This car only had one owner, and it wasn’t The King. It was owned and built by hot rodding pioneer John Athan in 1937. It is a Ford Model A body sitting atop 1932 Ford frame rails powered by a Flathead V8 with twin Stromberg carburetors.
The car was driven by Elvis himself in his first role in the 1957 film Loving You. It was all but forgotten even by his biggest fans because according to GWS Auctions, Athan had a lot of sentimental attachment. So much so that one of the biggest music and pop culture icons, Elvis Presely, couldn’t even buy it.
By now V8s are popular enough for just about every auto manufacturer to have one of their own. Even Mazda developed a V8 for a luxury brand, Amanti that was eventually disbanded, but that V8 was never used. The first ever V8s were used in speedboats and aircraft around 1904, but it would be several more years before the V8 would find itself in the engine bay of a car. The red-letter year for a mass-produced, affordable production V8 was 1932 when Ford developed the Flathead V8, which at the time was just referred to as a Ford V8.
In the age of mass production, a man could change the world with a single idea. Henry Ford had several. With the Model T, Ford was not the first to conceive of a car for the masses, but was the first to accomplish it. Other ideas that made the Model T possible, including the moving assembly line and the five-dollar day, weren’t originally his ideas either. But Ford made them his own by being the first to make them work. He was often credited for inventions not entirely his own, much like Ford’s hero Thomas Edison. To hear his critics tell it, Edison never had an original idea either.
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