Sunday, July 09, 2006

 

Some thoughts about the flathead

disclaimer: I am using some of what different people has said, because they said what I think
with a lot better words than I use. But still it is my thoughts about my Flathead.

About ten years ago I was driving my fifty on average of once a month. The car
was original from bumper to bumper. When it was new there was real gasoline
at the pumps. By the nineties it had a lot of additives. As a result I burned a valve.
At this time I knew I was going to keep it Flathead, but was unsure how I was
going to fix it. At the time my parities were costs, performance second and reliability.

So why build a Flathead, and not buy a small block Chevy. Because the Flathead
look great, sound great and have a adequate amount of power for a street engine.
Mine is a 239 Ci.That is small, about the size of a 4.3 V6 Chevy. Boring and stroking
it will bring it up to 296 CID a little shy of a 5.0 l. What will this get me? Well it will
increase the torque of the engine about 20% and remove more than two grand from my pocket.
2006 dollars. This is a critical point.

I have a life long friend that I influenced his getting into the race car engine building.
He is now one of the best in the south.
When he is asked how much will it cost, he will ask the customer how fast he wants
to go, or what place he wants to finish?

Unfortunately a Flathead can be very expensive to build. An all out street engine will
run well over 20 thousand dollars. Why?, you might ask. For one thing the engine
was last produced about fifty years ago and good ones are hard to find. Second,
parts and machine work are expensive. Here's an example: In 1958 you could buy
a complete stroked crank assembly for less than $200. This included everything
you needed: pistons,rods, bearing and a Mercury 4" crank stroked to 4-1/8" with
out a trade-in. Today my pistons cost twice that much and my block cost $1500
before machine work.

At my age now and my economic conditions I don't think I will be using it for competition.
So now I have to consider reliability and then cost and last performance.
Maximum performance is in mind and will be a side benefit.

I want it to run with all the other cars out there on today's gas and at hi-way speed all
day long if need be. I want the reliability to be there day in and day out. I don't want
to carry a tool box every where I go. I'm hoping for a hundred thousand miles with just
up keep such oil changes and tune ups.

I will post a lot more about the working parts of the engine in a few days.
It is sweet and Precious!

posted by Johnnie 10:08 PM

Comments:

Ok I feel like I left the cost hanging.
That is because there is no set price for something like building an engine. It is like building a house, or making chili.
If you can do it yourself or most of it and go to swap meets or ebay, you could build a honking flathead for under 4 grand. If you use a builder it could be as low as 5 grand and the sky it the limit on the high side.
Add some custom and polished parts and OH MY it is over the hump.

a SBC in the creat run from $1500. to $3500.

# posted by  Johnnie : 8:07 AM

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