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Making an Ardun engine a regular flat Head


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11 hours ago, Mike999 said:

What a coincidence. I'm messing with the '50 Ford flathead right now, and looked thru a bunch of other flatheads in the parts piles. 

One problem with the AMT '49 and '50 Ford flatheads: they have a big honking hole thru the block and oil pan for a metal axle.  I wondered if that had been changed in later issues, so I opened a '50 Ford "Millenium" kit from 2000. It still had the big hole.

Other than that the AMT '50 engine is well done for its age.  It has the oil-bath filter mounted on the left side of the engine and the oil filler tube on the front right. I want to put an Old School flathead in a '32 Ford. But I'm too cheap to rob a Monogram '50 pickup, and didn't want to fiddle with making engine mounts.  So I took the '32 flathead block and will use the aluminum heads etc. from the '50 engine on it. They fit with a little tweaking.  I want it to look like a Deuce with a later flathead swapped in, so that should work.

That is probably this easiest way to do want you're wanting in this case. I agree the hole through the engine really is a bad deal, but it is an easy fix. What I have done in the past was to cut pieces of Plastruct to the shape of the opening and glue in place. A small amount of body filler closes any remaining gaps and a little sanding and you never know it was there. I have used this on several vintage AMT kits also. 

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This is awesome info, Guys..... Thanks! I may end up buying one of the '50 Ford kits since they have the nice hop-up parts for a flathead.... Looking at reviews of these kits, it seems I would still need a good set of headers. What would be a good source for some nice chrome long-tube headers for a flathead?

Thanks again.......

Edited by JollySipper
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2 hours ago, JollySipper said:

This is awesome info, Guys..... Thanks! I may end up buying one of the '50 Ford kits since they have the nice hop-up parts for a flathead.... Looking at reviews of these kits, it seems I would still need a good set of headers. What would be a good source for some nice chrome long-tube headers for a flathead?

Thanks again.......

Yep, you'll need exhaust headers.  I'm currently scrounging the parts boxes myself for some, after grinding off the headers molded to that AMT flathead engine block.  You probably know this already, but the flathead block only has 3 exhaust ports on each side. So we can't just steal any old headers.  An internet search was definitely my friend in learning what they look like and how they mount.

In parts searching, I came across a flathead engine from the 1/24 scale Monogram '40 Ford pickup.  It has a molded-in exhaust crossover pipe, among other problems. But it also has a killer set of triple carbs.  The manifold fits almost perfectly on the 1/25 scale AMT flathead, so I'll probably cheat and use them.  This is model building, we can do (almost) whatever we want! 

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20 hours ago, Mike999 said:

Yep, you'll need exhaust headers.  I'm currently scrounging the parts boxes myself for some, after grinding off the headers molded to that AMT flathead engine block.  You probably know this already, but the flathead block only has 3 exhaust ports on each side. So we can't just steal any old headers.  An internet search was definitely my friend in learning what they look like and how they mount.

In parts searching, I came across a flathead engine from the 1/24 scale Monogram '40 Ford pickup.  It has a molded-in exhaust crossover pipe, among other problems. But it also has a killer set of triple carbs.  The manifold fits almost perfectly on the 1/25 scale AMT flathead, so I'll probably cheat and use them.  This is model building, we can do (almost) whatever we want! 

That is a very nice Flat Head, but if you're trying to stay with a '49 - '53 Flat Head you'll have to remember to use the later Heads and Distributor.  

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On 3/18/2019 at 9:38 AM, JollySipper said:

This is awesome info, Guys..... Thanks! I may end up buying one of the '50 Ford kits since they have the nice hop-up parts for a flathead.... Looking at reviews of these kits, it seems I would still need a good set of headers. What would be a good source for some nice chrome long-tube headers for a flathead?

Thanks again.......

 Check out R&M ,Norm has a lot of flathead stock and performance parts 

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On 3/19/2019 at 11:01 AM, espo said:

That is a very nice Flat Head, but if you're trying to stay with a '49 - '53 Flat Head you'll have to remember to use the later Heads and Distributor.  

In the 1:1 world, the earlier 59AB 24 stud heads with the center water outlets can be bolted onto the later 49-53 8BA, 8CM, and 48-53 8RT blocks. With the earlier timing cover, cam and the 8RT water pumps, the later blocks can be installed in many pre-48 chassis and use the 59AB distributor

 

Edited by garagepunk66
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I found good flathead 3-hole headers in 2 kits. Both look a lot like the #406 and #408 R&M headers shown above, with flanges:

--AMT #906 '41 Ford (Custom) Woody. The engine in this kit is a modernized Flathead, with throttle-body fuel injection, so wouldn't be correct for a "period" engine like I'm trying to do. Those headers will work though, if I can make them fit.

--Revell #85-4253 '48 Ford Custom Coupe (with the chopped top). For vintage Flathead fans, this kit has a Navarro intake manifold with 2 Stromberg carbs and separate air cleaners. It also has finned cylinder heads.

 

 

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4 hours ago, garagepunk66 said:

In the 1:1 world, the earlier 59AB 24 stud heads with the center water outlets can be bolted onto the later 49-53 8BA, 8CM, and 48-53 8RT blocks. With the earlier timing cover, cam and the 8RT water pumps, the later blocks can be installed in many pre-48 chassis and use the 59AB distributor

 

And in this case it would resemble a '48 or earlier engine in a '50's pickup. This could work, but I was under the impression  that jolly Sipper was wanting a '50's Flat Head for this build.  

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The 1939-48 59AB and 1949-53 8BA/8CM should have 24 studs or bolts for the heads, the model manufacturers haven't allways done this correct as some kit heads of these engines only have 21 wich is only right for the first version from 1932-38.

Edited by Force
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