EARLY FLATHEAD BUILD, HIGHLIGHTING SOME OF THE ENGINE'S UNIQUE FEATURES

[Ace-Garageguy]

 

[RSchnell]

Looks like a run of the mill late 40s engine. Not sure that constitutes "early".

[oldnslow]

Loved that video , used to race a junior dragster with my daughter and built our own engines , same basic design but only 1 cylinder .

[Ace-Garageguy]

  On 4/12/2021 at 10:45 PM, RSchnell said:

Looks like a run of the mill late 40s engine. Not sure that constitutes "early".

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Simply as opposed to the late-style engine without the integral bellhousing.

EDIT: There are probably a lot of folks here who are at least passing familiar with the common American OHV engines, but who are unaware of what a very different beast the Ford flathead is.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy

[JollySipper]

  On 4/13/2021 at 11:44 AM, oldnslow said:

Loved that video , used to race a junior dragster with my daughter and built our own engines , same basic design but only 1 cylinder .

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I used to have a go-kart as a kid that I tinkered on a lot.... it had a 5 horse cement spreader engine on it ( ). I never thought of it as being a flathead, but I guess it was!

[mchook]

Nice video, thanks for sharing. They were lucky they used adjustable lifters instead of the stock solid lifter with no adjustment. Then they would had some real time consuming work pulling the valves out & grinding the stem to adjust them. Not fun, but I've had to do it that way a few times.

[Ace-Garageguy]

  On 4/13/2021 at 1:35 PM, mchook said:

...they would had some real time consuming work pulling the valves out & grinding the stem to adjust them...

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If I remember correctly, some Aston Martin inline engines had no provision for adjusting valve lash other than sinking the seats, or grinding the valve faces or stems (but it's been decades since I've had my hands on one, so don't quote me).

Anyway, whatever engine requires said methods, a royal PITA is vast understatement.

[RSchnell]

  On 4/13/2021 at 12:22 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Simply as opposed to the late-style engine without the integral bellhousing.

EDIT: There are probably a lot of folks here who are at least passing familiar with the common American OHV engines, but who are unaware of what a very different beast the Ford flathead is.

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IMO, early is anything with babbitt and 21 studs, but I see what you're getting at. There are tons of engines from the period that use similar construction. 

[Richard Bartrop]

Thanks for sharing!

As I recall, just making a one piece V-8 block was considered a pretty impressive accomplishment when the flathead was introduced, and even then, it took a couple of years for Ford to work all the bugs out.