History Valve in head conversions for Flathead V8

Ok that makes sense.

hey you're up in the rules way better then I will ever be, is a valve in head conversion still considered to be a flathead on an LSR vehicle?

 

No. If you were running a Ford flathead you would be in the XF engine class. Converted to F head or OHV it becomes XXF. If you had a non Ford flathead or OHV inline engine you would be in XO. Converting that engine to OHV or adding a 12 port head would move you to XO. There are two true flathead Ford powered cars that have run faster than 300 mph at Bonneville. Ron Main and Jimmy Stevens owned engines. Quite an achievement I think

 

I was curious, someone had told me it still runs as a flathead and that didn't makes sense to me. I got an older rule book but it is easier to just ask.

There have been some phenomenal runs by flatheads over the years for sure.

 

It's still in a "Flathead" class. XF. But does not run against actual flathead engines. If you had a flathead Ford or Merc that was over 325 cid, you would be moved into the same class as the OHV conversions. The rules don't always make sense. But they are still the rules.

 

Found and stole an online pic...this is the slightly modified flathead that I remembered from Roger Huntington's book.
Note how the distributor location allowed a neat takeoff to drive all the whaddycallits upstairs...

 

You just have to use the rules to your advantage I suppose. Some are carved in stone and others are mildly pliable, you bend the ones that you can and adhere strictly to the ones that don't move.

@Bruce Lancaster that is one slick setup. I am going to have to find time to search several of these engines out and see if I can gather enough info to make this thread useful to the masses.

 

Moefuzz those are t3 pre unit triumph 350 cylinders and heads on a v8-60

 

"that is one slick setup..."
Yep, useta cost $12 FOB JC Whitney in Chicago...
Actually an Indy project, of course. I think it never actually ran at Indy, cannot find my Roger Huntington flathead book which has the only (scant!) info I have seen on the thing. Whoever made the stuff was an artist!

 

Tim, Thanks for confirming this.
I thought that they were Triumph but did not want to state this in the original
thread for obvious reasons.
The pic was labelled as "Trumpted Flathead" so there was at least
a hint as to what it was. I don't know where I garnered the pic from,
it's just lumped in with pics on a hardrive that holds about 20 years
of 'automotive' collecting from all over the net including the original
Flathead forum (prior to the turn of the century).

I've intentionally left out info (to spur debate) on many of the pics so that others
could have a say (and some fun) in figuring out for themselves
what is or isn't what. (-There may (or may not) be pics in there that are 'more'
than what they seem to indicate).

You can bet that additional info and pics that are posted here will be amended
to what I have (about 4 terabytes/hard drives over the years) as a lot
of the pics I collected didn't originally come with or was not associated with
accurate information.

The important thing (for me at least) is that pics and data
is being 'piled' and associated somewhere and I'm not afraid to
post what I have when it comes to any given subject,
which in turn spurs further debate and brings
even more pics/info out of the wood work.




.

 

Local Colorado Springs rod with the Stephens heads, he has now pulled the motor and is running a different one for daily driving.

 

I'm afraid I can't partake of the poll, because logically such a converted engine is still a Flathead but no longer a flathead. There are two senses of the word at play here: (usually) capitalized, we're talking about a popular name for a specific design of engine, whether that has been modified or not. Otherwise - generally uncapitalized - we're talking about a term for a specific configuration of engine.

In the same way, a Ford 1172 with an OHV head would still be a Side-Valve Ford, although it is no longer a side-valve or flathead engine. Conversely, a Hudson Hornet 308 with an OHV head wouldn't be any kind of flathead, because a Hornet engine isn't popularly called a "Flathead".

 

JUST GO BY THE OP'S TITLE...

 

This is such an cool engine.
This guy may know more.
Need more info

 

In the famous words of John Lennon
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one

 

that was built by http://www.uncommonengineering.com dont know anything about it but i do know the man behind it is a MAD SCIENTIST! he built the flathead in my profile pic. i went to his shop to here it run and take it home. he has crazy shit everywhere! if you call him he would be glad to talk.

 

who cares what they are called they are wild and cool. I'd LOVE to own one. I'm especially fond of the F head conversions. having a standard flathead intake with overhead exhausts adds something I think.

 

Wow ! Have you got the heads?

 

Didn't they use the Y block heads?

 

The Flatattack sohc hemi heads Mike is building in Australia mentioned earlier, belt driven

 

I,d love to know if that is true

 

Unfortunately no I don't have the heads. What you see is what you get.

 

Wow that's crazy cool.

 

The valve covers I have look they might fit a thunderbird but I was told they could fit a old nailhead engine as well.

 

WOW that is neet! Ought to tax the lower end to the max...

 

Well the fingers made it to the key board at least. "Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!"

 

Really enjoyed reading all of this! Thanks.

 

And I really enkoyed WTF really's avatar.

 

Yes nothing better than a good carburetor.

 

What is that an old autolite 2 barrel or half a double pumper?