Cool small block fords what makes them look cool and vintage ?

We have a couple of BG Demon Six Shooter SBF TRI Power set ups available as well as a BG dual quad set up.

 

that's just some caliper paint i had laying around

 

Here's the SBF in my Track T. The valve covers are late model 5.0, the air cleaner is a Cal Custom, the dizzy is a vintage Mallory and the intake is an Edelbrock F4B with a 2100 Autolite:

 

Here are my $2 swap meet VC's with about half a can worth of semi-gloss, a few squirts of left over engine paint, and a stolen nail polish brush...




Blue bolts optional....

 

The generator (vs. alternator) and the vintage Mallory distributor in post 63 help a LOT with the vintage look.

Piper106

 

Here's mine.. I've only seen one other set of v.covers like these.
old' Keystones'

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=4736&pictureid=252427's

 

Dueces, you could always mount Webers on one of these.......

 

Well one thing that was brought up was that small block Fords have front mounted ignition and they said that looks awkward. If the wires are laying all over the place I agree. What we need to remember is that the Ford Flatheads were all front ignition just like Henry wanted. I would clean that up by using a "flat dist cap" that looks like the `42 "crab" cap and then I would get a left and right spark plug wire tube from any Flathead pretty much up till and including 1948. I would modify those for use on the small block Ford to contain the wires along the sides of the intake manifold and send them to each spark plug individually. Or if you wish you could place the tubes outboard of the valvecovers to hide the plug wires even more. I would use the antique cut to length style plug wire that is cloth covered. You can get them in many color combos such as black/yellow, black/blue, or black/red etc. Overhead engines in the 1950's had tin valve covers so I would use painted early 260/289 covers.

In my opinion the front of small block Fords get too bulky looking when the block, heads and front cover/water pump are all one color. Aluminum was not used much on engines in the `50's so I would try to emulate some of the two tone color combinations Ford and Mercury used on the early Y-blocks and paint the aluminum parts . Think white, red, gold, cream, green and brown. Pullies, brackets, and oil fill tubes would have been painted satin black by the factory more often than not.

 

Here's some ready-made:

http://home.comcast.net/~superhart/vcadapter.htm

http://www.breezeautomotive.com/details.php?prod_id=331&cat_id=8

 

My vintage looking SB Ford.

 

I'm still standing in line for a few sets

 

Holy crap! A hundred and fifty for a set of valve cover adapters? Can you say highway robbery?

I have a set of those Merc valve covers with the lightning bolts on them, but they will be going on my T-bird after I change out the pistons and drop in a 428 crank......ta-dah! Instant 410 Merc in a car it never came in.

 

I was hot for the lincoln covers but he wouldn't sell them so i took the mercs

 

This is a 289 with a Blue Thunder repop of the Ford over the counter dual quad intake and dual 390 Holleys. Also running an old tach drive Mallory and a green Flex-A-Lite fiberglass fan, not in this picture. The valve covers are a give away, as they are off a mid-80's Mustang, but they look the part and most people are fooled. I painted the block and heads black just like Ford did before 66.

I think it has a nice mid to late 60's competition vibe.

 

I've got a set of old-school Cal Custom Valve covers on my SBF & I think it looks great (honest , the engine's Ford light blue ) . An old original Edelbrock Torker "tarantula" intake don't hurt either !

 

Well thought out and written, Henry Floored.

-Dave

 

Did someone ask about vintage SBCs?

I will agree that SBCs tend to look more vintage than SBFs, because they are, about 7 years more "vintage", but I don't think that was the question..

Some folks just can't leave it alone.....

 

i have a set of these merc fe covers also which i may chrome and switch out with the thunderbird ones to give my engine a different look ! thought about making a die to stamp mercury in sheetmetal and grafting it into the tailgate of my roadster pickup to really make people wonder !

 

Originally Posted by nwbhotrod
Theres nothing Vintage about a small block Ford the Y blocks wher a bad motor and nobody wanted the flat Heads back in the day the 289 and 302 would hardley fit in a old Ford you had to use the new265 SBC then the 283 and the holy Grail 327 if you want vintage

A fair amount of intelligent people would disagree on the assessment that a Y Block is a bad motor....and nobody wanted a Flathead ?? Back in the day a SBF would hardly fit??? They seem to fit now....Are they making Early Fords bigger now??? SBF engines smaller???
Holy Grail 327??? Seriously???? Holy effen Grail????



The front mounted distributor and the exhaust port layout actually make the SBF a more appealing engine than a SBC to my eye.....and there have been some excellent examples displayed in this thread!!

 

I like some of these early air breathers to . Some people may think I'm getting carried away but thinking ahead sure helps you accumulate the correct parts and everything looks like it belongs there . Some cars you look at and the engine and it just doesnt match the rest of the cars theme or flavor of the car . I hate seeing a neat early style car and the motor just doesnt look like it belongs in the car. My whole car is a constant evolving pile of parts slowly going together but anything I've changed my mind on or decided I liked something different or better I've been able to trade or swap for what I needed or wanted . I guess thats why they say Hot Rods are never finished I've changed some things before they ever got bolted on. I guess thats why I am over thinking some of the build . On second thought I dont think its possible to over think some of the details on a build some mistakes or up coming issues got discovered or noticed by over annalizing things but I guess its to be expected mixing parts to work together the way we do .

 

I think with a sbf in a hot rod all you can hope for is to capture the "flavor" of oldtimeyness. The 331 in my 27 isn't completely true to the era but I didn't want it to be. Things like the aluminum heads sure don't fit, but I was out for HP on this one instead of correctness. One of these days I'll even get around to painting the distributor cap black.......maybe.




Don

 

well here is my 302 with a weiand stealth intake and weiand valve covers- it may not be art- BUT I like it

 

We now carry these.

 

My vote would be for the factory tri power setup, if you could find / afford it. Gary

 

I crewed on a F5000 sbf {SCCA's type of indy cars for road racing] with 4 Weber downdrafs that look great to me in a Lotus F1 frame we had built for Seabring F5000 ,got 5th place,David Oxten driving,very early 70's

 

my swap meet specials

 

For a vintage look you could use the components from a 62-64 Small block or FF powered Galaxie, Fairlane or Sprint. With a black block, orange red, chrome or gold valve covers with the era decalls like "289 Special" a small block can look very vintage especially in it's original early 60s trim.
The plain economy style chrome valve covers are close to the early 60s shape and would look very "era" with the appropriate decalls

 

We attended the IMIS show at Indy this week and saw a new item that some of you may be interested in.

Edelbrock just released a new SBF tri power set up using there vintage 94 carbs.

http://www.edelbrock.com/zmags/new_prod.shtml