Technical Best Flathead Engine of all time?

My dad told me the Sherman was a real piece of shit and a death trap for many US soldiers during WW2. It was only superiority in numbers that outgunned the Tigers. The Shermans were easy to puncture by the German artillery.

The best flathead was the Mopar 6. They ran forever and were very dependable. The slant 6 that replaced them was almost as good.

 

Not sure what you are driving at. You can blow any engine with enough supercharger pressure. Are you thinking of building a blown flathead? By the way I agree with you about supercharging being the answer to the flathead's limited breathing and compression. Auburn, Cord, Hupmobile and Kaiser do too.

 

Well we are completely forgetting some of the flathead aircraft engines aren't we. LOL

 

If you haven't owned/driven a Hudson Hornet engined car you haven't lived. In 7x form the torque from those 308 cubes was impressive. Coupled with a low cg Hornet chassis and it was the right formula to kick ohv butt in the formative years of NASCAR.

 

The Ford 4 Bangers starting with the T through the A & B.

Mainly responsible for the growth of dirt track racing, Hot Rods, Speedsters, and a host of innovators making speed equipment.

 

I actually drove a '54 Hornet with the export package. I had made a deal to buy it but I was still in high school and living on my own even at 250.00 it was a stretch for me back then.

You are correct it was way more car then the tri five chebbies that the right kids were driving.

 

All great opinions. I'm partial to Hudsons but the Packards look good on paper as well. Maybe even better than the Hudsons. As far as the most impact I think that goes to Fords V-8. That must have really been something back in the 30's.

 

don't forget Ron Main's 300 mph flathead. it sure was ugly.
Pete

 

Assuming you really meant the Ford/Mercury flathead V8, then the best one would have to be one of the 10% of them that don't overheat.

 

I had a '48 Seagrave with the licensed 468" Pierce Arrow V12 engine. When I got it, one of the ignitions was out, but after I fixed it and tuned it up, that was a sweet runnin' machine. It would start with one pull of the hand crank and idle at 350 RPM. It also moved that 4 tons of pumper around pretty well, too. I had thoughts of pulling it and putting it in a Hot Rod, but the truck (with 2300 original miles) was just too nice for that. I see they started doing this a few years ago. BTW, I have had innumerable flathead Fords, but this had a panache' that was hard to beat.

 

No kidding!!

 

or whining?

 

Porknbeaner, don't forget the Mopar flathead was used up till 68 in the Power Wagon.

 

As often as the jeep has been mentioned here (I had a '53 CJ) let's not forget what it was designed to replace. The horse.

The best flathead I know of was the one in a '42 Ford dump truck that belonged to a farmer I worked for that made it home from a sawmill with a load of sawdust and a broken crankshaft.

 

I agree! ......….72 years old and still runs like a Singer! My OT 1946 CJ2A

 

Kinda like this one?......

 

Yeah! Like that. It had two distributors with 12 plug wires coming out of each one as well as two coil wires. The coils were really neat too; they were finned and made of aluminum and bakelite and all four were mounted in a row on the firewall. Probably the most impressive ignition system I have seen. A Nash dual eight with 16 plug wires comes close, but TWO distributors and FOUR coils was impressive. I hate to say this, but mine looked a little bit better than the one in the picture. It used H10 Champion plugs and '46-'48 Chevrolet points, so a tune up didn't break the bank. Luckily, it was super-low miler so the caps and rotors were good. I wouldn't even begin to know where to start looking for them and probably couldn't afford them if I could find them. I sure miss that truck, it was the greatest social tool I ever had.

 

I had a 51 Merc that would sit and idle and you could set a glass of water on the hood and it wouldn't even make a ripple in the glass. I had to look at the oil pressure gauge to see if it was running , but that sucker would vapor lock every time you shut it off when it was hot.
It was the best flathead I ever owned, but my uncles Hudson was the best flathead I have ever seen .
He bought when he came home from the Korean war and drove it forever. It was fast and smooth.

 

That Seagrave in the picture is an original City of Kamloops 85 foot aerial . It was donated back to the Fire Dept from the estate of the guy who bought the truck in the 70's Mechanically untouched for at least 40-50 years.
Here's a pic of the quad coils and the dual v-12 distributors

 

Yup, looks familiar. The coils on yours must have been replaced at some time. As I stated earlier, the ones on mine had built-up cases of cast aluminum and bakelite and had fins on the aluminum part. My truck was from a small town in Wisconsin (Portage) and had been meticulously maintained. It was in absolutely pristine shape when I got it. Again, the whole thing looks a lot better clean and in good order.

And now back to our regular programming.

 

I mean that with forced induction the performance limit for a side-valve engine is no longer that breathing and compression work against one another, but that one would soon exceed the likely physical capabilities of the block, crank, and bearing construction. Unless, of course, some very clever changes are made.

By the way, who on here knows about these guys? http://www.uncommonengineering.com/

 

Cool....

 

Continental flat 6

 

A very talented former Indy car guy who's doing some amazing stuff. While his engines may be out of the budget of most, and they're not hard line traditional, they are fascinating lumps with some clever engineering and fabrication. If you had the means and wanted a dramatic "what if....." kind of car, one of those engines would be just right.

 

Perrier flat head Cadillac in clover leaf pattern.


Perrier-Cadillac 41-75 rear

 

I'm sitting here waiting for that guys coat to get ripped off while he's got his arm resting right on the generator.

 

Screw the Seagrave (Pierce-Arrow) V12. After seeing that triplex Cadillac, it gets my vote hands down!.

 

If you really wanted to try the limits of supercharging a flathead engine I nominate the Canadian made version of the Chrysler/DeSoto flathead six. The largest version was a 3 7/16 X 4 3/4 265 cu in but they made them as small as 3 3/8 X 3 3/4 for Canadian Plymouths.

They had a strong bottom end and were long lived and reliable. One weak point was pistons which crack and break after very high mileages. But that can easily be solved with modern forged pistons.

I believe you could get a high hp per cu in out of such an engine, the limiting factor being exhaust valve cooling and cooling in general.

 

The 9 main bearing Packard 327 and 354 Eights would be a good alternative for living the forced induction life as well....Ala Brian Thomas.



Twin McCulloch's on this '51 Packard (Video quality is poor).