Koz, I am a little bit ahead of you, as my 1981 Jeep 151 cu.in. is hanging in the garage. My 1935 ford transmission and Laycock J type overdrive is on the floor in the shop. Just waiting on adapter plate (motor to trans) and some other parts to start my install. I am curious to see how you plan on mounting it in the chassis. regards
The car I was referring to is indeed the Jim Ewing '28 roadster with the banger built by Tom Sparks if I recall. They used a simple ring adapter to throw a Frontenac valve cover on there, (back when you could get them), and a homemade 2x2 intake and header. I do remember it sounded great. I have this one pic......
https://www.gmpowertrain.com/2013_pdf/FHR_REV_3.0L_Indust_122112.pdf https://www.michiganmotorz.com/marine-engine-1990-current-p-69.html
Here's a pic of the valve cover I was talking about. Anybody know what the donor was? Looks to be Chevy or GMC. Not hard to do for a cool look, shoot it in Alumablast and burnish it for the cast aluminum look, (hard to tell the difference even up close).
I have my adapter and the trans end in already. I made up a rear hanger that uses the typical Chevy trans mount. It is 5/16" plate so when I cut my driveshaft I just kept it 5/16" longer and used an additional gasket between the bearing carrier and the mount. I'm going to use regular flathead donuts up front to lock it in pretty good since the motor mounts, (and the engine), are now part of the rear suspension. If necessary I can add a pair of chatter rods when I get it on the road. Note! The fab work is not near as hoggish as it looks in this pic. It's actually very neat when seen up close.
Okay I am not ahead of you I just have most of my parts but need to get working on installation. I like your rear transmission mount solution, clean and simple, looks good.
I have so little room inside I can't spare any bit of space in the trans tunnel. I have a steel floor system made up to gain an extra 1/2" in height and I kind of gift wrapped the elephant so that it just clears. By removing the ears on the bearing retainer I tucked the mount under the trans to save more space. It looks really neat underneath. The car is getting a 3/4 aluminum belly pan with an open section under the oil pan sump on back and a load of louvers. I know the banger is easy to cool but I'm trying to keep as much of the heat out of the underside as possible. The hood sides, no top being used, are also punched full of louvers. Homemadehardtop57 on here is handling the ventilation. The outside of these panels are getting painted black and the inside left natural aluminum. What I'm saying is a lot of the "structure" of the chassis and the like is exposed so everything has to look relevant. All these panels are held in place with truss head straight slot screws, blind tabs on the hood sides and exposed on the bellypan. It all looks so "dry lakes". I'm waiting on the fellow from the net to get back to me on finalizing the Jeep motor deal which I the next big step here. That's where you're ahead of me. When I get it I'm going to go through it and anything I need to do will get done. Comp Cams is providing a cam kit, (K52-123-4), which is a decent street grind along with the usual correct springs, lifters timing gears etc. With a little port work, hot ignition, two Holley 94's and a good homemade intake they feel 145-150 horses is realistic at right around 180 ft. lbs. of torque. The head needs to be cut .035 +- to bring the compression up to 9.2 - 1. This will require better gas but I won't be using that much of it...LOL, yeah right! I can get a little more out if I have the 2.0 valves put in. It's pretty easy to make some gains on this head as I am being told by my machine shop who have a good bit of experience on midgets with these motors. I pulled out a section of early Ford tapered driveshaft to make a header that will go down the drivers side of the body and out the back with a 2 3/4" pipe. I'll wrap it with black heat tape as per Pa. law. Damn near optimum on this motor. If all this works out it should run about as good as a decent street flatty and that's good for me. I also have a pair of nice Edmunds low air cleaners that will look just fine on there. Need to find the right valve cover but I have some time on that.
:Here is a Chevy II 153" in a track T I built in the 1990's. You may want to reconsider your "mileage" as this track t combo made 10-11 mpg. Head shaved .55 with Clifford hdy cam (hottest they had) and 4.11 gears with a T-50 (non overdrive 5sp= learned that the hardway-lol)
Ain't building these things for economical motoring! Very nice rod there. Nicely done. I especially like the throttle setup through the firewall like that with the mechanism all on the intake. A lot of work. Question is though..... Was it fun to drive?
Dayum, I'm chubbed up about my 1st ever Ford flatty in a 39 std sedan and it's just a rebuilt stocker. I'm fairly certain it'll pull me down a freeway 60+ MPH without crying for mommy too often. Here we're talking about a car 1000lbs less. Did I miss something? I didn't miss that you're sorry you sold the flatty, I guess I agree. If I decide I need more speed or simply more power I'll bolt in a 350 that's fresh and sitting in the corner, but for now I'm pretty sure my stock flathead will serve me well. No smokin the tires for sure, but with 7.00s and a 3.78 I'm guessing 25-2600 at 60. Fresh radiator, water jackets were picked clean, not worried about overheating. I will agree on the point of cost per HP level on a flathead. My 350 is maybe 300 HP max. Might take over $10K to get there with a 59AB, if it's even possible at that cost. My guess is no. Just random thoughts, and frankly digging the idea of a late banger, but within reason. No matter what that little bucket's gonna get your attention.
I had the Chevy 4 in a glass 27T with a powerglide it was a sled, slow and boring to drive, It's the one that was built in Ohio and was bought and painted red and white by a guy who claims he built it but he didn't, lame all the way around.
Be sure if you start with a Mercruiser marine engine you change the cam to a street cam. Charlie Stephens
The motor I'm getting is from a Jeep CJ but I'm swapping out the cam anyway. I routinely build intakes and exhaust headers so that's no problem. I do have a line on some cool vintage stuff to complete the transformation. I always had a hot nut on pre/post war lakes cars and this fits right in. With a healthy cam these motors sound really unique. John Lee Williamson, Sorry to hear you didn't like the combo. They are for select tastes, obviously, but it sounds like there may have been more the matter there than just the combination. I've built a couple of dirt cars that didn't weigh much less than my car and they were not pooches to say the least. Out of the hole they tend to run out of steam a little quick but with careful gearing and some practice you can work around that. They are not "neck snappers" but neither were early overhead conversion bangers, (roughly the same HP and torque figures), or most flattys. With the old timey drive train you don't want that anyway. I can't wait for the first ride around the block in this one. I have a guy getting back to me with Mallory dual point for this motor. I've never even seen one but it will fit right in. theHighlander, My first car was a '39 sedan with an 8BA in it and with some mild stuff, cam, 2x2 and some Weiand heads it was all I could handle at the time. Still one of my favorite rides ever. My brother and I cut the roof off after seeing one in R&C about 1965 or so. We didn't do quite as good of job but it sure was a party tub. I never did get the Carson top built.
Anyone building a light rod that favors aesthetics over strict adherence to tradition (which would also rule out Jeep or S10), should consider Alfa Romeo or Miata. Far lighter, equivalent power, and drop-dead gorgeous (Offy-ish).
I'm running a Chevy II 153 in my truck with a 4 speed. As light as the truck is it has plenty of pep and those motors are reliable.
The powder metal rods had nothing to do with the failures. In fact, powdered metal rods are commonplace in modern engines, including Diesels. The Fiero had a very shallow, and low capacity oil pan for packaging reasons. Capacity was only three or three and a half quarts, from memory. Owners would run them out of oil, the rod bearings would seize, and, bingo, the rod would snap. Collateral damage exemplified.
Just picked up on this thread, I have a Duke motor in my 27 T, haven't a clue about these engines, thinking about a 16v Ford 2.0 Zetech and a Ford auto box as a replacement ( haven't got room for a 3rd pedal unfortunately ! ) Not sure which trany my car has at the min, its meant to be a TH350, but on reading a bit of history on the car, It could be a Th200, it just seems a bit jerky on the upshift, a bit agricultural but doing the job at the min.
I know this is old but what has become of this build? Is there another thread? Flathead? Just a note on the valve cover in this picture. It is mine and was a failure due to my lack if skills. The GMC valve cover required lots of cuts to make it look right. The metal is thin. The GMC covers are not as straight as they look. I kept grinding through who trying to smooth the welds. Ot could be done but not by me.
I almost forgot about this one! The car was sold in almost completed condition and has been on the road for some time now with the flatty. The four went into another car, a TROG style speedster on repop Essex rails, with a SBC adapter onto a '39 style trans and '40 rear. I ultimately was able to acquire an ancient Frontenac valve cover which was placed with a fabricated adapter aluminum ring. I have a similar car on the fixture as we speak but with B block power. It ran extremely well and pulled really smooth through the gears with 3.78 in the rear. I build a load of cars each year but always seem to need to liquidate either when the oil bills start coming in or tax time. I'm doing my best to keep my Vicky through the winter and have one of my own again for this summer. It's been 12 years I haven't had my own car coincidentally the same amount of time I've been building cars full time.
Thanks. I'll find more of your stuff. I have a ton of projects but don't get much done anymore. I just sold a repop Fronty vale cover to a guy who found a Fronty head for his project. He was happy. Beside my Chevy roadster I have most of the big parts for a 1919 based Essex racer.
Hey, Koz; "repop Essex rails" . More info, please. Incl what year(s) they cover. On the GMC valve cover mods: no pics that I can find now, but years ago I had a hotrodded Olds 371, done by an old guy from Rochester MN. He modified the GMC v.c. to fit using the Olds 2-bolt hold-downs. Looked very interesting. He welded one, brazed the other. Warpage on both, more on the welded, but not horrible. I ran them on a 324-headed-303, w/6 94s. Nobody knew what the mill was. . Did get a few dbl-takes 'till they figured it out. . Tall straight sides, had lots of room for the adj rockers. They do make an interesting looking v.c. Marcus...
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