Flathead vs. SBC

Dude you dont have any idea what your talking about! Agent orange oh boy gotta have that bellybutton.
Ronnieroadster

 

Thanks much for all the feedback. I agree with pretty much all of it. Since my engine is fresh, runs and sounds great I think I will leave it as is. I did build it as a '60's era rod, that is why I chose the 265.

 

common sense ---that is not traditional...

 

good point,everything has to "jive"otherwise it looks like a supermodel with a missing front tooth!

 

yeah!!

 

Gotta update my dimensional information. Did some flathead vs Chevy measuring today, probably enough to combine with other info on front of motor accessies I have posted to see how much room you would get with a FH; I suspect you might be able to get your radiator back home over the spring. All measurements quick'n'dirty, but reasonably close to reality.
Anyway...Chevy 327: Block length for basic block castign, from front face where timing cover bolts on to rear face where bellhousing would go...right about 22"
1949-53 type flathead...a hair over 22 1/2, couldn't read the small lines down by the floor.
A '49-53 with the correct bell for early Ford use and an earlier FH with integral bell would be essentially identical back there.
Flathead and Chevy bellhousings are very close to same depth, and in fact a chevy will take a '49 Ford bell with a thin plate to move around some bolt holes. Normal adaptors show overall fit back there very close.
I think where you will pick up a bit of space is at the front...chevy water pump puts pulley quite a ways out in front even with the short '55-68 pump, which I assume any early rod would use.
Flatheads for model A really require using early flathead single-row pum and gen drive, which puts the pulleys back from Chevy location. Using double row or '49-53 stuff would give up the space advantage. The early stuff is easily adapted to late FH block.
The remaining dimensions you need to find total installed length would come from measuring front hamper on your Chevy, from front face of block to fan, and comparing with the front hamper dimension for single row early FH from my earlier post:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35029&highlight=flathead+dimensional&showall=1

Stacking up all that gibberish should produce a usable length comparison. At back center of engine, the joker in the deck will be the distributor on the Chevy and the fuel pump stand breather on the FH, occupying about the same area. The breather can easily be modified to get out of the way, and if the actual FP area hits anything dump it and go electric. Easier than doing something with Chevy distributor!

 

in 1959 my grandmother had a 55 chev. w/265in. eng w/2bl. carb w/powerglide, would run 93MPH wide open. i had a 50 ford bone stock flhead, would run 93MPH wide open. so what does that matter????