What can you tell me about the 1940 flathead V8? I’m considering a 1940 Ford coupe with the original engine , its a restored stocker. Is the 40 version of the flathead a good candidate for the usual performance bolt ons like heads and intake manifold ?
Having been through this a couple of times, I will say that the main benefit will be in the "looks" department. Unless you get deep into it, (increased displacement and a suitable camshaft), any increase you see will be minor.. If the engine is currently in good shape and runs well, I would leave things as is. If you really want to get into it, I'd build another engine to swap in later. If you just want a spiffy looking engine, you might want to proceed. A 304" stroker might be nice, though.
Buy it--change the stance etc and few minor things-drive it a bit then decide. a stock 40 flathead will run just fine as long as you know it's limitations.
My '40 pickup still has the original flathead in it. I redid everything including the motor 20 years ago and it is still running fine. I have the usual bolt on goodies which picked up the horsepower from 85 to about 125. That doesn't seem like much but it accelerates very well and has no trouble staying with traffic. I won't win any drag races but I don't drive like that any more.
^^^that's perty. Now I have to paint the inside of the inner fenders on my truck Wimbledon to match the firewall.
Hello, When I was a teenager, I needed my own car. The previous owner of the Salmon Pink colored 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery had a stock Flathead motor. He decided to put in a big 348 Chevy motor, a LaSalle 3 speed trans and paint the whole sedan delivery. It was his first paint job, done at night in the car port running into the late night hours. His night vision in mixing the paint was suppose to give him a bright orange red color. He was going to be the top dog in the Bixby Knolls teenage circuit and a bright color was going to do it. No one else, we found out later, made anything close to a 348 powered Ford sedan delivery or for that matter, a 348 powered anything except for a modified 348 in a black 58 Impala. When we saw the 348 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery rolling up the driveway to the drive-in parking lot, all heads turned. It was the newest build and this was the place to show it off. The rumble of the 348 motor through the mufflers was pretty outstanding. When he rumbled through the whole lot, we were all amazed. That was the point of the drive-in cruise. Then he pulled into the back row parking space so we could all see what it was. It was well put together. The new paint glistened and he was answering tons of questions. Jnaki This 348 powered sedan delivery was exactly what I needed for my new surf adventures. It would be a fast hot rod and get me to the beach in record time. So, he did have a small for sale sign in the front window. He was asking a lot of money for any actual bidders. I offered him a sum and he, of course chuckled. We had been friends since junior high school. But, persistence paid off…in a way. After a month of asking and the owner not getting any other takers, he relented and said for my price, he would sell the sedan delivery to me. But, it would come with the stock 80 hp Flathead, LaSalle and everything else being stock, I was buying a “stock” Ford Sedan Delivery. At the time, I wanted the 348, but the owner had plans for a full-on drag race build using the 348 and needed to sell the sedan delivery. So, I luckily, was the new owner of the sedan delivery, despite everyone saying it looked like a Pink Salmon color, not Orange Red. Under the parking lot lights, it did look Salmon Pink. But, it was a different hot rod and no one else had one in our area of cruising and So Cal coastline. The Flathead motor was very reliable and took me over 1000s of miles all over So Cal and the vast coastline from San Diego to Santa Barbara. The only thing was the high usage of oil without showing any signs of leakage, white smoke or drips on the concrete driveway. It ran quite well. It started up with the first-time ignition. But, the only thing was that being accustomed to 280 HP+ in the 58 Impala, this 80 HP Flathead was very underpowered for the steep coastal roads. It was requiring a 2nd gear downshift, just going up a steep incline with the sedan delivery loaded with people and surfboards. When we got a 3rd gear running start down the leading hill, we were going fast. But, with the overloaded normal teenage stuff in the back, it required the 2nd gear to get over the top of any steep hill incline. The San Diego Torrey Pines, long hill climb was a slow lane downshift to 1st gear to chug up that coastal road. It was kind of embarrassing to be in the slow lane chugging up the hill. Despite the running start in 3rd, if anyone was cutting us off, that required changing lanes and downshifting to 2nd. No other car seemed like it was in 1st gear going up that hill. Jnaki So, if 80 HP is not your cup of tea and you can build up the stock 1940 Ford Flathead motor, then more power to you. As teenagers, the pocket book said, “… like the 80 HP chugging up hills, as that is the only way to get where you want to go…” Someone previously mentioned 125 HP in the stock Flathead build up…that would have been fine for us. But, it is hard to get where we were going being loaded up with the required equipment and necessary beach/surfing items. YRMV
I'm assembling a 239 + .080 flathead now. The '40 had a 221 cu.in. engine and not a lot of compression, but it is long stroke with a heavy flywheel. These are like tractor engines good torque at low rpm; almost always producing higher torque numbers than HP. They are expensive to build based on dollar per horsepower. I think the best performance improvement for a flathead is a more modern overdrive manual transmission. Changing the trans. is also pretty expensive. My 41 p/u had a 239" 8ba in it and after some fiddling it was fun to drive even though the trans is pretty worn out.
No I didn’t sad to say. As much as I would have liked to I decided that the price was too much considering the mods I would want to do. Even the simple traditional way.
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