I've been looking for a motor for my hotrod and really had my heart set on building a flathead for it. Well after only a short while of looking I found an add in the Stockton CL for a flatty v8 dissasembled but complete for 200. So today, I scraped my change together and made the trip to look at the deal. The seller was a guy named Phil who was a pleasure to deal with. The motor looked like it may have sat outside for a while at one point but after rubbing on the light corrosion, it came right off. Years of dirty oil and dare I say neglect has kept the metal in pretty good shape and sealed it from the elements for the most part. In the deal was included a complete but dissasembled motor and a few extra goodies such as 3 distributors and a flathead book and a factory carb....Holley 94?? it's punched with a ford logo...embossed rather... As we were loading up the parts I noticed 2 model A grill shells hangin on the wall and asked if he was interested in getting rid of them. He told me that they werent that great but I could have both for 20 bucks! SCORE! One is beat but can be repaired with the proper amount of motivation, and the other is in really good shape with only 2 cracks and most of the nickle plating is still in great shape! Im seriously pleased with todays haul! I am still lucky enough to have an orriginal hotrodded as a mentor (my grandpa) so I swung the haul over to his shop to have a look at it. Were going to clean it up tomorrow and measure the bore to make sure it is still useable. He really knows flatheads and used to "play" with them as he put it...A lot in the 40's and 50's. The block has a reconditioned tag from Ford summerville plant. Pretty cool I thought...a factory reconditioned block. Enough of my rambling...here are some shitty cell phone pics... Broken tab? bad news? repairale? Do I need it? I should get started on the rebuild after I get all the parts hot tanked and specd. Rob
Why would you want to put a flathead in your hotrod? Just kidding. Tell us more about your plans for the build, what stage you're at, any more pics, etc.
Im at the "collection of pieces that are going to be parts" stage. This is my first hotrod and its going to pretty much be built out of what I can get my hands on for a reasonable price. I have a 41 chevy truck cab, frame, and running gear. Front suspension is model A stuff...I don't know what I am going to do for the rear end...maybe a ford 8. I'm still up in the air if I am going to use the chevy frame or fab my own. Ill figure out more once the chop is complete and the channeling begins. I may just keep the factory from from the motor mounts to right behind the cab, depending on what I want to do with the rear suspension. Im thinking just a transverse spring. Next is to figure out what trans to run behind my flathead.. So how about a shop in the sacramento area who knows flatheads?? Rob
That cracked bit is for the anti-chatter rods. And I see trapezoidal shaped water passages. This is good... you'll want to do the research. Great score for what you paid.
I have a flathead book and have done some initial research. I think the block is a 39? It's got the smaller bore but It looks like it has been taken out at least .010... Im going to clean it all up and get an accurate measurement of the bore this afternoon. And thanks for the numbers! I will give those guys a call. Rob
Hooray! I'm glad someone here got that. I'm in the area and had seen that ad - wondered what $200 would getcha. Congrats!
Learn something everyday. I was thinking that they were just regular plated steel and I could fix them with steel filler rod. Guess I need to learn to weld stainless. The one on the left doesnt look to bad, right?
Out of fram in the pic is the damage to the red one.... Its rtorn and bugger welded for a fix. It's fixable but with some (a lot) of work. So how hard is it to TIG stainless?
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