Projects Simca Marmon Flathead V8 from 1987!

I've just picked up a nice 30 year old flathead V8 for my next project.
It's a French Simca Marmon (Ford) flathead V8 cast in March 1987.

It came out of a decommissioned French military light truck. It's got the air compressor mount up front so fingers crossed, it's a long stroke engine.

It's a low hours engine so we'll see how good it is later after strip down.

Obviously it'll need a normal ignition from Bubba. A passenger oil pan and starter and a decent 12V generator.

The remote oil filter is there, just needs relocating.

Hey - there are some advantages living in Europe. View attachment 4437114

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We used to buy those in the UK for £300 an engine, still in the airtight containers .. those days are long gone... That was around the early / mid 90s. Wish I bought more ..

 

Cool! Is it a 4" stroke? A 59a pan should fit.

 

I'm hoping it's a 4". Yes I've got a 59AB pan for it.

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I believe the ones that had the sump pickup up front were 4", at least mine was. Bob Drake or others truck water pumps bolt right on. Actually, the hole block is SAE threads, only the exhaust studs have 10mm theads on the nut end, sae in the block. Hint, leave the studs in, they are a bitch to get out.

 

I got the first head off. No ridge or scoring in the cylinders. Valves look clean. This looks like the low hours on this are true.

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Stock bore and 4" stroke.

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Hi Ed, will you put a new cam in? If so which one? I've got a couple of these 4" strokers put to one side myself and will be looking to put one together sometime next year hopefully.

 

What a score.

 

Congrats

 

The block should have reliefs for a stroker crank

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That's the way it was built. It's stock with just 311 hours on it. And it does have the 4" crank. It's built for torque so maybe it doesn't breath as well as a Mercury. Anyway it's going in the Model-A completely stock.
It'll get headers, and new distributor and a single 94 carb. It'll be more than enough for a Model-A rear axle anyway.

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I helped a friend bring a new flathead back from Pleasanton in the nineties, bought from Halibrand.
Related article here:
http://www.flatheaddrag.com/french.html

Here is a pretty comprehensive how-to article on these.
http://www.btc-bci.com/~billben/french.htm

 

cool relief work, didn't know these blocks came that way form the usine

 

Looks like a 4” stroke motor


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just for the record as its often stated wrong, those arent hours, those are engine revolutions times a factor written on the conto's side.
yours is kinda new. I also have two comparables from 79 and 86 freshly French mil rebuild.
and yes it will need porting.
dont forget to weld the pans breather shut!
btw think you are gsra too? i did the rodazin and wrote the french Flathead articles some years ago so if you have questions contact me

 

So it would appear the engine has done just 622,000 revolutions in total. Which at 1000rpm average means just over 10 hours.
It certainly looks it inside!

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I just removed the intake. Looks like brand new inside. Looks like someone has worked on the intake runners to improve flow.

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I think I'm going to use the original intake manifold. It's aluminium but has a 4 bolt carb base. I've offered up a 4 bolt Lincoln Zephyr carb and the bolt pattern very nearly fits. About 1mm off so I could drill out the base holes a little.
The Zephyr carb offers a little bit more flow too.

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Nice engine !

 

Great score! Are these still sold by army surplus vendors?
If I may ask - how much did you pay for it?

 

I friend of mine bought 30 of them. Ex French military. I paid just over 3K for it. Which is great for a nearly new 4" engine.

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It looks like it was assembled in July 1992 even though the casting was already 5 years old at the time.

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Cool flathead. Congrats.

 

Thanks for your answer

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it was made/cast in 87
No this is the rebuild plate. So it was rebuild by french mil in 92 in clermond ferrand.
cylinders are standard, crank- and camshaftjournals are in first undersize.
ports are always like this.
i think i know who you got it from

 

So I guess the revolutions counter was reset during the rebuild. That would explain it's fresh condition then if it was rebuilt in '92. Still, stock pistons means it hasn't covered much mileage.

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We all would love to score an engine like that. Congrats.

 

yes typically thats what they did.
so you are really lucky. Engines like that dont show up that often anymore
so i would say this is a great moment to say merci

 

The HAMB is such a labor saver! This just saved me from trudging down to the basement to introduce a French manifold to a Lincoln carb!

"I think I'm going to use the original intake manifold. It's aluminium but has a 4 bolt carb base. I've offered up a 4 bolt Lincoln Zephyr carb and the bolt pattern very nearly fits. About 1mm off so I could drill out the base holes a little.
The Zephyr carb offers a little bit more flow too."

Does yours have the aluminum pan, either up front or Ford type sump? The 59 type aluminum pans are really nice.