Art & Inspiration The Ultimate Hot Rod Motor

when talking SBC, this is what comes to mind as top dog - Jr Fuel or a similar mill in a super light weight door car.

If it's got a 671, my mental image is all the lines matching up
4 ports on top, 4 flats in the blower, 4 plug wires, 4 exhaust

 

This is an amazing thread, of a variety of favorite engine configurations. We all have our favorites, whether it is for pure appearance or performance specification's.
My favorite engine of all time, is the amazing Dusenberg DOHC straight 8,
Pure automotive eye candy/jewelry, and it hauled ass for its time period !

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This particular Ardun Flathead looks pretty spiffy as well.



Gotta love the classic Blown HEMI in older sling shot dragsters.

 

Nothing sounds like a nasty flathead and looks awesome. It’s the cost of building them that sucks .
Now a baby redram hemi as my buddy says is a poor mans Ardun lol wicked cool look and good performance.
Man that SBC has lots of good things going for it cheap ,plentiful,good to great hp and tons of wicked cool aftermarket parts.
I’m lucky to have each of them and can’t pick a favorite as they all have good qualities.
My bucket list is a Boss 429 or a nasty Offy

 

Now with the passage of time, I will say it has now become that engine we don't mention here that I have absolutely no experience with. Those computerized entities stymy me.

 

My .02

1. Flathead v8
2. Caddy OHV
3. Olds Rocket
4. Early Hemi
5. Nailhead
6. SBC

 

For me; Cad, Olds, Pontiac, Y-block, FE, some Mopars.
Basically anything from that era except sbc's...

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-hamb-327-thread-index.1090356/#post-12359849

 

Pre 1964 Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Buick. In that order.

Pat

 

An old song comes to mind "love the one you're with"....
Any of these engines mentioned can perform and look the "part", with the right components, and proper detailing.

Personally the 3 HAMB era cars I own:
'39 Ford Deluxe coupe 283 3 deuce set up
'40 Ford Convertible 303 Olds
'40 Ford p/u 322 Buick Nailhead 3 deuce set up

 

My favorites are #1 SBC's in my Nomad, 34 delivery, and Vette. #2 389, and 400 Pontiac's in the 29 coupe, and Bonneville conv. #3 Early Hemi in the 30 tudor. So yeah, I kinda like them all.

 

Are you hiding in your Bunker? he he

 

Never had any dealings with a flathead, doubt I ever will. I've had SBC and SBF, with a few big blocks of both thrown in. Never liked the rear distributor on the Chevys, but the front sump on Fords used to be a problem on swaps. The later Fords solved that problem with the twin sump pans, small one up front, big in back. As far as parts, always seemed that Chevy parts grew on trees and everybody had them, you had to know somebody to find used Ford stuff. All that changed when the 302 became the 5.0, suddenly roller cams and good intakes were everywhere, sometimes for free. Last two I've built for myself have been 5.0 Fords, but I have a 350 Chevy sitting in storage if the right recipient comes along.
The others, BOP, Hemi and big Chryslers have always had appeal to me, but other than a 400 Pontiac in a Firebird I have no experience with them. I'll stick to my Fords and occasional Chevy...

 

One of these would be nice.

 

Thanks for posting. I’ve scoured the web for best sounding flatheads and never seen this particular vid. This sounds the most awesomeness!

 

I'm going to go off the definition. Ultimate means: "the best achievable or imaginable of its kind."

Well-dressed flatheads are pretty and sound wonderful straight-piped but so many of them were pulled in favor of overhead valve engines back when - that disqualifies them in my mind. How could you be the ultimate if you're tossed in favor of something else?

The SBC's bang for the buck and versatility and popularity could rank it at the top of popularity but "ultimate" (again in my mind) must rank at a higher level of superiority.

There's a line of engines that could be "superior" on the track or garner more attention at shows... but ultimate would probably be a SOHC 427. The Cammer took out the 426 Hemi's dominance. The Hemi gave up its bearings early on to the SOHC to solve its bottom-end woes... and within a few drag racing seasons it became legendary.

 

How about a Pontiac flathead straight 8 with a Latham or the occasional SBC with a Latham or just a plain Olds with 6x2's and super rare Gotha valve covers.

 

My first experience with a hot rod was at a Standard Oil filling station and used car lot I hung around when I was bout 12 years old. It was fairly close to my cousin Billy's house (another motor head). In the summer Billy, myself, and the owner's son Butch would hang out at the station. The older guy (had to be at least 19) who was the attendent bought a 39 Ford Coupe with a cracked block for $75.00. The engine was a flathead with finned aluminum heads, Edmunds dual carb intake with chrome 97's, red see through plug wires and red tinted clear fuel lines. He ended up buying a 49 Ford for $25.00, which we helped make into a stock car, . It lasted two weeks until he hit the fence. We went to the race track, disconnected the engine, turned the car on it's side and slid the engine out on to some big tires. The track owner let us use his old and somewhat decrepid tow truck to take the engine home. That alone was a big adventure for a 12 year old.

Once at the station we cleaned up the 49 engine and moved all the goodies from the engine out of the 39 to it. Next step was to drop the engine into the 39. It ran and sounded great. I remember going with the owner and my cousin to the outskirts of town to pick up something. On the way back it started to get hot and we had to outrun a train to cross the tracks. It was the fastest car I had ever ridden itn ; more adventure.

The flathead ran real good, but the owner wanted a bit more go. Out to the junk yard and a 54 Buick engine was procured. A Hurts adapter and mounts and the 2 bbl Buick was in the old Ford. That's when I found out that the flathead only seemed to make the car go fast. With the stock Buick engine the old Ford really flew!

 

"Flatheads Forever" it's that simple!!

 

I'm a Pontiac guy but I gotta give it to a blown and injected hemi, walk up on one just sitting in a car and you dont have to ask if it's fast... it's a given. There's a reason top funny, fuel classes still use the hemi motor..

A willy's just don't look right without a hemi sitting under the hood.

BUT nothing sounds better to me than a solid lifter'd small block 302 ford. High compression, big cam, 4 speed.... add some rpm's and it's beautiful music.

Been fortunate to be able to drive 2 real original 65 Shelby mustang gt's in my life on several occasions, neither mine but friends of mine. Driving those little 289's with compression, solid lifters and 4 speeds was purr poetry. One was actually an original Paxton super charged car but had it removed in the early 70's but he still had all of it put away.

Pretty motors, nail heads, caddy's, y blocks...

...

 

I prefer good old 327's.

 

Slant 6

 

As a newb to hot rodding, I have the say flathead just because I’ve built one. Next, I really like some of the Olds rocket engines I’ve seen. Next would be the early Chrysler hemis.

 

This is it for me , I even prefer Hilborn injection over a blower .

 

Well said. Like arguing religion.

 

the 331 Caddy was the future for sure. Great engine in its day. Looks as good as any small block Chevy.

 

Wait, what the...? Has Cap'n @Ryan become Cap'n Obvious? Of course the Nailhead Buick. I mean it really does fall into a bit of upper echelon hot rodding because it's one of those "if you know you know" motors. I've had many an old guy look at em and ask "What's up with the valve covers?" cuz they don't know, never had the opportunity. I had plans for a candy green 401 with finned aluminum everything and a bunch of carbs. Surrounded by a dirty white firewall color called "Vanilla Shake" that presentation would likely cause the reaction of your hot 5th grade teacher making you stand up to answer a question but you can't because she gave you unexpected wood. They don't even need headers. I would coat the manifolds in white porcelain.

Are there others? Sure, some kool stuff posted here. "Why" has to play. Maximum effort? BBC all the way, and I'll disagree that they're ugly. Dressed right and old school, built for power, nothing says "Heh, fuck you..." to a competitor like a BBC ready to wax dat ass. Kool and of unlimited means dept is owned by the Ardun. The Ardun can say "Heh, fuck you..." to a HEMI on looks alone. The HEMI might pontificate its power levels but the Ardun would sit there and ignore it, doing its nails, knowing that in the pure sex appeal dept she owns it. That's hard to argue. I've seen some really-really-really good lookin engines for decades in the concours sand boxes I've played in. Those late 30s Alpha-Romeo 8s could make a J Duesy blush, and for classic era engines the J is almost impossible to beat on looks alone. Almost.
But back to the nailhead, if you know you know, you get it or you don't. A lot don't, and even more these days never heard of it. How lucky we are to have the choices, and even luckier to be led by stellar early examples. For visual impact and envious TQ I too will stand in the nailhead line.

 

It's almost like Chevy copied some of the Cadillac design...but made things simpler, and more elegant. Like they looked at the design and asked "how can we make this cheap enough to put in a Chevy?"

hell yeah!