Art & Inspiration The Ultimate Hot Rod Motor

Hey Ryan, you may as well change your title to ‘engine’ from ‘motor’ since we all started chirping about our favorite engine(s).
If you meant to catch us sleeping, nice one dude.

 

Yeh us Motorheads prefer Engine but enginehead just doesn’t sound right

 

If you hear the freeze plug and harmonic balancer crowd coming..............RUN!

 

A 270 Offy would be nice..Bob Anderson ran one in his 29 roadster pickup over 40 years I know of.

 

Enough said!.....

 

I still think a SBC provides the ultimate versatility for a hot rod build. Certainly not the prettiest, but you can dress them to look mean or sedate, have countless induction options, and can build a high-rpm screamer or a nice sedate cruiser, or anything in between. From the high 200-ish cubes to low 400-ish cubes you can build one that suits your needs. They're also relatively simple and compact, so they offer a fairly clean look. There are other engines I like better, but I think the SBC can't be denied as the swiss army knife of hot rod engines.

 

I’m always drawn to the “dressed up” Caddy motors for sure. See Christopher Flynn's “Texas Two-Step” for example in what is maybe my favorite roadster pickup ever.

That being said, maybe I’m a little partial but nailheads are among the best based on the combination of aesthetics and TORQUE.

My factory “undressed” version:

 

Uh, how are you going to do that since the valves in a flathead are in the block and the valves in the SBC ARE IN THE HEADS?

 

Right with you "Jimmy6", although I could also go for a '64 4Cam Ford Indy motor... But either of them Must be in a roadster with NO HOOD!!!

 

Still one of my favorite hot rods, with one of my favorite unique Ford engines.

 

As the title says “the ultimate hot rod motor”. I believe each of us has had a car with a small block Chevy, but how many have enjoyed something with a flathead Ford v8? Here is my story about my 1953 ford Victoria. I had been attending night school to become a mechanical engineer and driving a succession of beaters when I finally got a real engineering job! Well now I had a little more income and decided to buy a new car! Well, new to me. It came in the form of a 1953 Ford Victoria, flathead v8 and two speed ford-o-matic. It was black with a cream top and had lakes pipes, dummy spots a split manifold with glass pack exhaust out the back and the stock two barrel carburetor. It had 2-1/2 “ whitewalls and stock hubcaps and the poor body work but smooth shiny paint made it look excellent!

After a week or two of shakedown driving, tune up etc. I deemed it good enough to be my daily driver so I sold off the last beater. This I drove to my new engineering job. Pretty cool huh? And drove to night classes and everywhere else too. It was great! Then along with a colleague we drove it to Chicago for the packaging expo. A trip of 400 miles or so. That is when both water pumps let go. After limping home with stops every 50 miles or so to refill the radiator I pulled the motor and rebuilt it. (I had to wait for a while as I then needed a new beater to get to work $$). Once rebuilt, I enjoyed the new power from the fresh rebuild and then decided it was a bit too nice to drive in Ohio’s rain and snow. Once sitting, the bad body work and rust beckoned and it was sold to make way for something of the convertible persuasion. I still do miss the rumble and sound of the flathead and driving the back roads in that perfect nostalgia of a 1953 Ford.

 

Maybe it could be done with a lot of figuring and some custom heads and intake? Valves could be upside-down in place of the pushrods. I don't think it's a good idea, but dumber things have probably been done.

 

Well the block would have to be redesigned for valves and ports. Obviously you can't just bolt flatheads onto a Chevy. This would have to be a mix of flatty and SBC design. Just dreamin out loud.......

 

Y block or olds if its not a flathead, both have their own unique cadence. Theyre cool looking, make great power and are period. Once you solve the minor oiling issue in the y block (one thats already partially solved by detergent rich modern oils) they are a stout engine that can be built all the way up to the infamous 1k realm and honestly in a traditional hot rod...who really needs that!?

 

"dumber things have probably been done" - true that!

 

At least with SBC ,if you breakdown you can practically get parts any where maybe even CVS ! LMAO

 

I may be a bit bias since it’s what I’m running in my 35 Chevy, but 348/409

 

371 Rocket

 

Well, you CAN have your cake, and eat it too!

 

I honestly think everyone’s personal opinions are rooted in their knowledge, experience and frame of reference. Each having their own merit. I was lying under my ‘55 the other day, staring up at the BBC… marveling at the engineering, passion and time that went into designing and manufacturing everything I was looking at. While some of it wasn’t as beautiful as other stuff I’ve worked on, especially early Ford parts I’ve handled, it was there… and I felt the history and the almost infinite amount of human energy that went into it all. I couldn’t move. I just laid there… thankful I’m into these old cars. It was a great moment of reflection.

 

Red Ram works for me. And was raised on building a lot of SBC engines.

 

Never seen this before. Will have to read up on it.

 

Seeing this could draw a parallel to...
[He sits there struggling, trying to avoid the innumerable number of "left turn" comments that could be made re the latest societal issues]

 

Pictures look better when blown up......

 

It's not the prettiest pig in the pen, but I sure have a sweet spot in my heart for her.

 

Have a foot in both camps, Love the look and sound of the flatheads and the reliability and strenght of the Olds 88's

 

Tough to beat a well dressed early Caddy... Here's one I built a while back.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...90-engine-build-for-my-34-ford-coupe.1153370/

 

I don't know about ultimate, but in my opinion the most iconic are the Flathead, SBC and Hemi.

 

I love 'em all... mostly.
The Offy is way cool...
SBC is reliable, cheaper h.p. for the $, but too common.
My roadster's got a bone stock (looking) 324 Olds in it... real torquey & looks bad ass in there!
Use what works, use what you can afford.

 

How about a Pontiac