Technical Building a N/A performance 8BA flatty

My 39 has an 8BA, 1/8 over bore, 4 in crank, 1.6 SS valves cam, Chev dissie, with 2 97's on a Eddie Meyer manifold made 209HP with 299 ft lbs. Now has a 470 cfm 4 barrel for simplicity. Have driven over 10k miles, great package.

 

Dayum! What cam? My build is almost the same and we’re estimating 150-160hp. Does the 4 bbl help?

 

Post up a pic of your 4 bbl flattie.

 

I love dyno stories . . . . and most of them are just that.

 

90 percent of what you read and hear about flatheads is bullshit.
The other 10 percent is made up.

The foo foo performance stuff..... that's really expensive bullshit.

A stock 8ba in good condition and running well with headers and dual exhaust is most of the time vastly superior to the cruise in "hot rod" with 10k of foo-foo carbs/heads/intakes/cams thrown at it.

A good stock 8BA pushes around a shoebox really, really well.
Pre war? Model A.... a stock 8ba is a freaking rocket.

Read.....Bruce Lancaster on here.

 

This is a similar combination to what I have in my '41 sedan. Mine has an Edelbrock slingshot and Canadian aluminum heads, good for around 8.4 c.r., T5 and 8" with 3.50 gears. Nice combination for a little bit heavier car. Love the 1007b!

 

4-bbl won't get out of synch, plus you drive on the primaries most of the time.

 

I built a 260" 8CM (Merc version 8BA) for my '41 Merc. +.030" bore, Merc 4" crank, stock 8CM cam, block decked to get piston edges zero decked ( gotta be careful...valve seats get close on one bank) EAB heads milled about .025" and domes recut to get .035" -.040" between piston domes and head surfaces. Merc 4 stud stock intake with 2GV Rochester from 307 Chevy. Modded SBC distributor with vac advance. Single exhaust with quiet muffler (yeah, yeah, ) Pulls the 3600# Merc around great and gets 17 mpg. 3.54 rear gear with 29" tires. Lots of flathead hop up parts are very highly overrated.

 

There are lots of ways to build a great street engine at a fair price (considering a hopped up flathead is not cheap) - the minute one starts considering being competitive at Bonneville - then the budget gets REALLY big!

 

Here’s a second video from the same guy who did the race flathead video earlier, this one is more realistic to what most of us would be looking for.

 

I have just about the same setup n my '51 Ford club coupe and will agree that it makes for a great streetable setup with more than adequate performance. I have a Mallory dual point and Fenton headers with duals, though. (I don't believe it makes a lot of difference in performance, but I think it looks better.)

Fitting the heads properly is important.

 

The video is good, though like a lot of dynos, I'd say this one is a bit generous on the HP readings.

Though this engine has a lot of stroke and probably a 3 5/16+ bore, it has no porting work, stock sized valves and a mild cam. If one wants to believe it made 170 HP at 4400 RPM . . . that is up to you. Me, I'd say the numbers are a bit on the "enhanced" side of things.

Keep in mind, everybody likes to hear impressive numbers when their engine is on a dyno!

 

According to Mark Twain there three kinds of lies;
Lies,
Damned Lies,
and Statistics.

 

Cam is an Erson Hi Flow 2M. I have the dyno sheets, the run were with 2 97's, I believe it might make a little more with 4 barrel. With the T5 , 3.7 rear gears it is an amazing package. Who needs more than a good flathead. My 40 Coupe has basically a stock flathead that is transformed by a Columbia!!!!! I got my first flathead 60 years ago, they are still my fallback!!!!

 

No flathead expert, but watching a few of Jamie’s vids on the supercharged 61 Studebaker Hawk was interesting. Especially when he describes the blocks’ short comings when it came to breathing, and thus why they went with a supercharger. Seeing the inherently bad flow characteristics of the flathead, it would just make sense to use a supercharger to “instantly” make more power. I’m sure there’s a lot of “magic” to optimize such a package, but still if you want “power” I can’t help but to think adding a supercharger would be the way to go with a flathead.

 

Putting an "Air Stuffer" on the top of the flathead makes up for a lot of the twists, turns and other flow "gyrations" inside the engine. Plus, they're a lot of fun! Once you've had any blown engine you can't imagine not wanting another one! LOL

 

Do a 3/4 race street cam, high compression heads 8.5 to 1 and a 2 stromberg 97 carb intake manifold and headders

 

Got to agree on this one.

 

Yup. I have mine out doing some transmission work. Word to the wise, if you do add a blower, be careful side stepping the clutch when you run a T-5.