In a naturally aspirated medium/hot street motor, which of the aftermarket Ford Flathead heads performs the best? Which is the worst? Thanks for the info.
I'd say take a look at Tony Baron's heads......really great runners, look cool as hell, and can be made in a variety of *pop-up* configurations if you need that......go here: http://www.baronracingequipment.com/ Best.... Brucie
I'm using Flatattack heads on my grocery-getter and my race motor. They have stepped combustion chambers, use modern plugs (NGK B5-ES), hold six more quarts of coolant, and give a real ass-of-the-pants performance boost. Mike also provides a reversible relief template for the intake side. Have tried Offy, Edelbrock, MCF and Wilson+Woods; none come close.
Hi Guys, I for one would love to see one motor, fitted with different heads and run on a dyno so that real data could be collected. Dreams.... Danny
Didn't R&C or Street Rodder do this a year or two ago?? I can't remember if they ran all the diff heads on the dyno, but I'm pretty sure they flowbenched the same relief ported block with at least Eldebrock, Offy and Sharp heads.
For your average street flatty, I doubt you'll be able to feel the difference between any of the heads. The Barons flow very well because they have much lower compression than any of the others. The pop-up makes up for it some, but now you're tied into special pistons. They do make power though... I've no experience with flat attack or wilson & woods, but I stand by my first statement....
Joe Abbin may have done the flow work for that SR article - it was within the last two years I think. My back issues are packed away or I'd look for it. I'll ask Joe next time I talk to him...
How 'bout a stock head on side and a decked Offy on the other at the same time? Should get a good pull or two. jk
Where did you buy the Flatattack heads? Do you have any idea what they cost? The extra coolant capacity sounds like a definite plus if it is street driven. I hate how fast mine overheats. CN
If it's overheating at all, you have other issues. The common "flatheads run hot" is only a myth for a well built/maintained Flathead. Unless it's a tuning issue, one of the most common problems is buildup/rust/sludge/casting sand in the block, followed by a gunked up radiator.
Dude Im with Bugman on this. I run a blown flathead in my coupe and hardly ever use the elec fan mounted in front of the rad. Runs around the 170-190 mark all the time. I don't use the fan unless it gets any hotter on real hot days. But I spent ages cleaning the block and had in a molasses bath for 3 months - when it came out it looked like it had just been cast. Clean, clean, clean, water jackets are the way to along with a decent new rad and at least a 7-10lb rad cap. Also run distilled water and Water Wetter to the mix along with a bottle of anti rust - NO GLYCOL. Works killer. Just trying to help mate... Rat
Tony Baron is an incredible guy. Many of his items are reproduced and improved from his fathers earlier castings "Tattersfield and Baron". Setting aside the parts he builds his automotive expertise is far above most of the people in this country!
We currently have some design wiggle room that the ancients lacked... Currently we can get relatively cheap big strokes that could only have been done back when with a fabulously expensive carved billet. Historically, strokers for real people were limited to massaged stockers. In '39, the big journal crank allowed a tiny stroke increase by offset grinding...in '49, the new merc crank doubled that possibility but it was still 2X tiny. Piston makers came out with much more overbore, scary but often successful. Now we can get much bigger aftermarket stroke. Bigger flatheads allow bigger chambers without giving away everything. I would not be surprised if stock heads turned out to be a good choice with enough displacement to still get some compression. The real limits are probably in matching flow in the chamber with compression...too much chamber shrinking will give lots of static computed compression but will likely cut flow so badly that actual dynamic pressure will fall off the map. If you get 10 to 1 measured compression but chamber is only half full at high speed...you just got back to 1932. Large strokes also have potential problems even with the long rods and fairly low RPM of a flathead.
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