I just officially (according to the state of Pennsylvania) became the owner of a 1940 Ford. It was my father's previously, his brothers before that, and their father's before that. My dad put a 1950 Caddilac 331 OHV v8 in it back in the 60's at some time. It has been parked for about 30-35 years, so I am sure the rubber hoses, brake lines and other fragile parts will all need replaced, in addition to hoping the engine doesn't need a total over haul, I figure the clutch will be rusted fast to the flywheel. Dad couldn't tell me what the flywheel was from, but thought the engine came out of an automatic car. He did think it had replaceable friction surfaces and was aluminum, and was not a custom or aftermarket piece. Herein lies my question. Any chance the flywheel is out of a Caddy? If it's not, anyone know of any possible direct swaps that it could be from? I would assume a GM product, but without seeing it I don't have an answer. I'm hoping I will have it running in time for next years Jalopy Showdown.
From memory early olds and Cad manual flywheels are interchangeable but I doubt any othere then aftermarket were alloy.... Pull it apart and get it surfaced, should be usable still if you are lucky.
most of those aftermarket aluminum flywheels had either a bronze surface bonded to it,or a steel surface riveted to it. i doubt it will be too bad in there,unless it was sitting underwater at some point.
There were Cadillacs being made in 1950 with manual transmissions, so it's possible that the flywheel/clutch set-up was originally mated to that motor/transmission from the factory. But those flywheels would have been steel, not aluminum. And if that motor originally had an automatic transmission behind it, then the flywheel could very well be aftermarket. Back then, the aftermarket had plenty of hot rod stuff for these engines. But as others have already said, you are probably in good shape with what you have. Unless that flywheel is really messed up, it most likely just needs a simple surfacing job done to it. A manually shifting 331 Cadillac is a very cool combo to have!
I don't think I specified it in the post, but it is hooked up to the stock column shift ford 3 speed, so it may have been out of an automatic car. I'll have to find out.
Thanks so far guys. I talked to pops again tonite. He is pretty sure the flywheel has a replaceable friction surface, not as sure about the metal of the rest of the wheel. Did the stock flywheels have replaceable friction surfaces???
Stock GM manual flywheels ,Cad/Olds were cast iron with no friction or wear band like the aftermarket alum . parts . They can be resurfaced at any good autmotive machine shop. Some will tell you that Cad never used a stick but in their commercial chassis line (for limos and hearses) ,it was offered .
You will hear that Cad and early Olds are the same, but that really applies mainly to the mounting pattern. There are differences in the Olds flywheels, and this can be significant when trying to get the right one for your exact application! For instance, for the '49-64 Olds there are two different diameters, three different ring gear tooth counts, and then there's internal/external balancing. Might even be a difference between the '57-8 and '59-64 balancing for all I know! But between these factors, I know that there are at least 4, maybe even 5 different stick flywheels for '49-64 Olds! And aluminum with a replaceable friction surface would be aftermarket, not factory GM.
I think that there is a balancing difference between the two. Schiefer and Weber sold one flywheel for '57-'64, but had a footnote that the engine had to be rebalanced before running the flywheel.
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