I’ve posted before about this engine/head combination, but would like to know if there are any other complete engines out there. Mine is race prepped with the Madis Engineeting F aluminum head and dry sump pump/distributor drive. It also has billet main caps on crank journals 2, 3, and 4. This engine came out of a track roadster that was campaigned in SoCal by David McKindley around 1950. I think it’s a really rare piece of hot rod history, and internally it’s in much better condition than the exterior pictures would indicate.
. . . as I remember hearing (not so good) that when Henry finally let them build the flathead-6, it tested out at 90 HP. He had them change the rating to 80, so as to not be more than the V-8's 85. Here's Bill Freeman with a flathead Ford-6 in 1951 . . .
F head = intake valves in the head and exhaust valves in the block. L head= flathead aka side valve with valves in the block F head, Intake valves in the head, exhaust valves in the block. A lot of 50's Jeeps had these and they didn't make a lot of power. I head, aka overhead valve with both exhaust and intake valves in the head (s).
According to the Hot Rod article about this engine, it made 31hp more than a flathead G series six. This was with the Madis head installed on a stock engine with no other performance modifications.
Make mine the Edgy F Head in red like that pictured.............is delivery available?.........paypal o/k?.........lol....whatever happened to it?........is Earl or the Montana guys still playing with these?......andyd.
An incredible amount of engineering to make that head, especially for such a limited run on an engine with virtually no other speed parts available. Very cool for what it is.
As an aside, a company called Knudsen was big into these engines, and made aluminum flathead heads, intakes, and cast headers for them.
Ford experimented with all sorts of heads on their sixes (and fours), all the while aware that good performing base engines may disuade buyers from poping for the optional V8s. A more recent experimental prototype:
Quoting @so-cal-speed-sacramento on this one. -Madis Engineering Co. was out of Bellflower CA. according to the ID tag, but state records don't show that the business existed; and least not under that name. -Madis made mostly parts for 1940s-1950s single-seater hydroplanes. I talked to a gentleman who used to own the Frankie's Boy racer, and he confirmed that there was a Madis oil pump on the front of the Ford G-series inline six. He also said that he has had a few boats with Ford inline engines running these over the years, but he was never able find any information on the company. -Supposedly, the pumps were designed with the different 'ears' on them so that they could be mounted to the timing cover in place of the distributor or a keyed-spacer could be used to put the distributor on the front of the pump. Here is an article from the March, 1951 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. You can see the pump mentioned in the article, but the engine being used a an H series, which uses a distributor off to the side rather than the G series with the distributor off of the front. These pictures were shot and the engine has been sitting in LA since. To the best of my knowledge, it was never actually run in a car/ boat/ etc.
That’s my plan. Well, not to build a car around the engine, but with the engine came Mr. McKindley’s “hot rod”. It has an 8BA in it with a lot of set back, so I tried the straight six in it and it fit with just enough room for a fan behind the radiator mount. He must of planned to install the Madis engine in this car.
When you get into the engine, would you please post a few shots of the combustion-side of the head? TIA. Marcus...
factory experimental crossflow prototype - barely O/T to the HAMB era - never put into production pity
The Jalopy Journal
