I just purchased a new to me 1951 Pontiac (torpedo back ), 2 door sedan with a flathead six. I would like to keep the original six rather than doing the normal v8 swap. Anyone out there know of or have any speed related parts like split manifold, dual carb intake, etc.
Edmunds made both a dual intake and a finned aluminum head, but good luck finding either. They're both very rare.
You could adapt a small blower like an Eaton out of the junkyard. Even with no other mods 4-5 lbs boost would wake it right up.
1951 Pontiac two door sedan Hello, When my friend from high school got his first car, he had been driving around in my flathead sedan delivery and my 58 300+ hp Impala sedan. He was always impressed with power and the 58 Impala had tons of it. He had been inside on those late night Cherry Avenue Drags acceleration runs many times. It was a highlight of our Friday/Saturday nights. But, he was impressed with cars he saw at the car shows we went to locally and wanted to do some modifications to his purchase. His first inclination was to have us put in a larger 283 with dual quads/ cam/ lifters, etc. (including custom wheels) We were ready. But, as teenage funds go, “it was dreamsville,” and it was put off for quite some time. In the mean time, he had me build a cool floor shifter for his 51 Pontiac. If he could not go fast, then at least it would look cool sitting around in those teen gatherings. The tall custom curved stick was made in our metal shop/auto shop cl***es and was the only tall lever custom fit to work without hitting the dash. Jnaki So, as the years went on, he joined the “slow club” of cruisers and fun cars. A 53 Chevy Bel Air hardtop with a stock 6 cylinder + automatic, a 62 Chevy 2 Nova with a 4 cylinder + automatic, and my Flathead powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery. That was the club… it was fun to do high speed runs… laughter… but, it took a long time to go through the ¼ mile runs and sometimes extended to ½ mile runs on the long deserted stretch of the long, dark street. All horsepower ratings were 100hp or less. So, it was an exclusive club. Ha! Remember, the speeds and fun always included a full car load of teenagers, girls and boys. So, slow was the key word. So, as he wanted the look of the art drawing at the beginning of this post, he ended up with the final look of his stock 51 Pontiac with a shiny detail job and a tall stick shift lever with stock appearance for the cruising scene. It was a cool car. The limiting factor was the lack of horsepower in the stock motor. A 283 as listed would have made his Pontiac a definite contender in the fast cl***. But, alas, he was happy for his first car and it got him to his envious job of the midnight shift, at the nearby Disneyland Autopia Car Track. He was a mechanic/service tender for the little cars, when the park was closed for maintenance. And, he could go as fast as he wanted, just in the name of maintenance service testing… yikes! Note: As far as your modification, you mention a v8 option. With the time and money for the simple mods for your Pontiac 6, the results won’t be as powerful as one would think. Yes, you can spend more money for more speed parts for the 6 and have the ability to say it is a modified 6 cylinder. But in the end, the cost + power modification is leaning toward the V8 option... in today's daily driving scene... YRMV
Heathen - do you have a picture of the 6 cylinder intake? I have heard they exist; but have never seen one, or a picture, nor have I been able to find an Edmunds catalog. I built a dual deuce set-up for the 8 cylinder decades ago. I know they exist. Thanks in advance. Jon
Here's a picture of an Edmunds twin carb intake on a flathead six in a 1936 Pontiac custom I saw some years ago. A few more pictures of the car here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/no-pontiac-love.1136812/page-2#post-12957343
You could find a McCulloch supercharger, or even a later model SN Paxton. Probably plenty of room to hang it off the engine. Brackets are not hard to make. Bigger than usually crank pulley to bring the boost on earlier. What I could find on your 6 was 96 hp at 3400, and peak for down at 1200, so spinning it up for boost by 1800 rpm or so would work out. There’s a variety of ways to modify carbs to “blow thru”. So no box required.
Well, I'm glad that stuart in MN came up with that picture, because Newhouse chose not to show it in their two page Edmunds display.
Crank that welder up https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/38-pontiac-flathead-6-manifolds.589400/
Good choices, After checking valve / piston clearance consider a head shave. Ford flathead guys tout using crumpled tin foil balls to find out the room between the two. Raising the compression ratio will be felt in the seat of your pants
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