Virgins Converted Here!

This happened twice in as many days...

I'd borrowed an engine hoist from a friend of a friend so's to get the flattie back into the Track Roadster. The guy (an engineer in his 20's) was working on an import with the intention of seeing 25# of boost. When I told him what I was working on, I got the deer in the headlights look..

'A what?'

'Yes, a flathead. Valves in the block.'

'That's not possible.'

I look around for the camera, as he's GOT to be kidding.

He went into the house, did a Wiki search, then came back out to confirm that yes, such a thing did exist waay back when, but why wouldja spend all that time and energy on an 'old' motor?

Can't wait to seal the pavement in his driveway with a pair of 6.00 x 17's so as to illustrate the 'why'.

Next day:

The ch***is' been pushed outside so's the garage can be cleaned. Local neighbor kid who usually bombs by in his Jetta, poppin' the BOV, literally locks the brakes to look at the car.

'whatizzat?' He jeks his thumb at the motor.

'Flathead.'

'Where are the wires?'

'Umm...they're on there.'

'Dude, like my car has about thirty sensors. how can that run?'

'Very well, thank you.'

He came by later - looked all the world like Zach's kid brother. He's intrigued; wants to hang out and ***ist with the build.

Can't wait to see the expression on both these guys faces when they hear the flattie for the first time.

Yup - virgins converted at the House of Speed and Chrome.

 

When something was done right it just was. Time doesn't change that.

 

Educating the misguided future hot rodders...priceless!!

 

I get similar reactions from the younger guys @ work.

 

That's funny, I'm 24 and every time I look at all the wires and sensors under the hood of a new car I go "How can that run?!?" I guess I was just raised right.

-Dave

 

I guess you have to give them a little credit for at least showing interest.....

 

I'll call grandpa and tell him that my flatty won't start and he'll say, "Did you check the computer?"

Good story.....

 

My thoughts exactly...

 

Great post, hearing it renewed my faith in the future hot rodding with young guys that are into tuners. Keep spreadin' the gospel and we'll save the world!

 

So will it be ready for Billet Proof?

 

While under the hood of my Fairlane the other day my daughter looks under the hood and says "daddy I can see all the way to the ground". HA try that with a new car.
It's a pleasure working on an engine that's got enough room around it that you can actually get your hands around it to work.
Count

 

I Get Those Kind Of Questions Every Day...people Just Don't Know How Cool Our Hobby Actually Is.

 

Good..............I like being one of the few, and it makes it a little easier to find parts if you arent competing with every single person on the planet.

 

One of the fellows I work with was teaching a hydraulics course to students working towards an ***ociates in Industrial Maintenance. He happened to refer to a device to being simular to a cam shaft in a car engine. Now here is a cl*** of 6 male students 18-20 years old that had no ideal of what a cam shaft was or what it did. Its hard to believe but if it can't be adjusted by a computers, some people have no concept of how it can operate.

 

Possibly - but even if it was, BP falls on the date of my eldest daughter's high school graduation. I'b be in the doghouse for-freakin-ever if I blew that off...

 

You would get the same response from most of the engineers at any of the big auto companies. It's pathetic.

Most of the guys in my office see the valves, cam & piston on my desk and usually ask what the hell is all that? The funny part comes when I say the piston is out of a Continental. Leaves them completely baffled!!

 

Good point, might have to have one of us take it there for you, hey tough luck

 

Like a Continental Red Seal or like a Lincoln Continental?

-Dave

 

Back in the day, I'd convert the virgins the old fashioned way - in the back seat of my '40 Ford with 286" flattie!!! Lotsa fun.

 

"Where are all the wires?"

 

just tell her to flunk out and graduate next year!!!

hehehe

later jim

 

Congrats and thanks. But don't tell 'em too much, like Muttley said, we don't need anymore compe***ion on parts!

What amazes me is the number of high school boys (and girls) in automotive vocational programs that know nothing about "real cars" with carbs and 8 cylinders. I recently had the chance to visit a clueless bunch at a technical college. Oh my. If it didn't hook up to a scanner it couldn't be fixed! The worst part is try to find a young person today who can work on an old car and/or wants to. Well, not necessarily even young. We can't get/keep people to save our lives in the shop I work in.

 

That's a great story. Tell the kid that the flattie was a super advance motor for its time. So advanced, the sensors and wires were proton activaded icon interseptors that required no wires. Tell em the design was so far advanced that they had to stop making them in lieu of a more astheticially appeasing visualization statisfying a trend toward an excalation of interacting mechanisims. In other words, you can have some fun with this one. There will be a beaten path from the computer to the garage everytime you come up with another answer to their questions.

 

Wife and I were checking into a motel at a show a couple years ago and the '63 Pontiac wouldn't start. (Solenoid had been giving some trouble) Popped the hood, grabbed a long screwdriver and jumped across the solenoid to start it. A fellow standing there about my age grinned and said, Man, it's been years since I've seen someone do that!

 

"If you buy [a flathead] and run one, run it because it's a work of art and appreciate it... not to blow your buddy's doors off." –Tuck
Your tag line ****s went 10.80 with my flattie today.Take your head out of your ***.

 

During the starbird show this year a coupla comments I heard was, "He's got an Offenhauser Motor in this one".. and .."I Remember when cars had those water cooled heads"

And those were guys MY AGE.

 

Nahh, the other Continental... Continental aircraft engine, O-300 if I remember right.

 

Same company, different series.

Wow, flatdog, who pissed in your cornflakes? That comment was made a couple years ago in response to a guy who wanted to beat street-racer 5.0L Mustangs with a daily-driver Model A. Dollar-for-dollar, the SBF is going to eat the flathead's lunch every day. That doesn't mean the flathead is a useless motor, or even a useless race motor, it just means you have to have a certain appreciation for Henry's lady in order to use one; which you clearly do.

-Dave

 

Aint that cool!
Love to hear these stories.
I had this happen just last Friday after driving my 34 pickup to work.
I seen a new Engineer in his early thirtys standing by my engine at lunch and just staring....
Said he never seen and engine like that before and never heard of a valve in block,asking if it was a V8.
After I started the engine ...just to see his face at after it fired and vibrated the ground is one of the most rewarding things in this hobby. Conversion of the m***es!

 

something where my wife works had V8 on it, and while all the girls thought about the drink, the wife immediately thought engine. it amazes me how little people know, and worse yet just don't care.