All right, all right - this may have been brought up before. Then again, I may be opening a can of worms here, but here goes: Which is a better financial decision, a new(er) French Flathead, or an old Flathead, made right here in the USA (albeit many years ago)? What I'm getting at is if you could translate the time and effort finding a vintage block that doesn't suck, doing the machine work on it, etc to get it to where it'll stand said-by-side with the French crate motor into a dollar amount, would it be more, less, or equal to just buying a French crate motor? Granted, all things are subjective and open to opinion, but I was wondering if anybody out there had any dollar-for-dollar comparasons. ~Jason
Until or unless the SCTA accepts them in the flathead classes for Bonneville and lakes racing, they will remain an Albatross.
Sorry, it's not my intension to hijack the thread, but is it ok to use the license manufactured German G28T model A engine in the SCTA regulation?
2 years ago I bought my french flattie for less than I could have paid for machine work and parts. But, I understand the prices have gone up on the french recently.
Nothing beats the hot rod 'bang for the buck' like a flathead under the hood. You get 10 times more people stopping to look and talk about your car and engine. The average person walks by most cars with a 350 or regular gm enigine in it. Indeed, a lot of owners tend to keep the hood closed on their rods if it's got a 350 or similiar in it. Build what you want, But the original hotrod was a Ford with a Ford in it. The term hotrod was coined in the 30s 40s refering to a ford with a flathead. Hotrod is Ford. my thoughts not yours, nuketheLT1
I`m presently rebuilding a Frenchy....it`s costing me a fortune...with hindsight, it would have been better to source a good old block and starting from scratch.They have perculiararities that encompass parts from different years...they are not just an 8BA with a 59A bellhousing.The valve train components are not interchangable with American valve train parts..change one bit and you have to change them all.Parts perculiar to the Frenchy are not readily available(or so I have found)..in the end I ended up with a block and crank @$1800.By the time I`m finished it will stand me close to $9kfor a fully rebuilt, dressed motor an`T5.I appreciate it would be less over there when you take out shipping and import duties..(I buy my stuff in from America), but still a pricey mill to play with. I had the option of buying a new "crate" Flatty at the time I bought it, but at the time I thought £1800($3600) was too expensive....serves me right for being cheap.
I had an old block that needed everthing rebore, regrind, new valves ect. Priced it all up and it came to more or less same price as a brand new French motor £1000. I went for the new motor and sold on the old block just to save time. And time is just one thing I have just not got enough of.
9K is not really expensive for a real performance flathead build. 3 or 4k is an average build but if you can do some work yourself you'll save. 9 or 10 gets a nice performance build with all the goodies. If you think about it, 4k is about the same as you'ld expect to pay for an olds rebuild as it's an off brand too. Hot rodding is expensive, Perhaps knitting is a better choice for some. My thoughts not yours, Nukethefrench
That is indeed a consideration - the cash output will always go somewhere, but you have to figure where it'll go. Will it go into saving you time so you can drive it sooner, or will it go into parts, which will have you behind the wrench more (but with cooler doohickeys)? That is the question. ~Jason
Boy do I love this,"9 - 10 grand is not to bad for a built flatfead". Holy shit 9-10 grand ias a lot of money for anything. Lot of good motors out there for 4 or 5 thousand. And reffer is right french shit will get in your pocket. And a bunch of "real hot rods" had Buick, Olds and Caddy in them
shoot.. I just watched Me-Oh run around the showdown today with a stroong 1939 flattie he picked up off a guy's basement floor for about as much as I imagine you guys are paying for a valve train in these "built" motors... makes me laugh acutally as the motor hadn't run in a while and Me-Oh just put oil in it and ran it... and it runs beautifully... lots of people asked what all he did to the motor... and he responded by saying "I painted it" hahaha
Thor; It's my understanding that the rules state "U.S. Made" I have been told Russian "B" blocks were not legal. That is if anyone can tell by looking at it. Some of those guys know an awful lot about old Fords.
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