Crazy theory - could a distributor make one bank run hot?

Nope, crankshaft offset from the V centerline.

Bob

 

ACTUALLY, my message is sort of incorrect in context to the original question. Bobsogin said it more clearly though.

....ill explain what i was getting at.... i have read that it is necessary to deck a flathead block for the Ardun conversion to get a proper seal.... distance from the cylinder to valve reliefs on the drivers side is a bit more narrow than the p***enger side, decking increases that distance. etc etc etc....
the writer had witnessed "some" block heights were off up to 1/32 (on the drivers side).... not a ton, and no need for oddball piston rod combos.

 

Hello! It must be the turn way on waterpump ,you know the water pumps
going on same way so the water flow are different Left and Right.

 

I knew of a Mechanic (Doctor of Flatheads) that would use a different spark plug in each cylinder to get the maximum horsepower from his engines. The days when flatheads were run in Super modifieds!! He said he did this because the heat ranges were different in each cylinder.

The Old Tinbasher

 

Thats normal . One side will run hotter than the other .Its not the gauges at all. my flatty ran the same way .

 

41A and 59A blocks both had the valve angles @ 50* each side. 1938 thru 1942 239 cu/in and 221 cu/in valve angles were 49.36* right side & 52* left side. I think during the war Henry saw a lot of cracking on the left side from overheating so he changed the valve angles to compensate. An old flathead builder here locally I talked to said he always wondered why the left side seemed to be more prone to cracking than the right on motors he had rebuilt.

As the valves are closer to the cylinders on the 1938 thru 1942 engines they are subjected to possibly more heat and the gas charge would also be hotter. This would not though explain differences in temperatures on the 41A, 59A and later blocks.

Jim

 

Kevin that sounds like a Vern Tardel question to me.

Not being the world's renowned flat head expert anything I say would just be conjecture but. . .

You could try swapping sides on the water pumps maybe one of them pumps better than the other? Or throw a pressure gage on each pump somehow?

Just a thought.

 

It's the thrust leverage of the pistons due to the fact that it's a V series engine. If you made the engine rotate in the opposite direction the temps would be reversed >>>>.

 

Despite the different theories proposed as to "why", I think it's pretty well settled that the Flatties run different temps in different banks and that the distributor has nothing to do with it.

 

I bet it's your mechanical gauges. You need to install electric gauges in that truck. You wouldn't mind a few more wires would you?

 

try running colder plug range on the drivers side?
I got no idea, just a thought

 

I was always told that because of the difference in the block casting the deck height is slightly different and therefore compression ratios are slightly different from bank to bank.