school me on 49-53 ford flatheads

my sisters boyfriend recently got a 1953 ford truck, and is not going to use the flathead engine, transmission and rearend in the car, i have always wanted a flat head, but could not find one here locally (maybe i didnt look hard enough). anywho, i have done searches for days, but there is alot alot of info and its hurting my head. can you flathead gurus out there let me know what intakes fit the engine, what heads, etc. even if you have some links to your favorite flathead tech article. this will be my first flathead, and i have a feeling i will never come back from the deeper darkside... please dont tel me to do a search, i fully understand the potential and capabilities of the search function, theres just to much info on here, and i dont know where to start.

 

I've been talking to a guy about the same thing over on BillB's flathead board.

http://flatheadv8.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1514

It's a whole lot easier to answer specific questions. Also, you might check out the techno page on that forum.

Any Ford/Merc intake will fit if for the late series 48-53 because of the way the crankcase ventilation is set up.
Any 24 stud/bolt head will work 38-53. You may have to plug a waterp***age in the block if using 38-48 heads on your 53.

 

i found this website which is pretty helpfull, well kinda..
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_home.htm

 

the best thing to do is get the book called"the complete ford flathead v8 engine" by Tex Smith. I used it to build my first flathead and answered alot of questions. Good luck with your build.

 

yeah, im just gettin the engine and storing it for a future build... hopefully a model a roadster, coupe or even (fingers crossed) 32

 

so im picking up the flathead engine tonight after work are there any signs of a bad engine that i should look for??
thanks
tom

 

You can't see the potential problems until you open it up. Flathead blocks have a bad history of cracking and some say that up to 80% of them are cracked. Some cracks can be fixed and some render the block useless.

 

well $200.00 for the engine and transmission is a good price i think... hopefully nothing will be wrong with it, or if there is something wrong, hopefully it can be fixed.

 

They are addictive run ! run man as fast as you can you'll fall in love and then the next thing you know the shops full of them. Or was that just me ?