Shaving flathead Ford heads-cheap power?

Nothing wrong with 94's they are better than 97's in a lot of ways, just make sure your fuel pressure isnt too high

 

That is a terrible deal!!! Good thing you posted for us to catch you... now what is this guys number???

 

What's a good book for a flathead newbie?

 

I like the looks & performance I get from a modified Accel, GM dual point dist. Take out the dual points & put a Ford Pretronix set up in it. Bought them at swap meets from 10 to 60 bucks.

 

Here is two that I find useful. I don't know if they are still in print, you may have to scour E-Pay or your local used book store.

Ford Flathead V-8 Builder's Handbook. Fisher Books, Frank Oddo

How to Build a Flathead Ford V-8. Motorbooks Workshop, George McNicholl

 

Anyone have an answer for this?? I mean, I know is possiable but would you gain anything?

 

Before you bolt the Fenton on take a look at how well the ports line up.
I had one that never ran very well, when I checked the ports were so far out I couldnt match it properly without going through the casting.
Not sure if I had a bad one or if they were all like that, but if you look at what equipment the old lakes racers ran it was almost never a Fenton intake.
The Edelbrock slingshot I have now is a much better casting and a great port match out of the box.
Rich

 

I know people have angle milled them...I think you could potentially shrink the open side a bit more without having to do an unsafe amount of recutting of the squish area. IMHO, though, the best application for stock heads would be to use them on big displacement engines capable of producing enough compression with the large chamber.
All the advantages of the stock head in relation to aluminum ones start to shrink as they are cut and thinned...
The strengths of the '37 up stockers over the more common aluminum aftermarket ones:
Probably better breathing...better placed and larger transfer area.
Deck on flathead, like almost all stock blocks, is too thin...Iron heads serve as a strengthening girdle.
Less heat loss to water jacket so slightly more power over identical aluminum chamber.
(toleration of higher compression with aluminum is argued as an advantage...but they tolerate the higher compression because of heat (read that POWER) loss to the cooling system. Apparently the total balance there comes out in favor of iron, as you can see in certain Smokey Yunick discussions of how he would make a head for racing.

 

Contrary to today’s thinking, we didn’t all have those pretty finned aluminum heads back the early 50’s. I do remember some Canadian Ford aluminum heads that looked like iron but were aluminum. We all used to mill our heads. I remember the circle track racers all ran milled heads. Few guys that I knew would spend the extra cash for aluminum heads, because it was easy and cheap to have a friend who worked in a machine shop to mill the heads. The only thing you have to be careful with is valve clearance. Usually we had our heads ‘milled and flycut’. Flycuts are angled cuts into the head for valve clearance. A good machine shop with flathead, experience knows how to do this.

Actually, I think there is something really cool looking about the stock heads. Kind of retro to me, but I’m an old guy.

 

Flycutting also almost always required recutting the dome squish area above piston...this required a shaped cutter that everyone useta have but now almost extinct.
When milling (straight), the piston clearance will disappear before the valves run out of head room.
Current research seems to indicate that milling valve pockets should be done at angle matching valve top, not parallel to deck, but this ***umes the area is tight enough to allow substantial change while maintaining tight clearance above valve...

 

I got these cast iron stockers from another HAMBer (Thunderbirdsq) and bead blasted them and milled .030 off the original surface. They were 79cc's to start and finished at 70cc's. I have not installed them yet but the compression ratio should go from a stock 6.6 to 1 to 7.50 to 1 on a 239ci with my calculations. Might help out a little in power but the flatness is now much better (started at .010 out, now .001) for increased heat transfer and better sealing.

 

One book you want to get is "Flathead Facts" by John W. Lawson (JWL on the Fordbarn). You will do well to sign up there also. There is a wealth of good flathead information from the members of that forum. KenCT, also a Fordbarn member, is the the go to guy for 94 type carb parts and information. With his advice i got my set up running real well. Thats the one in the avitar.

 

Where would I find this book?

 

You can find it here:

http://www.flatheadv8.org/jwl.htm

Jim

 

Whats your name man? my name's Kevin, we should get together for a beer sometime

 

i guess gmcbubba doesnt answer pm's

 

On the back it says 94, on the side it says model 7RT.

 

Those are circa '48-51 F100 carbs, internally the same as mother 94's '49-51. Those were probably chosen because they come with long throttle shafts for the dual linkage.
NAP has the kits

 

As others have noted, milling the heads a bit will help . . . back in the day the term "filled and milled" referred to welding up the transfer area to further increase the compression and milling the heads -- though in most cases a 'relief' was needed to free up some space in the transfer area.

Other than some additional compression and making sure you have a good ignition, good exhaust and fuel system, the single best thing you can do for that flathead is change the cam to a good 3/4 grind. A cam will give you more HP than probably any other single thing . . . other than just raw cubic inches (but that costs a lot of money!).

If you're going to pull the heads, think about a cam as well . . . maybe even a valve job . . . then new rings --> and then it starts --> Oh **** the bore is a bit worn -- it needs new pistons, rings and bearings . . . ****, might as well rebuild the whole damn thing! Since I'm going to bore it, better find a Merc crank -- since I'm buying new pistons - might as well offset grind the crank to 4 1/8 stroke, now I need some 21A rods. Well - since I'm rebuilding it, might as well 'port and relieve it' - maybe some bigger valves . . . better balance it . . . hmmmm - now I need a good ignition . . . those iron heads are ugly - better call Edelbrock. Now that I'm up in cubes, I need a real cam - call Pete1 and get a 425 Potvin. Wow . . . sure would be nice to have a 12 lb Schiefer flywheel and a new clutch --- wonder if that 39 box will take the **** I'm going to throw at it . . . and on and on and on . . . .

This is how it always goes with me -- once the heads are off, machine shop here I come -- cubic dollars on the way

 

He answered my Email New Years eve at 5 pm. Send him an email.

I think I will go with the chevy distributor with points and condenser. Looks good and is simple, and he said he liked it best.

 

wtf

 

****gy and some others gave you some good advice on a chevy distributaor I,v don it myself with a friend doing the lathe work. I roworked the advance myself with a good deal of trial and error. Do it your self or go with Bubba.

 

Merc intake ? 8BA Merc (49/53) used a 4 bolt carb......that's the only difference. Port sizes are same as Ford..... Some Rochester carbs can be used,.....but you can make an adapter to use one on a Ford intake....

Ditto, #17.....There's no telling if, or how much those heads have been milled.

4TTRUK

 

I`m going that rout also but will use it to trigger an MSD box to boost the spark a bit, in my 53 Merc 1/2 ton