realistically will my 304 flathead last

Lots of advice here, I don't see too many posts saying hell yeah, a 304 is the way to go on the street. I agree with 48 Chubby, if you're going to build a beast and drive it like a *****cat, why bother. On the other hand, if you build the beast and properly flog it, it won't last. At 3-3/8 bore you wont have any rebuild left in that block. All the time and $$ porting, relieving, machine work, gone. Some would say go 3-7/16 - good luck with that. Hell, just sleeve all eight and build a really big flatty. Seen it done, but it was a RACE motor. Eight sleeves presents its own set of issues.
The sweetest street flathead I had was 3-5/16 bore, 4 inch stroke, 276 ci, ran at 170* all day, and with the H&C 408 cam never failed to draw attention with its rumpity exhaust. One thing I learned about flatheads is you can spend big dollars chasing pennies worth of horsepower - the law of diminishing returns.

 

I am thinkg of running 296 cublic inches is this better

 

missed out on a good deal, krylon might be able to set you up with another though

http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=500

 

Hey man, your $$$ and your engine. Build what you want and enjoy it!!!!
Some good advise here, as well as the "becoming all to familiar" dumb *** replies.
Cheers, and let us know what you wind up doing!.......

 

I have a 304ci flat head that I built as a street motor...I'm in my engine at a little under $17k...I found out that everyones an expert on building flatheads when I was building mine....in the end I got advice from cam and engine builders one in particular who's built 12 304s for the street and no issues....don't believe the hype it's not complicated and it is possible to build i have one drilling in my garage anyone who says differently can come look at it...just don't pay attention to anyone when it comes to flatheads because everyone is an"expert" but I found very few actually know their suit and have experience

 

Why do you need such a big street motor? Ask Ol Ron

 

Every time one of my kids wants to do a motor it's always.....I want a 900 lift cam and 35:1:1 pistons, and 4" exhaust and,and,and....and I always tell them, when building a engine always build for the style you are going to drive it. Put your money in the intended driving style it is to be used for. You can lie to your friends but you can't lie to yourself....

 

Your money build what you want but why not flog it ? Like buying an Indy car to pick up groceries . 1 thing we did when I was circle tracking (not flatheads) was to go ahead from the start with sleeves in every hole, made it more stable and eliminated cracks from day one.

 

nearly any rotateing ***embly can be balanced. Just take your ***embly after along with pistons bearings rods etc to a good machine shop and have them balance it. if you don't have to add a ton of mallory metal it is not real expensive.

If you plan on running a lot of camshaft you need to plan on keeping your revs up. That is just the nature of the beast.