The Ford small block six is popular with Falcon and Comet guys, and has a smattering of followers in Mustang and other late-model Fords; but I dont often see them utilized in anything before 1960. If there are any examples out there, Id love to see them. -Dave
To answer the original question, that commonly called "Falcon Six" didn't come out until 1960. It was also known as the Thriftpower six, with emphasis on the thrift part. It works fine in the little lightweight cars that it as originally installed in but with horsepower ratings of about 84 to 150 (on the the 250's) and that was the old SAE HP ratings without belts, alternators etc, they just don't make enough power to be worthwhile swapping into a heavier car. The old 223's made as much as 137 HP in the 56 trucks
I appreciate the response, Don, but it wasnt really a question - just a request. The 144 was available in the 60 FoMoCo compacts starting late in 59. It wasnt a powerhouse, but it made it into some race boats, and Hot Rod did a number of how-to articles for bringing up the power in all three of the new compact engines (Corvair, Falcon, and Valiant). So Im thinking some guys may have shoehorned this light little engine into As or Ts instead of using V8/60s or the like. I can almost lift a 200 by myself, and can do it with ease with a helper. Ill bet I cant do that with a 223. -Dave
There was a "T" track roadster built in the mid seventies in OK that used the bones gut and feathers of a '61 Falcon and was quite cool. There currently is a Bob tail steel bucket running around Phoenix that uses a 170 with an Offenhauser triple carb set up, but I don't have any pictures to post.
Nothing wrong with those little sixes from Fomoco at all. Their big brothers 240 and 300 sixes have shown a few V8s the dust!
Well, yeah, that's true, kinda... Not HAMB-friendly, but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYKGGMFRW9U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBtKFpNU2d4&NR=1 The Australians took the 200 and 250 six and played a lot of games with it for the next 35 years, first you had the "250 2V" head with detachable manifolds, then they fattened the 200 out to 4 liters, then the crossflow pushrod head, then the SOHC head, then variable cam timing on the SOHC head, then the DOHC head with variable cam timing, then the turbo version thereof...and then the tuners got hold of 'em. Little old skinny flat-chested thing filled out quite nicely with a little age. From time to time the 250 2V head shows up in the US and there's a repro of that head too, there's some crossflows around too though you have to modify the 200 block to fit. I'm not aware of anyone running one of the OHC sixes in the US though they're sweet engines. If anyone does decide to bring over a container or partial container of stuff from Oz, let me know, I'd love to have some late-model Australian Falcon seats in my '64 Country Sedan. They're easily the best thousand-mile seats my backside's ever been in. USD-AUD exchange rate sucks now, of course... If one's looking for quicker and dirtier HP, recently sold a HAMBer an '81 200 that had the coffee-can catalyst exhaust manifold, with a big flange that just seems ready-made for a quickie 6psi turbo installation.
Sure, If you want to throw a ton of money at them with all the stuff that the Aussies did you can make some decent power. And the Big Brother 240 and especially 300 can really move. BUT and it's a big one like J Lo, You will spend a ton of money doing it and for the same dough , a V8 will wipe it clean As for being Light? A ready to run 200 is about 400 lbs, only about 50 lbs lighter than a 289/302. I like the little inliners, swapped 200's into both my 60 Comet and 62 Ranchero and I had a 96 F150 with the 300 Fuel Injected and a manual 5 speed that was quite impressive, but I don't get misty eyed and think they will break any speed records either. The other thing for a swap is One, they are quite long, so major surgery for an A or T as you suggest, and Two, they aren't exactly the best looking things.
I remember, years ago, that the Ford 170 or 200 was used to power a tracked vehicle called a Sno- Cat I think. It was an arctic exploration vehicle. Also the 170 six was used in class hydroplane racing quite successfully.
We ran a scad of 200 Fords in baggage tugs at the airline. I mean a bunch of them. As I remember some were 4 main and some were 7. A few of the larger, older tugs had 331 Hemis in them. You could order a 331 delivered if you needed one. I thought about it, but never did.
So, I remembered a picture of the engine in the little bob tail "T" running around Phoenix on classicinlines.com. Not super detailed by any stretch, but I have to take exception to the ugly comment. The batch of them that Stroppe and Holman Moody and others built that made the rounds in Hot Rod in the early sixties were downright cool looking pieces... HHHMMMNNN three carbs AND a Paxton! Edit: Found some more cool engine picts too. Edit - Edit, Might as well throw a picture of the current powerplant, now happily living in the neat, clean engine bay of the girlfriends Falcon wagon.
It probably wouldn't have set any speed records but the 250, C something and 8 inch in the 79 Merc Monarch that my daughter beat the hell out of for about four years in and after high school would have pushed a light weight car pretty good and not asked a lot for doing it. They wouldn't be for everyone but in the right little rod a guy could do a lot of serious road miles and not hurt his wallet too bad.
There's a guy in central N.C. that has a small Chrysler based two-seat modified or track roadster inspired car. Blue, full hood, runs a 170 or 200. I just went and looked for pics, but couldn't find any. Seems it got a couple of pages in a mag a while back. Neat car. Not much help, but its been a long day. Later, Kinky6
I like big 'but's, I can't deny... Seriously though - I agree that if you're talking dollars per horsepower a 302 will kill the six every time. Couple days ago helped a friend pull a 302 out of a '96 Mountaineer at the pick-n-pull - y'know, the year and a half that Ford used the Motorsport "GT40" heads and intake as production in those trucks. $280 out the door (complete with ECU - the clerk wasn't being too careful) and if we thought it'd still have been there in a week next weekend is half-price. Freshen up the longblock and throw in a set of 24lb injectors, a Quarterhorse for the EEC, and an E303 cam and go (yeah, okay, the EEC part isn't HAMB-compliant, but...sell the intake on eBay and pick up intake and carb of your choice if you must) for not a lot more than the price of the Fordsix repro 250-2V head and intake alone. If you have to get down close to 200-six weight there's lots of aluminum Windsor heads floating around, new or used. The only reason to run the six is to be different, but sometimes that's reason enough. Different? Got a Saab B234T (2.3 turbo four from a 9000 CSE), late one that takes a GM conversion bellhousing for a T5, out in the shed. Stock longblock will comfortably support 400HP with a little bigger turbo and a better exhaust manifold. Anyone ever done a '28-29 A radiator-shaped intercooler? If I live long enough to finish the other projects I'm feeling a need for an A sedan, though it'd be cute in a '71-72 Vega as a baby pro-touring-type car too.
I'll try to get some pics up it went in nice bolted it up to the stock trans x member and built some motor mounts it is faster than my 53 Chevy with the 235
I have a 200 in my daily driver....as far as i can tell it has close to 400,000 miles on it and I abuse it by hauling all my heavy band equipment every weekend. I picked up a replacement to put in it when this one finally kicks the bucket. they are great little motors.
The folks over at fordsix.com have found some ways to get the Falcon six to make pretty good power (and mpg too) by reworking the head and intake. I wouldn't put one in a Shoebox but I do think it would be a fun engine for an A or a T, especially the seven-main block. (Or, for that matter, a Falcon.)
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