I"ll be the first to fess up that I don"t know anything at all about flatheads. So I did a search and came up with nothing. Anybody ever heard of flathead Ford engines that was built for the military that used hydraulic lifters? Supposedly went into amphibious vehicles and tanks. I"m buttering up the Orville Redenbacher now ! Oldmics
Which military? They were using Flatheads in Europe much later than Stateside. I really doubt hydraulics were used in any Flatheads.
I would have thought the good old USA Forces but thats a good point. I guess any hydraulic lifter Ford flathead that was manufactured.I"m trying to see how rare an engine equipted with these are. No- I dont have one but know someone respectable who is making this claim and thought I would get the Forums wisdom about such an item. Oldmics
From what I know which is very little about Ford flatheads, you may possibly be getting some stories about Cadillac flatheads mixed in. The Cadillac flatheads came stock with hydraulic lifters as early as about 1937. I thought that the military may have been the ones who wanted solid lifters installed in their military engines as originally solid lifters were rare and were not in cars that I know of. With respect to Cadillac flatheads it seems the military pushed to acquire improvements for these flathead engines which included twin carb setup, twin point distributor, twin exhaust system and solid lifters. I dont have all the facts but this is what I have been told over the years. So it is highly likely that Ford got the same treatment demands from the military.
The '56 Hudson 308 six used hydraulic lifters. There where issues with them though, they would clog or otherwise get jammed up. Many where replaced with solid lifters.
Big flathead, allso had solids in the trucks..... the linken guys would put in the solids from the trucks for better performance.....
OK, here's the deal. The Lincoln Zephyr V-12 shares the same basic architecture with the Flathead Ford V-8. They both use the same valvetrain components. The Lincoln Zephyr V-12 used a hydrualic lifter starting in '38, so it is possible that some Fords could have been made that way. Hovever a V-8 Ford does not have provisions for providing oil pressure to feed the hydraulic lifters, so a special casting would have to have been made. Why on earth the military would want hydraulic lifters is beyond me, they were problematic with the crappy oils available at the time.Interesting stuff though, would love to know more.
Supposedly the military were wiping cams out on ultra cold startups and someone suggested to go hydraulic to correct the problem. It is supposed to be a specific cast block.Only a few were made according to the lore. I"ll check with my guy to see if it is a Lincoln engine he was referring to. Oldmics
The V12/Zephyr did receive Hydraulic Lifters as early as 1937 (probably starting in/for production of the '38 model year). Preceding the war in 1948, Ford introduced the 8EQ and 8EL large displacement V8's which were common in post war Lincolns (8EL) as well as Large Ford trucks (8EQ). 8EQ engines would be supplied with either hydraulic or solid lifters while the 8EL received hydraulic lifters only. (sorry, no pics) As far as 221, 239 or 255 cubic inch engines go, I have found nothing to indicate that they received anything more than solid lifters. ...There was however an odd ball replacement block issued during the late war which reverted back to the earlier 221 cubic inch bore. My local machinist pulled one down for an old friend some years ago. -Bob (the owner) stated that the engine came from a tank or troop carrier. Upon tear down/investigation the block was found to be 221 cubic inches with no room to re-bore to (by that time) a standard 239 bore indicating that the block was indeed unique unto itself and was not just a later block punched out to the smaller cubes. As far as I recall the oddball block was supplied with solid lifters just like any other 239 of the era. And that's got me thinking, I wonder what ever became of that block.. (Bob used a later 255 for his build and the oddball was either left at the machine shop or cast away as junk) .
As far as I know no 221-239-255 blocks ever had the extra oil passages that would have been necessary or any noticeable need for hydraulics...stock setups are quiet and very long lived. Only odd military adaptation was a simple hotrod style full-flow conversion for coolers and filters used in some military vehicles, along with PCV adaptation for durability in hard service. Lincoln 12 did try hydraulics as noted above. I think the 337 truck engines were solid and the Lincoln version hydraulic, but it's been a long time since I looked at or read anything on those. The oddball 221 block was the postwar 41A made as a replacement block for the huge postwar demand for parts...it was basically a 59A cast with small bore to supply a replacement block for prewar Fords.
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