The brochure I have for my federal mogul finned heads says that they produced both 21&24 stud heads in 1938.I'm in Newfoundland now but will be able to verify that when I get home on Sunday.
Do those heads have an S designation anywhere? Just A is the common marking for the regular production 81a head, which has very large chambers.
The only marking that is obvious on them is the large cast "A" that you see. There are some smaller markings that are not very clear. Would the "S" be clearly legible? Thanks in advance, Mitch
On mine it's the same size as the S, as it is part of the same info in part number. 81A was the normal head, 81AS the special. Spec for the AS was about 60 CC, don't have the numbers right here, the 81a was i think up in the 70's. (also look at top of head where it rolls under toward the manifold. Some of the heads of that period are numbered up there, where you'll need a mirror to see!)
hi bruce; here are some pics of the factory install instructions for my federal mogal heads.you can see they were revised in 5/ 38, i assume to include the 24 stud ones.they say not to disturb the dist. when installing on a new car.
Wow. Your collection is deeper than mine! Any other known prewar heads around? This hasn't shaken loose very many!! Anybody find any heavily reworked stock heads?? I betcha there were plenty of people back then welding/brazing material into chambers and milling and doming...
Does anyone have a scanned copy of the 4 articles written in the 70s by Mark Dees? First published in Rod and Custom, then published in the V8 Times. Articles 1 and 2 were the best pre-WW2 flathead hotrod information I can remember reading.
It was titled something like "A Technical History of the Racing Flathead"...great stuff. I've never compared to see if there was anything different between the 2 published versions. Absolutely wonderful stuff.
38 Coupe, if you could tell me a year or approx year, I have 1000s of old issues of magazines from the 60s on...including Rod and Custom. I could see if I could find the article possibly if I had a year, otherwise Id spend days going through magazines...again! Not as fun as it sounds James
Thanks Bruce, I found April! Now Ill try and find what months the others were and find some time to scan them and post for everyone...be patient though please guys, I hate sitting at computers doing crap!!
From Bill Jansen's rod magazine index: APR73 P42 TECH HISTORY OF THE RACING FLATHEAD JUN73 P44 TECH HISTORY THE RACING FLATHEAD PT2 OCT73 P50 TECH HISTORY THE RACING FLATHEAD PT3 http://hotrodindex.150m.com/USRCTsvV8-4-6cyl.txt http://hotrodindex.150m.com/
Very interesting thread. And thanks for the chart Bruce K .................................. Taildragger&fenderless
As an Add-on, I wanted to mention the heads I found and purchased for my roadster... Thanks to a fellow ford-barn guy! Canadian 24 stud aluminum heads...possibly "early" based on some info good ol' Bruce Lancaster supplied in previous posts! C91A-6050 James
Hey Fellas, i've got some pics to add to the collection! I cannot seem to find anything on the PDF that was posted on page 2 i believe, in relation to my 21 stud head. I also am very much interested in buying another head as i only have the one, possibly even will buy a pair if need be! So here we go. Firstly a 21 stud, '37 aluminum head. It has the markings "78-6050", "Ford" and "HT". I cannot find anything on this head. I REALLY want another one!! Second picture, i have a pair of these. 24 stud, have the markings "Ford", "Made In Canada", "650" and "C81A-6060 B". Would love any information on either of these heads!
Federal mogul made their first heads for 21 bolt flathead in 1936 thats one of the earliest I know of. Thickstun made his heads in 1941 thats still prewar! I have a set of his heads made of aluminum, but also a set of cast iron. I believe the cast iron heads are a prototype heads as these are only a set of 2 known, and they arent alike! Thing is these heads where more for boatracing as they had splash headcovers with fins on top of these aluminum heads. I also have the original covers for a complete set. or else I think most of the guys at the dry lakes prewar had filled heads or one set of the few prewar made. here is a link to my blog with some pics of the thickstun heads. http://planetmotherfuckers.blogspot.se/2011/09/cast-iron-thickstun-heads-aluminum.html
FlatheadRoadster, those are SUPER cool Thickstuns you have. I have never seen a set of cast irons before. Are they going on a wall, or on a car?!?
The Federal Moguls would've been just more of a replacement head right? They weren't really modified?
Bohn was the company that supplied stock aluminum heads and manifolds to Ford at least in the early '30's, and they had an engineering role as well...they helped invent the 180 degree 2 barrel manifold that Ford initiated in 1932, revolutionizing V8 smoothness and power range on just about all V8's of all makes after that time... I suspect there may be info on those out there in patents. I have the '34 manifold patent around somewhere...very interesting for the manifold, almost startling when you spot a certain inconspicuous detail predicting something that came along 20 years later...
The Jalopy Journal
