I have a chance to pick up a running engine from a 42 ford sedan, trans too. Most likely all the other stuff the guy won't be using like shocks,brakes,wheels ect. My question is...will this engine be ok to use in a car I plan to drive further than some local cruise night. I really don't know much about flat motors, and I know there are lots of people around here that have them and would know all the little tricks that make them usable. I have to admit I had some experiance with a 41 merc about 20 years ago and I remember it would vapor lock all the time. I'm in the parts gathering stage of my 40's era roadster pickup.(28 on 32 rails). And this car would have a lot of parts I will need, and the price is right. You know how it is when someone is building a streetrod they are usually happy someone wants all the old parts, just to get rid of it all Anyway I have always built cars to drive anywhere and when I build this one I want to be able to use it and trust it on a road trip. But I think I need some reasurance and convincing from my HAMB brothers. Happy Holidays, Rudy.
roadstar, unless there is a conecting rod hanging out the side of block, I'd grab it. Flatheads are GOOD, drove them all over the place. (new project; A hiboy will run one)
Grab it, grab all of it, flatheads can be great if rebuilt properly. This country was built by flatheads, they roamed the earth for 50 years +.
[ QUOTE ] they roamed the earth for 50 years [/ QUOTE ] Roamed? As in past tense? They're ROAMING the earth!! Grab the flathead - it will be perfect for your project!
I'm pretty new in the flathead world and have learned a lot. But I can also remember what I would have wanted to know if I asked the same question. So, If the car still retains it's 1942 flathead engine, and didn't get a swap to some other engine in the 61 years it's been on this earth, (unlikely) was rated a 90 HP motor. It should say 81A on it. If it does, it's a 221 cu. inch motor. The later 8BA motors are 239 cu inch for more displacement. The distributor will be mounted on the front of the engine and is sometimes harder to get to than an 8BA distributor. You can always change the timing cover to a later modern style distributor. Later flatheads have insert bearings. The flywheel housing is a cast part of the block therefore sometimes preceived as limiting as to what kind of transmission you can use with it. The transmission will be a column shift style, and what that means to a hot rodder is the shift mechanism will be on the side of the transmission. Harder to adapt to floor shifting when building a hot rod. BUT if you find a top loader transmission case, all the guts from that '42 transmission will go into the earlier top loader transmissions (up to 1939) The brakes will be the 40 style hydrolic brakes. If you can check the drums, you want to make sure they are as close to 12" in diamater as possible. You don't want to go much bigger than 12 1/8 inches or there may not be much life left in them. It should have some good brake and clutch pedals. That pedal assembly has the mount for the master cylinder on it. Axle will be straight axle with the spring hanging out in front. Doesn't look that hot on a fenderless car, but you can put new spring perches in the axle for over the axle mount spring. Rear end will most likely be banjo with 4:11 gears. Also, acording to Grimlock, you can probably use that X member in your 32 frame and save the dough that you would have spent on a 32 crossmember. I've seen those 32 K members go for $400 up to $800 on eGay. Also, it should have the 5 x 5 1/2 bolt pattern steel wheels and you may get some cool gauges out of the car as well. So, hope that helps
39-48 Merc 239 cubes 46-48 Ford 239 cubes, all before that are 221 and of not much use except to restorer purists. The 239 are often referred to as a 59A altho several castings were used. 59A is sort of a generic description to many. All the 38-48 engines had the dizzy down low in the front and center water outlets. Swaps amongst those years are a bolt in with the fan setups being different in some years. The 8BA style came out in mid 48 in trucks only and in 49 for cars. Uses post style dizzy and water outlets on front of heads. These will swap into earlier with a combination of various Ford parts. The price of bearings for the earlier engines are going thru the roof, 8BA is readily available and cheap. Some are swapping 8BA rotating assemblies into the 59A style block as a way to save on bearings.
I know a guy with a 42 Ford that he's had since the 60s...he's rebuilt the stock flathead ONCE and it still runs today! (Well, last time I saw him, anyway!) He said he drove that car down south and back and flat tires were his biggest problem...so I guess it'd be safe to say that the motor is pretty reliable!
I know very little about flatties, but I do know one thing for sure: They have fewer moving parts than your average OHV & that means fewer things to go to pot. Pick that sucker up.
So it's a 221 eh,I guess if the only real difference between the 46-48 is the smaller cubes I can live with that. As far as the x-member goes I have a MINT origanal 32 frame to start with so I will use that. But I did read a post that told of using a 35-40 rear x-member to lower the rear and you can also use the straight 40 spring insted of the curved 32 style. And of course I will use a model A fron x-member. I'm not going to go with a ground scraping stance anyway. Just looking for a pleasing rake and as low as they would have been done in the day. I also have a set of 16inch wires.
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