Technical Cadillac flathead horsepower tricks

All right HotRod, just for you!

Here are the two piece, dual plug heads. I don't know what else to say.

A special thanks to A Chopped Coupe, for his help on me getting these!

Well, except that the more I look at the intake now, I wish I was going to use it!

In a couple of weeks, I'll post the intake I'll be using. Another one-off, and very, very cool I think. I'll let you guys judge.

 

Thanks for the mention and by the way, WOW! Looking really nice.
Just glad I could help.
Here is a picture of mine made by the same hands.................except mine are going on my bored&stroked, ported&relieved Ford flathead.

 

keeping it rotating requires more horsepower and resultant loss of torque at a given RPM

Not true.

 

Panic, which part, or all, do you feel is not true? Can you explain?

I've removed 20.5lbs from the rotating assembly now(flywheel, clutch, pressure plate), and more should come off the crank when it is balanced, in the hope that this will help the horsepower.

John, those are a great looking set of heads you have!

 

did you guys get that set of lifter samples back from me? I mailed them early last week.

 

Commonly taught physics is that a body at rest will tend to stay at rest and a body in motion will tend to stay in motion. That means a heavy crank will take longer to accelerate to speed at a given power input, but once there will tend to want to maintain that speed. A heavy car will take longer to reach 100mph than an identical but lighter car. But given enough space the top speed will be near the same. Rolling resistance may be greater with the extra weight. Or traction may be better with the added weight.

 

Buddy that intake looks awesome finished, if it works half as good as it looks it will be a winner.

 

Buddy I am sure folks will agree that we have admiration for you as a man who is sticking to his game plan and principles, you are compromising for nobody but your own ideas.
Good work and it will be and Icon for sure.
There is also plenty of room in the Cadillac flathead arena for more iconic builds for anybody else who wants to step up to the plate, we are starting to get a knowledge pool out there now.

 

So are the heads you guys have made by Frick? if not please correct me. Brian

 

Brian,

Yes, that is correct. They are by Norman Frick. Norm has made a lot of exotic one-offs. At first, it took a little talking, but he is such a super guy! He lives about 300 miles from me, so I made a trip over, to discuss what I wanted. it would have been easier to have had the heads shipped back, but well worth the second trip just to be able to b.s. with the gent.

He doesn't have a cnc, but does great work.

I'm interested to see what everyone else is doing, and to see how the builds are going.

Put em here!

 

Not too much for me to update but I am piecing together the intake.

 

Here is one more, this is a shot of a newly made distributor shaft. Note that is is half inch which is slightly larger than the original and it uses sealed roller bearings. Significantly reduces the slop which leads to the failure of the idler gear. (in theory of course)

Oh one more thing I can't remember if ther was a washer above the gear on this assembly, i don't think there was but it seems like there should be, does any one remember either way... thanks.

 

Kevin,

That Burrell looks awesome! Hard to beat a polished Burrell.

That dizzy tower impresses me the most. I used bushings, but wanted to try bearings, as I think it will hold the tolerances tighter. That is a fine job of craftsmanship, and should help solve the cam idler gear problem. Mine do not have a washer in that position. My dizzy has one between the dog gear, and housing, but none on the tower. Seems like a brass or bronze washer might be a good idea, though.

What's everyone else up too?

 

Ok, here is the last major piece for my engine build. Roy Dilley (FLATROY) was kind enough to fab this great piece up for me!

Fuel injected, blower manifold.

 

Some more pics.

 

Here a some pics with the fuel rails installed.

 

a few more

 

I shortened my dizzy tower 3 3/8" to get it to fit under the model T cowl line etc.
I got a full length bush installed to help better support the drive shaft, feels good for now and hope it stays that way.

I got that great HEI dizzy set up I purchased from the FlatCaddy.com site that works with the shorter tower.

 

Russ, nice job on the dizzy tower. I would think with the short shaft, and full length bushing, that you should not have any 'play' in it.

Looks as if that should work well!

 

Hey fifty that shortened tower came out pretty sweet.
I was thinking of doing the same,
but saw there was an oil hole or something in there.
Is your new bushing oiled?
Any pics of the process?

Thanks !

TP


Oh yeah,
38, that blower/manifold, wow!

 

Hi Zibo, it has been awhile, I must have missed your question.
I was planning to put grease into it, thought it might be more reliable than hoping oil would make it up that far.
Russ.

 

Folks, I found this pic on an OZ forum and thought it to be a flathead cadillac engine, but with so many tubes and pipes I was not really sure.
So I figured I'd ask the audience???

The comments were that it was going into a Bonneville belly tank and that the engine was capable of making 700HP.

I am not sure if the engine is in OZ or the States!

See if anybody can add some commentation to the pic?

 

Better be a big tank. Maybe a Sherman

 

Contact JE or Egg for pistons. I'm not sure about Egg but I know JE will make whatever piston you want and they are reasonably priced in the whole scheme of things.

You can certainly work the ports and go with a bigger valve. I doubt that anyone will actually make a bigger valve that is cad flatty specific you you will need to find a valve that is close and adapt it.

Oh and moving the wrist pin .125 is a ton.

 

I think Isky cams back in the 50's had a flathead Caddy cam With specs. close to their Ford flathead 400 jr. grind . I have Isky catolog somewhere if i find it i will send you the specs.

 

Thanks! With deciding to go to the blower, I don't need to up compression, so it's no longer an issue. As for the valves, i'm still debating as to bigger, or just relieving the block and port work

I ended up with a special blower grind Winfield SU-1A, with the lobes being 114 lsa instead of 110, for 23 degrees overlap.

 

The engine is a Ford flathead.

 

Reversed, with exhaust out of the intake ports?

 

Sorry it's such a small picture. If I knew how I would make it bigger. I believe it has new exhaust ports on top. Original intakes. And it was fast.

 

Rich, is this the same mill, or one similar? Any details?