So far I have been in 4 bangers. I am trying to read and **** up all I can on the V8. If I wanted to start gathering a block and parts for a flat 8 what are my options and what should I look for? I don't have a project but would be nice to shop around while not in a hurry. I love all the old speed parts, but have no idea what fits what.
While the "59A" block is very desirable, I'd go for an 8BA type engine. With a Mercury of Ford pickup bellhousing and later Ford truck pumps, they are almost a bolt-in to an early Ford ch***is. Plus, they are much easier to find than the earlier blocks, and the Ford engineers changed the design so it cools much better than the earlier blocks. If you are a stickler for the "early" engines, they can be "dressed" to look like he earlier ones with a little effort. The bottom line, however, is that use the best block you can find that is affordable; they're not getting any easier to find. I sold my second-to-the-last" good block I had (you always have to have one in reserve) for stupid money,
Too much info available to post here....read up on flatheads. There are many books that cover the info you need. 2 of them are "How to build the high performance street flathead" by Mike Davidson. It's a Graffiti Books publication from 1998. Another one is Tex Smith's "The complete Ford flathead V8 engine manual" by Ron Ceridono. It's a car-tech book from 1995. Mike Bishop/ Vern Tardel also has flathead info in the book, "How to build a traditional Ford hot rod" By MBI Publishing in 2000
Check out 27 Model T Speedster build by @pennafxu I have a lot of Flatty info in that build... Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I prefer the8BA's because of the conventional distributor set up. The crab can be a pain in the *** sometimes.
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