Flathead guys- Is this a good deal?

My current fresh 284 inch Flathead Ross Pistons, Scat Rods etc owes me around $7500.
I reckon you got a pretty good deal there.
If you priced up sourcing an un cracked block and all the other parts from scratch you would be way up there.
For nearly 20 years I have run shoe string wing and a prayer flatheads but after putting a rod through the block 100 miles from home a few years ago, fancied doing it right this time.
Rich

 

Lotta good advice & opinions here. Gets me thinking on one of my next projects. I have a 53 Merc engine & OD trans, complete & need rebuild. I really want to go thru the engine & stick it in one of my old Fords. Need to justify the bucks. But DAMN I want a fresh flathead!

 

Thanks for the re-assurance guys. I do like the analogy about paying $2500 bucks for a flathead class and getting a free motor at the end! I'm going to tell that one to my wife.

Bruce- I've tried some Marvel but no luck. Honestly didn't try very much though so I think I'm really going to dump some in this time.

I am going to keep the stock '49 and maybe crack into that once I finish this new one and drop it into the coupe. I really want to build a roadster next so I'll probably use it for that.

 

Pricing is all relative really. That price ten years ago would have been outrageous. Ten years from now that will be a screaming deal. What it all comes down to is what you want. I never wanted to be the guy sitting on the porch rocker that says " Man, I really wish I would've..." I want to be the guy that says " Man, remember when we..."

 

...I drove my flathead 52 F1 for years and the waterpumps were very reliable...the ONLY breakdown on the road was a bad condenser in the Mallory distributor...$8.00 later at NAPA ind I was running again...the waterpumps were the latest design containing ceramic seals...bullet proof....I'd worry more about the tires or brakes than anything on a flathead..if you take the time to build it right in the first place....less moving parts=less to go wrong...I'd worry more about SBC rocker arms than anything else.

 

end result sounds like you did good

 

And after you learn from the old timer you can come on here and share the knowledge with us!!.. I call it a Win-WIN!

oh yeah.. thats one bad ride!!

 

Just thought I'd post an update. Between working too much this summer and not wanting to pull the motor this summer and get bogged down in other projects I decided to wait until now to start my build. Summer's are too short here so I've been driving my coupe with the tired smokey stocker until last week. I also want to run some new exhaust under the car with this engine and make some other updates so now I have the rest of the winter to work on it.

I've starting polishing the heads, cleaning all the hardware, and even polishing some of the intake ports. I'm hoping next weekend Dave and I can start the build so I'll post some more pictures as we go.

 

Way overdue update if anybody cares... Finally started putting the motor together in December. With Dave's help everything has went pretty well but the Edmunds speed equipment has been a pain in the ass.



After wasting way too much time trying to polish the heads I ended up just glass bead blasting them and doing an alodine dip to coat them. They turned out great but after further inspection we discovered that they either had some shotty machine work done to them before I got them or that they were just warped. My brother helped me take 0.025 off of them to get them flat again. However, that's made clearance problems with the pistons. I've got a solution but all of this has just burned up weeks of tracking down answers.

(bailing on the polishing process)


(on the Bridgeport)


(after blasting and sealing in a alodine bath)


I also decided to completely rebuild a couple of 97's so that has been a fun side project.


But after laying my Edmunds intake on this afternoon I noticed a strange thing when I looked down in the bolt holes... I was missing several intake bolt holes tapped in the top of the block?! I'm confused as hell because my '49 merc block is not missing these holes. Can any of you flathead guys tell me what's up with this? This block is a '52 block and I'm thinking that I"ll need to drill and tap these out if I want to use this intake?

(you can faintly see the missing holes that I traced from the gasket on the top of the block)

 

Don't worry about the missing holes.

 

Look at the bottom of the Edmunds manifold; does it have provisions for the tube up from the front of the crankcase? If not, it's likely for a 59-series motor. The intake gasket you're using is for the early engines too.

 

No it doesn't - yes it's definitely an early intake. So is it okay to use the early intake gasket or should I use a late one? So it's sounds like I'm okay to just just use the holes that are there? Sure seems like I'm inviting a leak somewhere...

 

looks like there are broken bolts in those holes to me

 

I dont think you can use an early intake on the late block it wont function with out the use of the breather tube. I assume you know that those are also early heads you are trying to use??????? Larry

 

The intake will work, put in bolts where you can. The old intake breather is on the back and the new intake the breather is on the front. Not ideal. I have an old style block with the breather on the front. Same situation.

The heads are a bigger problem. Need to block some holes. One hole on each side. I have not done it but others have.

Neal

 

There's no broken bolts and yes you can use early intakes and heads on later blocks. I've plugged the water holes. I'm adding a another breather to the oil pan as well. I don't like the looks of the pcv valve things guys do.

Sounds like I'm just using the existing holes. Thanks Neal-