Flathead "odd-balls"....

Over the years I've seen flathead V-8's and sixes in a variety of "odd-ball" uses. Powering vehicles like snow cats and stationary equipment such as generators and pumps.

Let's see what examples you might have photos of, to give hot rodders some ideas of where they might find a decent flatty that's a bit unconventional.


I'll start off with this military truck that I was told by the owner was built for the Canadian Army:






Interesting Power-Take-Off, eh?

 

I once had a 1954 Marmon-Herrington 5 ton, cab over truck, 5 spd main/4 spd brownie/2 spd rear axle. 59AB block (if memory serves).

 

yeah some of the older welders used flatheads many are still in use today.

 

Airplanes

 

I've seen little shunting 1/2 sized trains in Strausburg, PA use flatheads & Ford 3 sp. for power.

You can stand right next to it & not even realize it's running. Pretty cool.

 

Theres an old amusement park here in Lubbock that still has a Kiddie train ride thats flat head 60 powered.

 

I,m new to the HAMB, I don,t know if it was told before, but they used a lot of flatheads V8,s in southern Ca in orchards for wind machines. They sat on top of a pole in a little dog house with a prop on the back of the trans. They used that typical crash box 4spd (which I forgot the part #) Just a few yrs ago I bought a trans from one, for my 49 Ford truck. It was like new inside, because it was locked in 2nd all its life and never shifted. I still notice that style dog house in older orchards once in a while. Makes me wonder if there,s a flathead inside.

 

In the early 60's growing up in south Minneapolis there was a 1940's converted bus used to clean furnace ductwork. We got inside of it and it had 2 flathead V8's in the back hooked up to 2 gigantic air blowers. They used big flexable hoses to vaccum out peoples furnace ducts. Brian

 

Pretty hard to beat this for the odd ball flathead

http://www.autohistory.org/feature_1.html

Thats upside down, reverse rotation and reverse flow induction

 

V8-60's were used in racing boats and I think I saw the larger flatties in regular boats once. I think Cris-Craft (sp?) used them too.

 

The 59A that I am building now came off an ald septic tank truck, it was the workhorse motor, very low hours.

 

Ah, but will you ever get that smell out?! The exhaust aroma may be unique. lol Seriously thats a good find.

 

I'm gunna go look at a flattie air compressor tomorrow.

I remember seeing one on Ebay, with a blower, that turned a bridge, ya know the ones that pivot in the middle.

Rich

 

a friend of me got one that is still in a snowblowercombination, and my flathead is from a French military truck, bought for $ 150 a couple of years ago....

 

A fellow called Big Mike on the Fordbarn posts questions about his tracked Bren Gun (I think that's what it is) that has a pre-war flatty in it, as did all of them at the time.

Of course it is a horse of a different color, but one of the available power units for Sherman tanks was the big Chrysler flathead six that was joined with four others to make a 30 cylinder radial (kind of) unit.

 

the 59 A-B I have is from a winery in Napa Ca. it was used a some sort of pump motor.

 

Bombadier tracked machines were still using Mopar flatheads for power at least through the 80's.

 

many years ago we played around at an old rope-tow ski-lift in N. Calif that was powered by an old flathead 8..thats the kind where you stand there on your skis and grab onto the rope going by, hopefully with gloves, and just let the rope and V/8 pull you uphill to the top....

 

Beat this one guys, I know it,s not a V8 but it is Ford flathead powered.Now imagine a V8 version,maybe with blower too.What the hell were they smoking when they dreamt this up?

 

I've got some old Ford wheels, hubs and spindles that were used as the "pulleys" for just such a set-up. One's model A and one's 32, I think.

 

Here,s another one.

 

There was one of those around here that had a 4 inch chop.\

A local engineering firm still has a trailer generator welder powered by one of the sweetest running flatheads you ever heard. They use it for welding work out on farms.

 

There is a large old house in my area with a big old pool in the back, and a Flathead in the basement of the house; yup the flathead was the pool pump. I would live to know what its like living in a house that has a running flathead in the basement.

 

I know the flattie in my '47 Ford Sedan was a 59AB truck motor from an old spare generator at the now defunct Grumman Calverton Naval Air facility. The previous owner acquired it, all in cosmolene and dropped it in.

 

I used air compressors that were V8 flatheads, they ran on 4 cyl
and used the other 4 to pump air.

 

The Army truck is called a 'Blitz' and variants were made by all the major auto manufacturers during WWII, England and Australia were the main users of these things and you still see them in a LOT of places in the country areas. Unfortunately most of them have been stripped almost bare by farmers for parts.
The tracked Flatmotor vehicle is a Bren Gun Carrier, once again a British Commonwealth WWII vehicle, still some of these around, though most in museums. They are too expensive to pick up just for the motor as collectors all want them. May have to pay more attention to the Blitz trucks around though......

 

Inspired by Brian Burns "I've been everywhere in Texas" the family and I have been running around taking family photos at each of the cities in the song. Found this one in Conroe.

Somewhere I have some photos of a rail car in Smithville also, I think it was a banger though.

 

i have a semi trailer thats got 2 331 hemis in it driving pumps.its some sort of military thing.
no,the hemis are not for sale!
Randy

 

Here's a couple. The queer looking blue "thing" is a barrage balloon launcher, WWII of course.

 

I saw a motorcycle with a flathead v-8 in it.