Technical Flathead V8 cracked blocks

Lots of stories about cracked V8 blocks, good cracks, bad cracks and so on. I had a Ford block cracked beyond repair. I have also had cracked 235 chevy heads, and the Willys engine in my avatar.
Is the Ford crack issue really worse than other vintage engines?

 

I for one do not think so.
I had 2 SBC blocks cracked beyond repair both at the very same spot but, I went through 4 Ford flathead blocks to find a good one.
I currently have 2 Ford flathead cracked blocks..

 

I can’t really say,,,,but I know there are a lot of them still running.
There are guys on here that build and sell many of them every year .
It boggles my mind where all the cores are coming from,,,,LoL .
I think a guy up in New York said he puts out like a 100 engines a year,,,,forgive me if my memory is not on target.
That’s about two a week,,,,,if it was between 50-100 a year,,,,that’s a lot of Flatheads .
But there were what,,,,,,40-50 million of them produced ?
I know a lot have been destroyed,,,and many are beyond repair for whatever reason.
But there are many,,,,still out there .
I think the crack issue is real,,,,but no more so than anything else .
Look it over and inspect it closely,,,,,maybe it will be okay .

Tommy

 

You need two remember the flathead block is both the block and the head so how many overhead motors with cracked heads and ad that to the equation.
Another thing is age, the flathead is older than the sbc. Back in the early 80s I collected most of my Mopars and never ran into cracks but now I find a lot of cracked heads, you need to have everything Magnafluxed today.
I don't know what was used for antifreeze in the 30s and 40s but I do remember my grandfather talking about draining the coolant every night after work so the motor would not freeze up.

 

I don't know if the Ford crack issue is really worse than other vintage engines, but I spent a lot of time, and some cash looking for a good flat head to replace the *cracked one in my heap. Six cracked blocks out of six engines, that I struggled to find. They either had deck cracks from hard use, or pan rail cracks from freezing. Saddest part is, the freeze cracked blocks all had good decks