Hey guys, I have seen a lot of high compression heads for model A's but do they add that much horsepower ?
One thing won’t increase HP much but a high comp. head would make a noticeable difference. Increasing Compression is a good bang for $ mod and a good first mod that you can add to with other HP improvers that work better with higher compression
Look up Dennis Pairano's (sp?) website and they show dyno sheets for the various common mods to the Model A and B motors. Good Luck.
60HP at the rear wheels. It's a BF super head with a cam, FSI ignition, counterweight crank, headers, V8 flywheel, V8 water pump, headers, balanced parts, Weber 32/36 carb and a fat check book.
According to Les Andrews, "The most noticeable increase in performance and the easiest to make is the addition of a higher compression cylinder head". The Model A "Police Head" with the big B cast into the top will give you a 25% increase in compression and adds noticeable power and speed. I ran a "B" head on my banger along with FSI ignition, a Tattersfield aluminum intake and Stromberg 97 carb. With these modifications and a lightened flywheel and '38 transmission, it would easily cruise around 64 mph with the stock rear end.
I'm ac***ulating the parts to build a banger for my Vicky. I have a Lion Speed head III, Weber carb & intake, iron header, FSI distributor and the 3 speed + overdrive ****** from the '80s F150. Plan is to rebuild engine with larger intake valves, a performance cam, balanced crank and lightened flywheel. I just have to finish the build on my 40 Ford pickup first.
I don't remember exactly but isn't bone stock like 40 H.P? So adding anything would be noticeable wouldn't it? If you can get 10 more with just a head that's like 25% more overall. What does raising the comp number do to the overall life of the Babbitt?
According to Les Andrew's, the max you would want to go is 6.3 on a babbitted motor. If I remember correctly, the stock head is somewhere around 4.2 with the Police or B head it's 5.2. So 6.3 should be twice as noticeable ***uming everything else is in good shape.
Ed Winfield of Winfield cams, ran 12 to 1 on his babbit race engines. He won most of the time. There are many street engines out there right now running 8 to 1 on babbit.
Hey stupid question but I'm still Learning. Do you need a different distributor if you use a slightly higher compression head? Or can you use the stock one?
remember you raise the compression on a banger you lighten the flywheel all that weight on that crank snaps the crank when you blip the pedal
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