Thinking seriously about a 283 or 327. Will it fit? Don't want change anything the drivetrain. The flat head is acting crazy, haven't been able to enjoy the truck for a long time. My dad built it in 1961, then again in the 80s. Not many miles on the engine, Merc. internals, cam and adjustable lifters. Hate to ditch the flat motor, but really want a more dependable, easy for me to deal with drivetrain. Thanks.
let me say first I am not a fan of flatheads but.. for the expense of swapping in sbc to og drivetrain,you could have the the flat head checked for crack s and or professionaly tuned. you would be able to run on the interstate pretty comfortably i.e. in the slow lane which is about all you're going to do with a sbc with og drivetrain this is just opinion Tom
First is a pic of a stock ‘31 A firewall. Next is the same firewall flipped 1.5 times: that is, the entire firewall was flipped, then I cut out the ‘dished’ center portion, flipped it back to original orientation, then welded it back in (to confuse curious onlookers). Ok, so from those pics pehaps you can answer your first question (the thread ***le). As to the second question (will an SBC fit), lots of people do it, but you may need to modify the firewall a bit. John
Maybe have someone evaluate the flatty. Maybe return it back a little closer to stock for driveability. They used to drive them everywhere in every weather event.
If owned a car built by my dad in 1961, I would do whatever I could to keep his original build engine in it. People were driving flatheads coast to coast back in the day. Get the flatty running, carry some key spare parts in the trunk and say "thanks dad".
For what it’s worth. This is a picture of my model a with the firewall unflipped. I recessed the center section 4 1/2” back to clear the sbc. It sits on a SoCal model a frame. But, like others have said I would look into that flathead a bit more first.
The Jalopy Journal
