I believe the best way to go would be an old "flattop" Mallory. They work great and have "The Look". People want a ton for the flathead specific models, but a better way to go is to get one made for Chevrolet V8's and have it converted for use in a flathead by Charlie Schwendler in New York. I've used 3 of his converted distributors with great success. One nice thing about the SBC distributors is that there are models with a mechanical tach drive. Find yourself a mechanical tach, and you have the perfect vintage setup. I have one of these in process now. I found a nice SW mechanical tach on eBay for $60 about 6 months ago, and when I get back to Minnesota in May, I'm going to send my tach drive Mallory to Charlie. As to reliability. they are very high quality. I have been able to cross-reference the points to a currently available Echlin product. For spare parts, I find that Mallory's for odd stuff like big block Chryslers and Pontiacs, etc. are available and cheap. I used to buy them for spare parts, but have enough now to last me three lifetimes.. Condensers are problematic, which is why I used to make reproductions. There are a number of alternatives, and used ones usually test out good. The caps and rotors are also the same across applications. There are two different varieties of caps and rotors that can't be interchanged, but the both work when matched. As to electronic ignition, if your future plans include things like generator or 6 volt systems, I'd stay away from them, mainly for "dirty power" reasons. A conventional points distributor is all you need, and remember "points will get you home". Changing to a pre-'49 setup involves a lot of work changing over and ends up with a distributor located where it's hard to work on. Plus, I think you want to run a "crab" or a converted "Rabbit Ear" rather than a Helmet, and they are getting hard to find. If you're not in a hurry, when I get my tach drive setup back from Charlie, I'll be selling one of my "regular" units.
The engine started and ran on the stand, right? Run it as-is unless you are planning on following Jim across country on a tour as soon as the tires hit the ground. Most projects have unexpected challenges and expenses. If the engine runs decent, put ignition on the 'fix someday' list and move on to something that's keeping it from running and driving. Brakes, steering, cooling, all those things that mean you can go around the block and shut it off in the same or better condition are more important right now than optimizing ignition timing.
Oh sure, I'm gonna run the stock dist without advance for now. Just trying to map my next steps. Been laid up for the past few days with covid or something so haven't had much of a chance to mess with the car. It's killing me!!
On which note, we are a little closer to firing... Finally got the intake to take & keep paint. Deep cleaned the intake valley & installed it. Cleaned up the dist. On second look, it almost looks like the crank pulley may barely clear the xmember with some shimmying so need to play with that once I get a jack over here. Spent some time disorganizing the new shop to make it a little more comfortable to work in. Unpacked all my sockets and wrenches and put them away, except the 1/2" wrenches, no clue where those are. What do yall think of the engine scheme now that it's in the car? I wasn't sure but seeing it all together, I think it's tits.
Loving this. Tbh, I’d paint those water pumps red to match the engine. I think they’ll rust if they stay in bare metal?
View attachment 6351987 What do yall think of the engine scheme now that it's in the car? I wasn't sure but seeing it all together, I think it's tits.[/QUOTE] Trevor, it's not important what anyone else thinks about the paint scheme on your engine. What's important is what you think about it, and it sounds like you are pleased with it - that's all that matters. There will be some folks that won't like it, just tune out their noise... Keep up the good work on your coupe! Steve
I was going to paint them, but they arrived late, and the engine was in the way - I had promised the boss it'd be in the car by a certain point and had overran that point so we went ahead and slapped them in. I don't think they will rust - I think they're powder coated grey - but I may still yank them and paint them. Mainly, I'm just curious if anyone who was iffy on it feels differently after seeing it in the car. I'm not gonna change it - I think it's sweet.
The rear end is posing some problems... I was planning to run it but I'm actually not entirely sure Sid ever did. Remember it wasn't bolted in when I got the car - just sitting there with obvious signs of a previous rear end failure and a missing drive shaft. We know this diff came out of his 39 Dodge but from the way Guy told it, that truck may not have been wrecked until the mid 60s - Guy remembers his mom taking him early in the morning to pick his dad up from the airbase after that incident, which would be after the car's racing career ended. My guess is Sid blew whatever rear was in it, put the car up, got a wild hair up his ass one day to try putting the Dodge rear in it and never went back to it. Nothing else from the Dodge exists on the car, but he used loads of stuff off that '40, so I'd be surprised if it didn't first run with that '40 banjo. (Then again, it did have the drum retainers welded to the backing plates, so who knows...) The main problem: it is asymmetrical. Sid has the pumpkin centered which puts one wheel several inches out compared to the other. It is immediately obvious to my eye and bothers the hell out of me. Shoving the axle over to center the wheels puts the center section off which would be glaring from the rear and look silly. The rebuild/service parts for this year Dodge brake are very expensive and kind of hard to come by, and the drums are an odd pattern, so for now I have adapters to let me bolt up the 5x5.5 steelies with the slicks that were on the front of the car. But I don't really like how any of this fits together. I found a 1948 banjo that's already converted to open drive for $450 so I'm gonna go grab it. I'll set it up for the parallel springs and have Ford brakes all the way around for a matching set of steelies. At 4" wider than a Model A axle, it should be just wide enough to hang the slicks out just like I like them and maybe I can find a quick change center section for it some day. Winters has a relatively affordable kit for this rear end: ... so that's an easy choice.
While I know you're trying to keep it as true to back in the day as possible it sounds like even if the Dodge rear was a back then ran thing you still made a good case for deviation. The money and time you'd spend making the Dodge rear work could be spent elsewhere. And I doubt anyone that remembered the car in it's heyday would have any trouble recognizing it when you're "done" with the car
Guy just sent me this.... running boards and a hood! And so those slicks were on the car... which means this rear end wasn't. I'm on track.
That is cool! I wished I had the forethought to ask the man I bought my engine from if he had any photos of the hydroplane he had it in. Do you have any idea what year that was taken?
Guy thinks early 60s but not sure of the exact year. Being Texas it could have been taken any time of year too so there's really no other clues unfortunately. Those heads are in the warehouse, I think I snapped a picture of them when I was over there. Can't make out much else. Hoping he finds some more. Wonder what's in the passenger window? The hood is kind of running uphill lol. That was the case when I tried it with the rad sitting in the only spot it could have been. I don't see a good way to drop it down, so I probably won't run it just yet. Maybe when I eventually have to replace the radiator, I can get one with a slightly shorter core. But it's cool to know that hood was in fact on the car. I don't see the injection pump or velocity stacks in that photo so this must predate the Hillborn injected mill. Looking again, that isn't the aluminum hood that I got with the car. That one doesn't have the body line. That looks like a Model A hood.
I believe this Offenhauser head is the one visible in the photo. Incidentally, note the hand pump for pressurizing a fuel tank....... I forgot I had seen that there.
I',m having an issue with my right eye at the moment but, it looks like a helmet hanging there? And a sticker on the passenger window?
Maybe has a '28 '29 frame or front crossmember? That would raise the radiator and grille. I sliced a '28 crossmember radiator pads and lowered them to '30 '31 height. Worked great. This is after cutting and welding. Dave
Grabbed the banjo this morning. 5 hour round trip, but 300 miles on a rebuild with new brakes and an open drive conversion. 3.78 gears. $450. Should be a pretty straightforward swap, I will just have to fabricobble something for the spring pads. I haven't seen many (any?) banjos with parallel spring setups. I was hoping I could be lazy and buy a prefab spring pad made with the tapered axle tube in mind but it looks like I'm going to have to modify something. No biggie...
42-47 Ford truck had parallel leaf springs with a banjo. I cut the pads off of one a few years ago, I'll search to see if I still have the spring pads laying around. If not they're not to hard to make, get some channel or retangular tube and cut it to the shape of the axle tube.
Interesting... I found a few pictures of these. It doesn't look like the spring pads are even leveled. I was gonna make mine taller on one side to compensate for the taper & avoid twisting the springs, but maybe I'm overthinking it??
They won't be "level" due to the open driveline the pinion is on an angle. I don't recall exactly what the degree is off hand, you would have to adjust to what you would need. Hopefully that gives you some ideas.
On this note... the crossmember & frame where it attaches on mine both need attention. If I have a 28/29 xmember maybe I should just look for a 30/31 and replace it entirely since I'm going to have to remove the crossmember anyway to repair where it installs and address some cracks in the member.
Yes, use the '30-'31 crossmember. It's easy to see the difference. '30-31 the radiator pad drops below the frame rail. '29-'29 the pad is raised up. Dave
I have determined that it is a 28/29 xmember but after looking at it I might be better off just cutting the pads out and welding them back in lower the way you did, Dave. Separating this crossmember from the frame will be a fairly big undertaking. On the driver side it's just bolted in place but maybe on the passenger side it kept coming loose so Sid just welded it up over there and boy did he ever burn it in. The motor mounts are also welded to the crossmember. Also, he's got some serious plate welded in across the top of it. I guess he broke the original crossmember and this is what he could get his hands on to replace it so he beefed it up.
I just went back and looked at the picture of the front cross member. He did weld a thick piece of flare bar on top of it. As far as the radiator mounting pads are concerned, you could cut those out and er weld them lower or customize the mounting tabs on the radiator.
@trevorsworth , that's why I cut mine down. Easier than knocking out the original rivets and changing the crossmember. I sliced them off with a portable bandsaw and and angle grinder. Car is being built as a '30 Tudor AV8. Dave
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