What a Great show! With a new coupe giveaway on Sunday, temps in the 70's and wall to wall sunshine. 3000 cars were there with lots of old nostalgia stuff, and plenty of chopped channeled new-old stuff to feast your eyes on. Got to meet 40fordguy here on the hamb selling flathead stuff at the swap area too! We Ran from Northwestern Ohio to Cincinati with seven other rods on a four hour trip one way. We actually ran 75-80 mph the whole way. I told the guys my 65 year old flathead with past issues may not like it but it probably was the best thing for it. The 37 coupe ran great, the flatty ran 160-180 degrees the whole way to and back at about 15 mpg and used about 1-1/2 quarts of oil every 100 miles.The left head gasket must have a leak as I noticed oil seaping out near the back at the firewall area. A new head gasket on that side will probably cure some of that oil consumption. It still had lots of torque! I ran the **** out of it. On the way home last night we stopped on the last leg of the journey to get gas at about 10:00. Filled up 7 gallons in the 10 gallon tank. Went to hit the ignition. Deader that a doornail... A New battery before leaving and a checked alternator had us wondering.... Threw a meter on the alternator and the internal exiter would start but then went right off with no charge. After making it this far carrying spares of.. a water pump, fuel pump and head gasket and no damn alternator..We weren't going to give up and call the flatbed. One of the guys had one of those portable battery jump boxes, so I hook up a jumper, ran it from the battery through the window to the portable inside the coupe and made it on the 45 minute trip the rest of the way home on just battery juice! It just goes to show. It's not the old technology that failed.... It was the new GM new fangle technogy that caused the problem. Hell, if I would of been running an old 12 volt generator, a new set of brushes would have got me on the road in no time. Now who wants to argue about flatheads not being reliable? You know the best part of making these trips is the challenge of actually getting there. What a ball! I was planning to show some pics today but didn't get home till 12:30 and had to make it back to work at 7:00. Will add some tommorrow. Flatheads forever!!
<<<<<Now who wants to argue about flatheads not being reliable? >>>>> That was one time. Drive it everyday for a couple of years and tell us how you like it.
Petejoe....was real nice meeting you. I was swamped on Saturday in the swap area. I think that's when you stopped by. I could've sold 3 or 4 more flatheads if I'd had them with me. Someone came by Sunday looking for a flattie fan belt for his show car. I felt bad that I didnt have one with me and couldnt help. The swap meet part has grown so much over the past few years. I'll be back there again for sure next October. They also plan a spring swap meet only next April 24th at the same place. Glad you were able to finish out your jouney safely! The Ford Flathead V8 Engine site
So one one-wire alternating current type generator went south. That doesn't condemn all types of alternators. Hook in a regular three wire 60 apm alt with an Apmmeter and you won't be wondering what it's doing, you'll know.
Petejoe Thanks for the cool picks. The hinged instrument panel in the g***er gives me ideas.. Oh, by the way it's spelled "irrelevant" (Dyslexic too?) It's a funny signature!
The Jalopy Journal
