I was reading @HOTRODPRIMER's thread about the Deuce being 85 ant the thought occured to me that,that means the flathead is also 85. And as of my last engine poll the flathead is still the second most popular hot rod engine right behind that new fangled OHV engine the small block Chevy, with the '49-'53 version being the most popular, so i figured why not celibrate by starting up a thread on the old flat motor with pictures,tech info. blueprints,dementions, head coversions the whole bit. I'm sure i'll be steping on the mods toes a bit by posting this first but what the heck.
Not really ..... The Model T was a flathead also, as were many other brands. The Ford V-8 is 85. The 1907 Hewitt was the first American Automobile to be equipped with a V8 engine.
Well, that's what i ment was the Ford flathead v8. Since the Deuce is 85 and since the Ford flathead v8 was first introduced in the '32 ford that's the flathead i was refuring too.
The ford flathead v8 was truly a remarkable piece of engineering at the time. It was the first affordable v8 engine available to the average person. The affordablility arises from the fact that for the first time a v8 engine block was cast in one piece. Formerly v8 engines were cast in several pieces that had to be machined to fit together precisely hence the extra cost. The part that is so remarkable today is that a flathead v8 is a much more complicated block to cast than a modern ohv engine. Remember that all the valves seats and ports were also cast into the block requiring a large number of casting cores. I have owned several flathead ford v8 engines and I still run one today. Not overly powerful by today's standards but torquey, reliable and sounds great.
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