This is my thinking: >Change the pan to a 59ab - move dipstick (does the oil pickup work with the 59ab pan?) >Change the front cover (will the cam work with the 59ab and the 8ba cover?) >Change the intake to a more traditional flattie >Remove the French govenor What did others here do? Use the stock heads, pistons, valves and lifters etc? Thank you for your inputs.
The French blocks also need to have the valve pockets opened up, as there is a lump in there for some reason
Here is a thread with some good info you may want to look at. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5813973 Good thing it's not one of those southern hemisphere flatheads that you need to change the rotation of the distributor on to run in the northern hemisphere.
There are a few variations. Mine was internally stock and I ran the stock oil pan, the stock intake for a while, and the stock front cover with a 8ba style dist. Later moved on to a modified chev dist and fabbed a blower manifold for it. Oh, I also ran the stock frenchy fuel pump. Mine was a 4 inch stroke and came with a factory relief near the valves.
Was your pan the aluminum front sump type - I've heard the front sump pan usually intereferes with the old Ford frames? Did you use Henry water pumps? Were you happy with the French heads and short valves/long valve springs?
Yes, the aluminum pan with the bolt on steel sump. It worked for me, although I did section the steel sump due to the lowness of the car. I used speedway pumps. The stock heads and valve gave me no trouble at all. Remember, this was built for military use. It needs to just work.
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