The perfect "street engine"

40 Deluxe said:
Well Pete, this engine has a lot of expensive overkill parts for a street engine! The article says they are going for the "XF/VGC" record (around 135 MPH) with a '39 coupe. What I consider to be non-street parts include: fabricated sheet metal high rise intake with dual 750 Holley carbs, belt drive roller cam with oversize bearings to allow .470" lift, billet main caps, 4 3/8" crank, dry sump pan, belt drive custom distributor with crank trigger ignition, and more. There are pictures of the intake interior, the ports and valves, top and bottom of the block, the cam and belt drive, the oil pan and more. One secret they did not show: the combustion chambers.
I'll bet that those roller cam bearings, the cam and the belt drive alone cost as much as a typical "healthy street engine"!
Click to expand...

What amazes me is the quoted HP figure and why it is so low for what they have.
The fancy high dollar cam etc. sounds impressive but actually is not necessary. Most but not all big HP flatheads use a radius lifter cam. I would say either type, properly applied, could make equal HP.

As a side note, the car in my avatar went 129.68 at Bonneville in 1953, it went 136.77 in 1954. It had a 296 flathead on gas. The engine had over 8000 miles on it in 1954 ON THE STREET. I drove it to work every day. It had 8 SCCA road races on it also and a couple drag races. It had a set of rings and a valve job just before Bonneville. It also had a few things that only a couple other guys did to flatheads back then.

I guess what it all boils down to is, Ron is building a street engine with slightly more than stock HP for a nowdays reasonable price and we hijacked the thread into a very expensive street engine.
 
Thank ou Pete!!! The perfect engine is one that works best in the application it's built for. This engine has more torque in the rpm range where it's used most, and at a reasonable cost.
Gramps
 
At risk of reviving a thread that has naturally moved into history...
My perfect street flathead is a completely stock looking engine (personal preference). I want good torque from idle to 3000 rpm. I use overdrive so I don't spin the motor more than that.

+.060 or smaller overbore, I have seen some deep rust pits on the back side of some cylinders that make we shy about big boring
4" stroke
EAB cam if 8BA type engine (I've never found a good stock 8CM cam), stock 91A bolt on timing gear cam if 48-earlier
Heads milled to get .040 to .050 over the piston.


I helped a friend put together a stock 50 Merc engine (car was bought "used" by his grandfather in late 1950 after the 51 models came out). Other than crank grinding we did all the machine work ourselves. Only deviation from above was he went a little heavy on the head surfacing and ended up at .035 over the pistons. The car owns overdrive on the highway. Had approximately $1,500 in parts in the rebuild.
 
38 coupe said:
At risk of reviving a thread that has naturally moved into history...
My perfect street flathead is a completely stock looking engine (personal preference). I want good torque from idle to 3000 rpm. I use overdrive so I don't spin the motor more than that.

+.060 or smaller overbore, I have seen some deep rust pits on the back side of some cylinders that make we shy about big boring
4" stroke
EAB cam if 8BA type engine (I've never found a good stock 8CM cam), stock 91A bolt on timing gear cam if 48-earlier
Heads milled to get .040 to .050 over the piston.


I helped a friend put together a stock 50 Merc engine (car was bought "used" by his grandfather in late 1950 after the 51 models came out). Other than crank grinding we did all the machine work ourselves. Only deviation from above was he went a little heavy on the head surfacing and ended up at .035 over the pistons. The car owns overdrive on the highway. Had approximately $1,500 in parts in the rebuild.
Click to expand...




This is an excellent example. I have one almost identical (my 8CM cam was like new!) and closest piston is .033 from the head. I have a Merc manifold with a 2G Rochester carb and a Chev distributor. A flathead built like this pulls way better than most would believe...:D and it's not expensive.



Terry
 
cadillac512 said:
This is an excellent example. I have one almost identical (my 8CM cam was like new!) and closest piston is .033 from the head. I have a Merc manifold with a 2G Rochester carb and a Chev distributor. A flathead built like this pulls way better than most would believe...:D and it's not expensive.



Terry
Click to expand...

I haver almost the same thing in my '51 (except for Edmunds heads and a Mallory "flattop" for looks) and agree whole-heartedly with the above.
 
And I will make it four in agreement since '38 revived this. Stock looking exterior, 4" crank, .060 over. I have never been involved in any way with hot rods or racing so I don't really understand the Lopey Idle sound thing. It holds no nostalgia with me personally, that's all. What I like is pulling our hilly roads without a lot of downshifting, and what I love is the silky smooth ("is that thing running?") idle that the Ford Motor Company engineered into their V8. My $.08
 
I always thought that the perfect engine was one that ran. I had an engine in my 40 for at least 20 years . It started most of the time, went down the road, ran good. was one of the faster cars in the slow lane. had some oil pressure. and had decent compression (60 lbs).
And got me where I wanted to go. Until I got a big Idea to improve things.
 
slowforty said:
I always thought that the perfect engine was one that ran. I had an engine in my 40 for at least 20 years . It started most of the time, went down the road, ran good. was one of the faster cars in the slow lane. had some oil pressure. and had decent compression (60 lbs).
And got me where I wanted to go. Until I got a big Idea to improve things.
Click to expand...

LOL Pretty much sums up my sentiments
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top