Thread: 1936 Ford Cabriolet

Tweet

Gee this is interesting to me. If the heads say 59-AB and there are 24 studs on each side it is indeed a '46-'48 engine. That would not be unusual since it was fairly common to replace the earlier 21 stud original engine with the later model as a simple bolt-in. Although the oil pressure tended to be low in those engines they can be pepped up quite a bit and have insert bearings compared to the very early babbit bearing blocks; a high pressure oil pump is available from Speedway. Although it is common to replace a flathead with a more modern engine that also requires replacing the drive line usually since just using an adaptor plate to the early transmission will probably result in the early demise of the transmission. The KEY QUESTION is whether the 59-AB RUNS and does not "drink water". If the engine loses water over a fairly short time it might be a good idear to pull the heads off and check for one or more cracks; particularly between a valve and a cylinder wall. If found, then ditch the engine BUT if you have a solid block just dress it up with finned aluminum heads and maybe a two-pot intake and engoy the nostalgia. If it were mine and the block checked out I would rebuild it with a cleanup bore and a stroker crank and enjoy it. Just my opinion but I would not overbore it more than to 3 5/16" and preferably just a clean up bore if proper pistons are available because overboring ito 3 3/8" is risky in my opinion and will lead to overheating and cracking, again only my opinion. Depending on your age the nostalgia might be meaningless, but if it were me I would try to get it running as a mildly warmed over flathead. For me the nostalgia would be foremost and it would be a "time-machine" for me! You may note that a cabriolet is somewhat of a rare model and it may be have been semi-restored in the past and may be in good shape. Just my two cents but I would check it out before I would discard the 59-AB.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder