Thread: High Power Flathead

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Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

was there a price limt ?

For the Engine? I'd like to keep it under $14,000.

Originally Posted by Maxb49

For the Engine? I'd like to keep it under $14,000.

well for $14,000 i can build you two bbc and you can rap a chain coupler around the fly wheel side to the front hub and have a V 16 and 992 CID or a talldeck for a CID of 1050 now i will tell you not many have any thing like this

For that kind of money, you could use a gas turbine from a helicopter and really wow the troops.

Originally Posted by techinspector1

For that kind of money, you could use a gas turbine from a helicopter and really wow the troops.

I guess I should be more specific. I don't get the chance to write a very long post because of everything going on around the house. I've put away money for the past several years to build the best engine I could that would outlast anything. My desired purpose is to have a great, fast car that will perform well on the track and for my own pleasure not really to impress the guys at car shows. Do you think $14k is too much to build a powerful engine? I really don't want to waste money, but from what I gathered building a big engine costs a lot of money.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to offer help and advice!

Well you could buy a french flathead block and look for some Ardun heads but I doubt that that could be done for even $14,0000. For unusual nostalgia I think the Ardun setup is the top of the line but that is more expensive, although I would be glad to get 250 HP and add a main bearing girdle and extra large aftermarket main caps and take what I got with 3 5/16" x 4 and an Isky cam. Save some money for a good transmission since I don't think a stock Ford three speed would last long behind that engine.
(http://www.oogabooga.ca/oogaboogapag40.htm) A hemi would be in range but this goal is apparently for a powerful but unusual engine. I would look for an early Cadillac engine ('53 or later) and end up with what would be an expensive version of what could be done for far less with a 383 SBC crate engine but the Caddy would be unusual. In my memories of the mid '50s no one I new ever saw an Ardun setup outside of pictures in Hot Rod Magazine but on the street a '53 Caddy engine with chrome valve covers was the creme de le creme even after SBC 327s were available just because of the Cadillac name and if you added Caddy hubcaps what more could you want?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Well you could buy a french flathead block and look for some Ardun heads but I doubt that that could be done for even $14,0000. For unusual nostalgia I think the Ardun setup is the top of the line but that is more expensive, although I would be glad to get 250 HP and add a main bearing girdle and extra large aftermarket main caps and take what I got with 3 5/16" x 4 and an Isky cam. Save some money for a good transmission since I don't think a stock Ford three speed would last long behind that engine.
(http://www.oogabooga.ca/oogaboogapag40.htm) A hemi would be in range but this goal is apparently for a powerful but unusual engine. I would look for an early Cadillac engine ('53 or later) and end up with what would be an expensive version of what could be done for far less with a 383 SBC crate engine but the Caddy would be unusual. In my memories of the mid '50s no one I new ever saw an Ardun setup outside of pictures in Hot Rod Magazine but on the street a '53 Caddy engine with chrome valve covers was the creme de le creme even after SBC 327s were available just because of the Cadillac name and if you added Caddy hubcaps what more could you want?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don,

You're right, the idea is to build a strong, dependable engine that isn't a Chevy. Can the Hemi be done for under $14k?

Well now..........hasn't this thread gotten "interesting"?? Here is my take on this whole high hp flathead thing. If a person builds one it would be so that they have something different and possibly traditional . Or maybe they want to run a particular class at the races. Any other reason escapes me because with the amount of money they will spend trying to make it live and put out some good hp numbers they would be way ahead building almost any other V8 OHV engine on the market.

I think it is indisputable that if you gave me $ 7000 to build lets say a Chevy BB and gave someone else $ 7000 to build a flathead, the BBC would leave the flathead in the dust and probably live a lot longer. Like the others I am curious why Nitro won't post any dyno sheets to back up his claims. It isn't like he would be disclosing some National Secret or violating his customers trust in him. I don't say that to infer he is fibbing, just can't understand the reluctance to post them.

Who would have thought an engine that died over 50 years ago would spark such a lively discussion in 2009?

Don