Thread: Greetings from the UK

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Welcome to the Forum. We could swap stories about Imperial gallons and such since I spent several years fixing/restoring two MG Midgets but the '48 Pontiac has memories for me since one of my high school buddies went to a fairly impressive amount of work for a 16 year old to swap the body of a '48 sedan onto the frame of a rotted out Woody. It was a lot of work and when it was done the car was reasonably comfortable and the Pontiac styling was one of the better from GM in the late '40s. However my friend found out that the power/weight ratio for that large car was unfavorable relative to lighter Fords with flathead V8s. With the price of gas where you are the conversion to LPG seems reasonable but that still leaves you with a heavy car and a flathead straight-8. There used to be some aluminum flathead higher compression heads and dual manifolds available for such engines but they may be hard to find these days. I know Clifford makes such stuff for Chevy OHV-6 engines and there are still some flathead MOPAR speed equipment accessories, but I think all you can do is search E-Bay for Pontiac parts. Still maybe you can convince yourself to install a Chevy 350 and tune for low rpm torque and maybe some pretty good mileage. I am trying to recall if that straight-8 was a flathead or an OHV like the early '50s Buick? Good luck.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder