Projects High compression heads worth it?

So....basically get a different car that's not like what you already have. Then, swap the engine and trans.

Or do what you want with the car you have. Flatheads are fun! Four-doors are fun!

 

who needs to learn to crawl when you can start right at the top and fly

 

You need new tires.
Depending on the design of the air cleaner....If it's the louvered type, it's not helping. The smaller ones can be OK if they are of an open design. The little helmet ones....not so much.

It's good you are going by the shop manual. These old 94 carburetors can be problematic. Even "rebuilt ones" can be trouble. The right parts and most importantly the right guy to assemble it, is hard to find.

My default answer is to throw that junk away. It may be one of those heat sink doo-hickey plates that's supposed to prevent vapor lock.
It's a gimmick.
Take that junk off when you get your new carburetor. You might as well leave it until then.

Road-Draft Tube as mentioned. You may be getting some blowby.

Again, maybe some blowby but it may not be bad at all. Smoke/vapor will come from the oil fill after you shut the car down. It's part of the vent system.
If it blows out with rhythm while the car is running that is a sign of significant blowby. Every now and then.....
Ehhhh....
it's OK.

Let's see...
Have you ever put a 302 C4 in a Shoebox?
How much does a good 302/C4 cost?
How much are the mounts?
There's more cost involved. I know I've been there and done that.
A engine swap is not the "Magic Bullet" it's made out to be.

 

Even significant blow-by isn't necessarily the death knell of the engine, provided it still has enough compression, and doesn't foul plugs with burned oil. It's annoying in that it's stinky in the car, and a sign that the engine is worn out and in need of a rebuild in the not terribly distant future. You're not going to get another 100K miles out of an engine huffing like that. Just keep an eye on your oil level, since you're likely burning it and your level will drop, and change the oil and filter more frequently since it is getting contaminated with exhaust deposits. A proper engine rebuild is a major undertaking and an even more expensive one for a flathead. Depending on how many miles you drive, and how you drive them, you will likely be able to avoid it with proper manners and care.

 

dude around the corner has a 65 falcon with no hood release. you can open it from the outside and nobody's ever taken his stuff, that's not an issue.
crackheads being crackheads and stealing gas is an issue, but rarely happens. never seen it before only heard of it a few years ago.

 

oil smoke constanly coming out of the filler tube while it's running. Not a cloud, but more like if there were a couple lit cigars in there. No smoke out the back end except on startup. I inherited my dad's poor selection in cars. Every car he ever owned has either been flagged abandoned and towed or scrapped. in this order, 1984 mitsubihi (friend wrecked, 1968 Mercedes (broke down all the time, burnt more oil than gas, scrapped) 1966 chevy corvair (bad compression, bad seals, bad everything, scrapped) 197? Jeep wagon (hobo was living in it, towed and most likely scrapped) 198? corvette (wrecked, scrapped) 19?? Jeep Comanche (scrapped) 199? GMc pickup (scrapped) Just bad luck. Yeah its the louvered type. I took it off once, didn't make much of a difference. I don't have the carb spacer on it's in the trunk. A guy reccomended me to put some seafoam in there but I'm not too sure if that's o.k. to use on older engines. Not interested in engine swaps either, not like I have the money for it anyway.

 

supposedly 65,48X original miles, have some old paperwork that says so but I doubt it's true. but the previous owner drove it less than 400 miles in the 13 years he had it so maybe. Not sure about the owners before that, except he was a tattoo artist and added the paint job and custom upholstery.

 

65K miles a fair bit of miles on an old engine with leaded gas, no PCV, and no detergent oils. It's not like nowadays where an engine is barely broken in at 65K and will be spotless internally at 200K. As long as you have acceptable oil pressure and good enough compression, just send it

 

Maybe it's your age.
Maybe you did not mean that "poor-mouth" rant like it sounded.

These comments make me think of my Daddy growing up and stuff he drove. I know he wanted better. My Mom, my brother and my sister never hurt for nothing. I don't your situation so that's all I'll say about "growing up."

What I do know for sure about your Ford is that it was a birthday present.
Take Pride in your stuff!
Do you know how lucky you are?
You may not realize this but many HAMBERS on this board have no car at all. They would love to have what you have.
Be thankful for what you have and make the best of it.
What you have is really pretty special. It needs to be appreciated and cherished.

Flathead Speed Stuff for the 8BA....
The cold hard truth is that stuff was a waste of money back then and it's a bigger waste of money now. Most "hot-rodders" half assed it then and they sure as heck half-ass it now. Mostly it was all about the show and not the go. In other words it was all Bling!

A 1949-53 8BA is much harder to truly "Hop-Up than the earlier 59As. Before anything else the ignition has to be changed or modified. Most ignore this. They ignored this back then. To truly Hop-Up one of these with dual carbs, heads, ignition .....is expensive and truthfully, it's not as big of a gain as you might think for a street car.
To truly gain anything from bling-bling speed parts means Forking out The Dough and Knowing what really works and how to do it.
Most guys today will throw an intake, 2x2s and fancy Heads on an 8BA and call it done. They will not admit that the car ran better stock. Why? Because they forked out a lot of dough!

I actually own one of these cars and I have owned a Shoebox ford off and on for 30 years. So, I speak from experience not theory.

The best Performance part for your car.
A good, made as new....
Ford 94 8BA carburetor.
^^^ This is the best money you can spend on this car.
Ask on the Ford Barn. I believe the man's name is Charley...CharleyNY or something like that. He rebuilds 94s correctly. Most of the "kits" have the wrong parts and the carburetor will dribble gas and run rich. Spend the money for a properly remanufactured stock 94.
A good 94 that matches your stock Loadomatic distributor is all you need and it's the best money you can spend.
The Proper stock carburetor matched to the stock distributor makes for a sweet runner.

After you have a good carburetor matched to your working LOM distributor the next big modification is headers and dual exhaust.
A stock 8BA with a good carburetor, a good distributor, headers and dual pipes is truthfully a better runner than the majority of these half assed blinged up rich running black smoke belching "hot rods".
It's just the truth.
This is all mine had and have. Why because it's more than enough.
I can blow through town like Robert Mitchum.
2nd Gear is an absolute blast.
I easily arrive at 60-70MPH on the Highway...there's some more there too.
I could drop about $3K in bling and get another 10-15MPH on the top, a place that I never go.
So Why???
You need...
good brakes
good tires
good carburetor
good fuel system
good cooling system
good emergency brake
good seat belts
good tools
good factory literature so you can tune this car.
good skill because your car is an expert's car....you have to know how to drive it.

 

run the stock iron heads and use your $ for an isky 88--that'll really wake up that flathead!

 

Rex,
As for "Blowby".
Changing the oil can help tremendously. I recommend VR1 20-50 high zinc racing oil. It's just a fact that most old 94s and even rebuilt ones will dribble gasoline into the engine. If you have to crank and crank on the car after it sits overnight or after a couple of days, this means that the fuel bowl is empty. A "leaky" 94 will leak gas into the engine. This dilutes the oil, thins the oil so these cars need frequent oil changes.
A simple oil change may help with blow by.
Your engine may just have some wear. This is not all bad. Racing engines were built a little loose so a worn engine with some wear can still be an excellent runner.
Unless it's making a smokescreen like a Fletcher Class Destroyer, you should be OK.
Unless it's knocking....It's no big cheese.

 

when I was young and poor (I am still poor LOL) we used to mill stock heads all the time. OK actually on a budget build I still do.

 

Nobody talked about Aluminum/lightening the Flywheel !!!!
6sally6

 

A birthday present? no way I bought this with my hard earned life savings! We sure aint rich thats for sure. But i'll sure keep your advice in mind
edit: i got a few good tool sets as well as the shop manual. A generous guy on here also sent me a book on these which I'm super grateful for. I love this car more than anything in the world and the last thing i want is to get rid of it. I wanna have this until the day I die. I'll heed your advice for shure

 

I misunderstood. My apologies.
I thought I heard someone wishing you a happy birthday on video you posted....my bad.
Stock with headers. They are sweet and get down the road just fine.
The car does have limitations. It's 72-73 years old. That's quite a bit of time.
There is a learning curve in driving these.

 

Sounds good to me. I didn't mean to come across as a harry hard time or anything

 

A 89HP at 3600RPM - Stock 100HP Ford flathead V8 (corrected)
B 114HP at 3800RPM - Same engine with dual intake manifold.
C 124HP at 4000RPM - Same as B with 8.5:1 compression heads.
D 140HP at 4400RPM - Same as C with 3/4 race camshaft.
E 145HP at 4500RPM - Same as D with special exhausts.
F 177HP at 4500RPM - Same as B, bored 1/8 inch, stroked 1/8 inch, ported, relieved, 9:1 heads.
G 197HP at 4700RPM - Same as E but with super track cam and methanol fuel.

 

I am going to say something that is not popular here:

The words flathead, high-performance, and affordable do not belong in the same sentence.

Look at that chart above. To get to all of 197hp, you would be spending cubic-dollars.

There are a few engines out there that can be had for somewhere between free and $400 that meet or beat that power.

That's not the point.

Flatheads are for fun.

First-order tasks are to make the car safe, and fully functional, then cruise it.

 

Thanks a ton for the book it just arrived!

 

Awesome! Glad it arrived safely!

 

'51 block, .030 over, polished Mercury crank, .010 under, block decked, EAB heads cut .010, Eddie Meyer intake, 94's, Mallory distributor, Isky cam, stainless valves, adj. lifters, new studs and washers, Fenton headers. New water pumps, Timing gears, new Clutch and Plate, Then the price of all the Machine work, throw in some more money for the "shiny" nuts and bolts! I could have built a Blown SBC for less money but there is something about a Flathead that is just plain KOOL! Get a second job and "Go For It"!!

 

flatheadpete:
I have a 1981 edition of the same Ron Bishop's book.
It has a misprint of the firing order of the 1946-48 and 1949-53 Ford flathead engines on page 69.
It's printed as 15846372. That is incorrect.
Correct firing order is 15486372
I don't think many folks have spotted this.
Be sure to make the correction in your copy.

 

@19Fordy That's that book. I never paid attention to that. I already knew the firing order. @Rex Jolles Please pay attention to that!

 

This reminds me of my 1957 Chevrolet shop manual that has the cylinder numbers reversed in an illustration; God help anyone who didn't already know that 1-3-5-7 was on the driver side, and not the passenger!

 

Sometimes these charts are really meaningless. They may give an idea, but I find what's not on the chart, the real story.
There's a lot of data missing. Really, it's like answers to questions unasked. We really don't know who, where or when. All we get is a bunch of whats.

What engine? 59A?8BA?
Corrected? Corrected how?
What are the test parameters?
What ignition?
Was it tuned up?
How was it tuned?
Special exhaust. What's that? So, were the previous tests done with the stock crossover exhaust?

"B 114HP at 3800RPM - Same engine with dual intake manifold."

An engine is a lot like a firearm. More Powder, More Boom, but that's not the whole story.
Now you can take a stock 8BA, throw an intake and 2 pots on it, do nothing to the ignition and you'll probably have a significant increase in HP even with non-functioning ignition advance.
Will the engine rev? Sure!!! It'll scream like a Banshi.
Will it make more power? Yeah, especially if you set the now non-advancing distributor "in the middle".
More Gas, More RPM= More Power but is this really the whole story?
I'm sure it's great for a "static" test. What about drivability?

You see there's more to it.

My hypothetical engine with 2x2s with the stock not working or not working properly ignition advance, may make more HP on the flat.
What about driving up hill? What about under load? Is it getting too hot? Now it's fouling plugs....

I really believe that part of the "Flatheads run hot" reputation is from improper ignition advance. In other words, the ignition is not in tune. Even stock engines can suffer from this if they are not kept in tune.
I can't tell you of the 8BAs and other LOM Fords I have seen on here and on the street with 4bbls, 2x2s and even 2x3s with nothing done to the stock ignition. No mods, no nothing just an incompatible carburetor or 2 or 3 pots put on top.

That chart is great. Great for selling intakes, heads, carburetors, cams and paying for the machinist's bass boat.

Below is what I would like to see on a "Chart".

Engine...1950 Ford 8BA 239CID
Car...1950 Ford Sedan 3200Lbs curb wt, 3 speed manual, 3.73 rear axle....

A.
An off the street running 8BA (the average driver) completely stock
dyno....
road test...
B.
The same car completely tuned up. Like new carburetor, Valves ground and adjusted, Stock distributor in perfect condition, ignition tuned, carburetor adjusted...
dyno...
road test...
C.
The same car tuned, with headers and dual exhaust.
dyno...
road test...
D.
The same car with a Mercury Intake with the LOM compatible Holley 885 2bbl
dyno...
road test...
E.
The same car, back to the Ford 94 but with the Ford accessory 8BA LOM dual points.
dyno...
road test...
F.
The same car with 94, LOM dual points, 8BA heads milled
dyno...
road test...
G.
The same car, Mercury 885, dual points, heads milled
Dyno...
Road test...
H.
The same car with an intake, Thunderbird 4bbl Teapot or early LOM compatible Carter 4bbl.
dyno...
road test...

But...my chart does not sell a bunch of speed parts, does it?

 

That pic just convinced me to paint my flathead Red. I was so against going with the trend, but there's something classic about a Red dressed out Flattie!

~Peter

 

Customarily "corrected" means standardized for sea-level atmospheric pressure of 14.696psi, or 1013.25 millibars, and I forget what temperature.

This is done because not all test equipment happens to be located at sea-level. Without doing that, there would be no way of comparing test against each other.

If you test the same engine in LA, in Denver, you are going to get two different readings.

 

NTP: Normal Temperature and Pressure is 68ºF and 14.696psi.

In Metric, that is: 20ºC and 1bar (101.325kPa).

Formula:

p = 101325 (1 - 2.25577 10-5 h)5.25588

where

101325 = normal temperature and pressure at sea level (Pa)

p = air pressure (Pa)

h = altitude above sea level (m)

 

Thats should tell you something...........

Are you sure your exhaust system isn't clogged partially?

 

Rick and Jan:

RED looks great. When you get a chance replace the thermostat socket head cap screws
with studs because over time the threads in the heads will become worn and leak. Then just add acorn nuts to fit.