I'm looking at rebuilding my mother's 1952 F1. I want am looking at what I can do to the engine, but don't know as much as I should. I can work on them all day, but don't know the specifics. I currently live in SW Oklahoma and am looking for a few engine machine shops. I am planning on Boring they cylinders and porting/polishing the heads to start. I am curious as to how far over I could go. I'm also looking into new cam shafts and connecting rods. I would like to get as much help as possible to do this. Also I'm not sure which transmission it has in it, but I know that they did change it to 4 on the floor. I have a few ideas but am no expert.

 

Welcome to the forum!

You are lucky to live in OK, there are some very good flathead machine shops there. One in particular sells engines on eBay. I'd suggest you buy a factory service manual, and do some on-line reading. There's not much you want to do to the heads, IMO, there are no passages like on an OHV. They are in the block. There are some things you can do to help them breathe, but only if you're building an all-out race engine (not recommended).

You can bore them quite a bit (1/8" -- .125") if a sonic check of the cylinder walls shows enough meat, but that leaves you with nothing for the future. .060" is real common, and it boosts compression a half point or so.

There are lots of cams to choose from, but for a truck especially, stay close to stock. Isky's Max1 is very popular, but it really won't make a lot more power without lots of other changes. Headers help, a 4-barrel manifold and carb help a lot.

Most likely first thing is to determine the condition of the engine, then go from there. I just had my engine rebuilt, bored to .060, new pistons, valve job, no new cam, no new valves, new adjustable lifters, and it cost about $2100. A new cam is going to add $300+. If you want real power, you want a blower, for about $3500 more.

 

Welcome to FTE! We would love to see some pictures of your truck.
To put pics in a post, you first need to put them somewhere on the Internet. I use Photobucket for that, but there are others that work also.

Here's one way to put pictures in a post.

Go to Photobucket.com and sign up for a free account. Then create an album for your truck. Upload any pics you want to post on FTE to that album. Have this album open on your computer when you want to post pics on FTE.

While you're making a post on FTE, select the pic you want to post from your Photobucket album. When the large version of the pic is open, right mouse click on it and select "View Image Info". The image info will be highlighted and will look something like this:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ghtsafter1.jpg

Copy that highlighted info (right click / copy).

When you have the spot in your post where you want the pic to be placed, select the "Insert Image" icon at the top of the post (looks like a mountain) and paste (right click / paste) the image info you copied in the highlighted box (just shows "http://" when it opens).

Your pic will be placed in the post.

Hope that helps.

 

Thank you. I have been trying to research online, but i feel as if i need to talk to someone in person to get all the specifics. Thanks for all the info. I will definately put it to use.

 

You'd be talking for days, most likely. We have a couple of FTE'ers on here that are in OK, "SwOkcOffRoader" for one. Check for the Early Ford V8 Club in your area. If you start asking around there are probably old timers who can help a lot. There were a lot of flatheads used for irrigation pumps on the plains, they are pretty common still.

The factory service manual is only about $25, and has an awful lot of info. Check eBay. Also, lots of good info here:
Flathead Parts Drawings-Engines

 

I was curious if there was anyone out there that lived in the Lawton, OK area who has some information on old flatheads. I would greatly appreciate any information, regarding rebuilds.