Howdy boys,
I went to the Hot Rod show in Detroit the other weekend and noticed the return of flathead 8's into the show scene. There were some sexy lookin' flathead slingshots and dueces and I was wondering what is the most power that anyone has seen a flathead put out...

Sean

 

Anyone?

Seany

 

I'm not sure, but check out this link and email Jim Marlett - he's into drag racing end of flatheads and knows a bunch of guys that actually race. I'm sure he can tell you.

http://flatheaddrag.com/

 

I read an article about the "fastest flathead dragster", it was built a while back and dyno'ed at 500hp. It had some weird things done to it, huge blower and special heads with the exhaust ports sticking out the top of the engine. Strange. I'll try to find a pic, I can't remember where I read this.

Gary

 

In the December '99 edition (woo, going back into the records) of Hot Rod, they had an article about an "Apocalyptic" Ultimate Flathead. It was a 59AB block stroked with a special crank out to 301 CID. They altered the block to run the exhaust out of the top of the engine like 8flat mentioned, and ran water in the former exhaust ports. They fitted it with all kinds of goodies: dual plug heads, intercooler, vortech blower, fuel injection... (This is an engine they built for a dragster).

The thing ended up churning out 566HP @ 5700 and 512LBTQ @ 4900.

 

Ron Main's Flatfire, over 300mph at Bonneville, 653 dyno'd h.p.

Now, unfortunately, he's using General Motors money for an EcoTech engine.

http://www.flatfire.com/

Mike

 

It's the sound, It's the look, It's a Flathead, Nothing else matters.

 

Yea, Flatheads have a great (almost sinister) look to them. I hope to get mine fired up soon.

 

if any one is around ocalla fl. hit don garlits place up. he has a load of nice flathead stuff . including one that still runs with the ohv hemi kiton it. plus a lot of nos items like the high nickle engine blocks we used to look hard for. nos of course.

 

Anyone know what the highest amount of reliable horsepower/torque one can expect out of a Flathead built to be driven on the street. One that will be built with an eye on a budget.

 

I might also qualify as an oldtimer,seeing how I was dragging in 1952-55. In my day if you could get 1hp for 1ci you had done something.
Jim

 

Highest amount of reliable horsepower on a budget?? I think your answer might be 104hp...haha.

I went all-out on mine with new parts, Isky cam with adjustable lifters, expensive valves, Offy heads, 4"crank, ported, polished, relieved valves, compression is at 9:1, new water pumps, blah blah. I used an experienced builder rather than trying all that myself, he thinks we MIGHT get 150hp. I haven't even bought an intake and carbs yet and I have close to $4,000 into it. Flatheads are cool, but making them build horsepower is very expensive....

I think the only way to get more HP than mine and still be able to drive it on the street would be to add a small blower. Flatheads just don't breath well, the air flow route looks like a rat maze....so a little boost goes a long way, or so I'm told...

Gary

 

I plan on adding one of those roadrunner engineering kits to mine when I have avalible cash... bring it right up. I think somewhere around 250 HP was the figure with a reasonable boost and a decent bore.

 

Yeah, I looked into those, they look really nice. A couple of locals have put blowers on their flatmotors, said they run real nice and the throttle response is great. But blowers are expensive, so we're back to the original question from 51FordFan, it's hard to get much flathead power on a budget...

Man, couldn't we all have fun if we were rich????

Gary

 

Hehe, oh yes. Last time I looked in the catalog I got from Roadrunner, those complete kits run about 2K (unpolished blower and manifold). I prefer the unpolished look, but it's a few hundred more for the polished setup.