I found a CL ad for an old air compressor powered by a 40's model flathead and it is set up to run on 4 cylinders.
Just cool to see the vintage stuff like this.
1940's Flathead Ford Air Compressor

 

Once tuned, I bet that puts out some very good volume.

 

Worked on many of in my younger years. They were rated at 85 Scfm @ 100 psig. Not a bad machine.

 

First time i have seen a flat head one. I have rented the ford 302 v8 ones a lot of times to run jack hammers with. They ran off of the right side head and had a compressor head on the other side. 4 spark plug wires were grounded to the engine block. Ran pretty smooth too.

 

Yeah we also had one that was built out of a 302 . Worked great when it was in tune.

 

If that was close to me it would be in my driveway already!
some of them also had small generators so you got air and power.

 

I still have one that is 4 cylinder model B engine powered where it fires on #1 & 4 and compresses on #2 & 3. I used it for sandblasting for a number of years.

 

I was wondering about the V8 flatties, but your half a 4 cyl is going to have one powerstroke per crank revolution. How many rpms for it to run smooth, or as smooth as possible anyway.

 

This was certainly a unique thing to find for me, anyway. I have only seen diesel powered retired Army generators in this area. I wasn't aware such a thing existed.
It is not running and possibly all that black looking stuff in the fuel pump sedimate bowl is why. I was trying to figure how the fuel pump even worked being atop of the engine. The clamps around the carburetor are puzzling also.

 

It is set up with a governor but not a tach. I would guess that it runs under load in the 3500 rpm range. I had rebuilt the engine back in the early 80's when the parts were reasonable and I was into Model A's ( I also rebuilt a counter balanced "C" engine in the same time frame that I ran in my 31 Vicky). IIRC I even got a set of NOS rods for under $50. I walked Hershey this year and saw Model A rebuilt blocks for north of $4K!

 

I know a guy who has a couple of those for Model A's. It was made by or called a Gordon Smith conversion. He uses it to sandblast frames and such at his Model A repair shop. I haven't heard it run.
I remember seeing one a few decades ago that was a Buick V8

 

I wonder if they used a 6-cyl single barrel carb (Holley 1904)? What do you mean about the fuel pump, that it isn't necessary? The fuel should gravity flow being above the engine. That appears to be the stock flat V8 fuel pump.

 

it was a single barrel carb but I don't think it was a 1904?

check out this schramm intake picture

FORD FLATHEAD GURU's: Unusual flathead stuff - THE H.A.M.B.


while we are discussing interesting setups, Can someone please explain to me what is going on here in this picture?? it looks like something I would have expected to see on my grandpas junkyard in South Dakota as a kid First cadillac powered ford truck I've seen! lol
hmmmm

 

Ha ha ,since they have the big engine coupled to the small one, I guess it's a POWER booster. It would be interesting to see all of it and know what it was used for.

 

The very definition of cooty-bob! I'd bet it's how you adapt a Caddy engine to a Ford truck without a machine shop to make an adapter. Take out all the pistons and just use the crankshaft as an adapter. What do the cables going over the roof connect to?? I'd hate to hit the brakes hard...