Hey guys, I know what I'm going to ask is not going into an FTE friendly vehicle, but the engine question directly relates to our trucks and I trust the knowledge and input of everybody on this board, so please hang with me here

I recently purchased a project car, a 53' Mercury Monterey. She is bone stock right down to the flathead V8. I'm going to do a 50's style hot rod theme with the restoration of this car, noting crazy just that cool 50's look. Anyway, my original thought was to keep the flathead and add a modern transmission and some period correct speed goodies. After looking at the cost of my original plan, and that I will be lucky to get 200hp out of the flatty. I want to drive this car often, I live at 9000', I'm not sure that the flatty is going to cut it for my intentions.

No small block Chevy crap for me, I want to stick with FoMoCo power. I want to make around 300hp, reliably, no fuel injection, nothing extravagant. This would be backed by a non electronically controlled four speed auto. My first thought was a 351W. I'm not familiar with the Ford V8's except for the 460 in my truck. I do not want or need a big block in this car. What do you guys think? Suggestions and comments?

 

Personally, I would keep the flat head for the cool factor. Mated to an OD transmission, you could use deeper rear end gears to get more oomph out of it. If you insist on swapping it out, the 351W can be built to any power level you wish. Desert race trucks, using the 351, are pushing 500-700 hp.

 

Ditto. Keep the flat head. But if you want a modern Ford small block the 351W is probably the best starting point.

I'm not sure what options you'll have for a non-electronic auto. The AOD is the obvious choice, but I don't think it's usually thought of as a good choice to go behind a 300 hp engine, at least in stock form. And I don't know how buildable they are.

An E4OD would probably work pretty well, but it requires a separate electronic controller. Available but not cheap.

GM 700R4s are buildable non-electronic 4 speeds. I've heard of people mating them to Ford small blocks, but i don't know what that takes. And it's not a Ford tranny if that's important to you.

 

The AOD is very buildable. Properly built, they'll handle in excess of 600 hp. Not cheap, though.

 

Another vote fo the flathead just for the cool factor and they build those things now with some real power. And yes the AOD built properly will handle some ponies

 

i think a mix of old and new would be cool.
How about a modular 5.4 (4 valve head) EFI with modern 5 or 6 speed auto tranny.

 

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. I orginally wanted to keep the flathead, I'm just not sure if I will be happy with the performance, after throwing a bunch of money at it. I still like the "cool" factor of the flathead, that is what I am after with this car. How about the flathead backed up by an AOD or maybe a 200R4? Decisions, decisions.....

 

And another that agrees the flathead would be cool. But your big problem is the elevation, that 300hp motor is only going to make 220hp at 9000ft so you need to build bigger or compensate for the altitude. To that end a centrifugal supercharger strapped to an otherwise mildly build 351 or 302 or even the flathead might be the thing to do.

 

The HP loss is my biggest concern with the flathead, a "hot" (and expensive) flathead will make about 200hp - 300 ft/lbs, I'm not convinced I will be happy with how it drags around a 3500lb car. Forced induction would be out of my budget, for the flathead or a modern engine. I do think I would be happy with around 300hp, allowing for the loss in power at altitude.

I will do a little more research on the flathead and check out 351w's too.

 

You aren't going to get the performance you want at a price you want to pay with the flathead but, there is nothing like the sound of these motors souped up a bit.