I can get a turbo from a 2 liter 4cyl engine. I am considering trying this on my 49 Flat Head v8. The way the factory manifolds are on the flathead it will not be too difficult to route the exhaust. I will t the heat hose for water and t off the oil send unit for oil. It has a built in waste gate. Anyone know of a turbo flathead and what were the results? Any help or suggestions would be great. Keith

 

I wouldn't bother with a turbo on that engine. Your best bet for the flatty is a supercharger. WIth turbo you have to route water and oil lines, which im sure you are well aware of this. Turbos on carbureted engines don't tend to work all that great. You have to find a way to seal the carb so fuel isnt blown out of it around any linkage. The best way to do that is a carb box. They tend to be ugly and performance from turbos on carbs tends to be limited. ( even with the blow through set up.) The best way to do turbos is to use EFI. I could talk all day on this subject of forced induction flatties but ill try to make this quick. Efi for flatheads is expensive. Just use a supercharger. The stock engine with its low compression can handle 7-8 pounds of boost. If you want to go all out it can handle more. Try road runner enginering, They know a whole lot on this subject.

 

I'm happy I'm not the only one who is thinking about the possibilities of turbocharging a flathead. Check out the post I just made on this forum, under the "flathead performance" thread. Probably the coolest ride I've ever seen was a turbo'd straight eight buick. The key here is to use fuel injection, because these guys are correct, it doesn't work well with carbs.

Doing something so radical as building your own port-fuel injected intake manifold is out-of-reach for most of us. My idea for a trade-off is to use throttle body (TBI) injection, such as the aftermarket unit made by Holly called Pro-jection Commander. I've even got part numbers for the unit that would work with a small displacement/ low horsepower engine like our flatheads. Holley told me to use the 950-19S 400 CFM 2 barrel System. I think it can be adjusted for up to something like 250HP. I've installed one of Holley's pro-jection TBI setups on my 454 and loved it! I was thinking about going with a throttle body on my flathead because it mounts to a standard 4-brl flathead intake, and I never have to mess with carbuerators again, like if my pickup is stored for a long period. I don't know if I would ever turbo my flattie, but the idea is great in theory. You could also use one of the belt driven supercharges like a Paxton.

Gary

 

quick question:
what kind of gain would you see with a supercharger from roadrunner engineering on a flathead V8, from 1948?

 

Road Runner Engineering states the following from their book Blown Flathead :

1948 murcury flathead (the mercury has a longer stroke than a ford) will produce 260 hp @ 5000 rpm and 305 ft lbs of touque @ 2500 with the following mods:

1) Dual exhaust and headers
2) Dual carbs or 390 cfm 4 bbl
3) 3/4 race steet cam and kit
4) bored .125 with 4 inch crank (again ford has a shorter stroke , 3.75 maybe?)
5) Aluminum hi comp heads with ( 63 cc)
6) 6-7 pounds of boost from the supercharge ( all you need to go with on that engine without forged internals)

If you are really serious about it give road runner engineering a call and they will set you up with what you want to know, or if you want to read about it order their book, its full of alot of usfull knowledge about the flatheads.

 

interesting, thanks. unfortunately the car needs to be restored 1st, so mods like that probably wont be done...except maybe a dual exhaust

 

All the talk of not being able to run a turbo on a blow thru application using a carberator is completely false. A properly set up carb will run very well with a turbo steup.

 

What about using a draw-through system? I wouls pursue the project since you have access to the turbo.

 

Draw thru is garbage. Blow thru is the only way to go. You can't intercool draw thru, and driveablity sucks.

 

Yeah, I suppose that could be, the only thing I know is just what I hear a lot of people say, that it's tricky to make work as a blow-through. It would probably be easier than building an EFI setup.... .

Do you have pics of your setup? It sounds interesting, especially with the intercooler.

Gary

 

Don't have pics of a turbo flathead, but the last time I knew, the modern internal combustion engine works under the same principals of the old flathead. Unless I missed something. There are guys running over 1200hp with a carbed blow thru smallblock turbo setup, without a complete carb enclosure (gasp!). It's a fairly straight foward setup for the carb.

 

What's a 'complete carb enclosure'?

 

A carb enclosure, or box, is a complete enclosure the the carb sits it. The old 'charged Thunderbirds and Studabakers used carb boxes.

 

Ahhh, to equilize the external and internal air pressure I suppose?

 

the merc engine did have the 4 inch crank at 255 inches while the ford had a 3 3/4 inch crank at 239 inches. same bore size.
aturbo is a waste of time and money. supercharge it.