I am going to be picking up my 51 truck in about 2 weeks. it has a running 239 v8 flathead in it. I have my old flathead that thats stuck from my parts truck. I was looking into what things would cost to get a ford 302/351w built the way i want it, or build an awesome flathead. I was thinking of driving the current running flathead while having the other flathead built. This is what I was thinking about doing:

stroker kit: either 4.125 crank(295ci I think) or 4.250 crank(304ci I beleive) about $2000

four barrel intake from edelbrock $365

edelbrock 500cfm carb $310

headers $180

waterpumps $200

distributer, wires, coil $300

machine work and labor $2000?

total: $5355 I could just alot 6,000 to be safe

Heads: I read that aluminum heads were basicaly for looks...but if I got any I'd get the edel. for $500 from reds-headers.com

If I were to have a 302 stroker or a 351w nicly built by someone (me not putting it together) it would be about the same price.

Plus nothing sounds better than a flathead in my opinion.

What do you guys think?

I was thinking of eventually adapting a AOD with .67 overdrive to the flathead and putting like 3.89-4.11 gears in the 9 inch to get the seat of the pants feel at acceleration and put a smile on the face of my passengers. lol

 

Am in the process of having a 239 rebuilt . The final price was less than half of that .With your engine swap other mods WILL be required .Remember usually 1 modification creates 2 other problems . IMHO I would stay with the flattie .

 

Keep your build to between 274 and 296 cu in for the street, it will run longer and cooler.
You don't need the bling heads.
You didn't mention a cam - check out the Max1 or the 400Jr.

 

I wander what kind of horsepower and torque a flathead would make with the modifications I listed above: 500cfm 4 barrell carb/intake, headers, a 4.125 crank, 3 5/16 bore, and Max1 cam (.364 lift, 249 duration, .014 lash). Does anyone have a desktop dyno? I beleive with that size crank and bore it makes 286ci. I'd love to be able to make 200+horsepower 300+ pounds of torque. I have a rebuilt 600cfm holly with no choke already, that would save me 300 bucks...but would that be too big?

 

I agree with Dick, those big cranks require machining of the block and no matter how you cut it, those are a lot of stroke = wear. Not sure I agree on the cam, though, on a truck you need all the low end you can get, and you really won't get that much more HP with a cam unless you rev it up high, but it will kill the bottom end.

There is a thread on the Flathead Forum right now about how much HP to expect from a 272 with dual carbs etc. Ford Flathead V8 .. 1932 thru 1953 • View topic - Approx horse power on 272CI

 

Get in contact with Joe Abbin at Roadrunner Engineering. His new book is out and its extremely helpful. He's done a truckload of testing on a variety of combos'