Quote:
Originally Posted by richard crow
the simple fact is the eng. was a poor design. the big flaw was the exhaust gases going through the block. if thick head ford would have improved it with an over head design like the arden heads the eng would be made to this day.
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By this analogy, any engine becomes a poor design when it reaches obsolescence. Ford and Cadillac both made larger engines in the valve in block design but one was a good tank engine and the other was just plain too heavy to be a long term product. The 337 only lasted four years but it did the job they wanted it to do. The Cadillac 331 was already in production when the 337 came out. But look at the size of those old Cadillac cars too. The 331 didn't last a long time either.
I can't poo-poo the Duntov brothers but they really just made a band aid to get more power from the Ford flathead V8 engine for truck applications. It made it a lot more complex and heavy. The Y-blocks only lasted a little over 10-years so what kind of design is that. A Ford 302 V8 would have more power and be a lot lighter. The Ford 289/302 was in production longer than the flathead and is a better design for functionality plus light weight but is came along almost a decade after the flathead was dead and buried plus it is only available as a crate engine now. We have more modern aluminum computer controlled V8 engines available for certain applications but whether they are a better design or not is moot. This is over 50 years after the flathead was in production. You would expect better designs with that much water under the bridge.
When you compare the flathead Ford V8 engine to other prewar engines, it was like a rocket compared to anything else and it was less expensive than most other brands. It wasn't till 1948 that the old flathead was showing its age and it still kept up with the competition fairly well.