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This morning while I was thinking clearly I compared a few apples to oranges and this is what I found:
You can't use the 59A heads on an 8BA block. The water hole configuration is different and the is a water hole at the front of the deck that the 59A head and
gasket won't cover.
You can use your 59A intake manifold on an 8BA but there are differences. First, you will lose your crankcase ventilation. The 8BA uses a road draft tube as opposed to the fuel pump stand and pan vent on the 59A. Since you won't be able to use your 59 pan on this mod, you will only have one vent opening. Useless, as there won't be any air flow. Next thing is the 8BA intake uses far fewer bolt than the 59A. Not a problem until you think about your coil bracket and plug wire conduits. They won't fitand you will have a bunch of vacant bolt holes showing unless you're into doing a lot of drilling and tapping.
You can use your 59A cam with the matching gear cover, no problem. You can get the better aluminum cam gear for it, or you can replace both gears with 8BA gears.
You can't use a 59A flywheel on an 8BA. I found that out decades ago. The bolts and locating pins are the same but the casting on the rear of the 8BA is different. A 59A flywheel won't even come close to the cankshaft flange.
Water pumps: As I mentioned before, use the sealed ball bearing truck pumps and your 59A crank pulley. Speedway Motors makes excellent pumps for this application, of their own design, and cost less than Skips' pumps. Not cheap, however. 59A pumps don't work.
If I were you, I would either search out a good 59A block or switch to a proper 8BA, which is a much better engine. Oils better and runs cooler, longer lasting and a little more power.
I have been playing around with stuffing 8BA rotating assemblies into the earlier engines for quite some time. Not complicated and works well. I've never tried going the other way.
For what it's worth, there is a rebuilder in Wichita, KS that has extremely good prices on rebuilt flatheads. The name is United Motor Supply, if memory serves. They have one man that does nothing but flatheads. Been doing it for 40 years. I've talked to him and he is really on the ball with these things. They flatly will not use repaired blocks. There is usually a waiting list as finding good blocks is getting very difficult.
They offer cheap shipping to anywhere in the lower 48. I wouldn't even worry about sending back a core. The cost ain't worth it, even if you had one. It wouldn't hurt to do a search on the net to get their phone number and talk to him.