[Flathead Fever]

Years ago, I was visiting Al Sharp at his home getting flathead building tips., He made the Sharp heads and intakes, some of the best flathead equipment made that set many of the records. He claimed to be the only guy with an actual engineering degree in the 1950s that was designing heads and intakes. Super nice guy. He built a 3/8" flathead for his '40 or '41 pickup. The block initially tested fine but when it was installed it overheated. There was a deep rust pit on the back of one cylinder and when they bored it, they barely got into that pit and didn't notice it. After boring the block it's a good idea to pressure test it again. After that conversation with Al Sharp when I'm looking at spare blocks to buy, I look at how much rust is in the water jackets and if it's bad I walk away. I look at the rust pits behind the water pumps first, then the bore size and then look for cracks. That improves the chances of buying a good block.

I also went and talked with Johnny Ryan. He owned Taylor and Ryan engine rebuilding. They built some of fastest flatheads in the 1940s and 1950s. They built the engine that won the 1955 NHRA Nationals against a Hemi, the last flathead to win a NHRA championship. A friend was with me and had an engine that would have needed to be bored to 3 7/16" to clean up. He said guys would come into the shop and want their flatheads bored that big, but he didn't like to do it. He felt the cylinder walls would flex too much. He said he had 16-year-old kids coming in all the time telling him how to build flatheads and that the customer was always right. Another super nice old-timer, I was lucky to a have spent time with them.