The Ford Barn

Ol' Ron · 02-17-2013, 11:55 AM

When running a SBC distributor in a Flathead, you can't use the original spark curves as the Chebby has a totally different combustion chamber. However the GM unit is easy to Taylor the curves which makes then very valuable for tuning the curves for different applications. The only problem is the person tuning the engine rarely finds the optium performance of the ignition/carb combination. Over the past few years Richard and I have tried hundreds of combinations to find the best one for OUR application. Whats frustrating is the fact that many combinations run very well and the average person may stop there, when they feel they've found the best performance. The Flathead is a very forgiving engine and runs very well when system is almost right. My future testing this summer will be done with an almost stock engine, the only modification is higher CR (7.5) and the ignition/carb combination. We'll see what kind of performance and economy we can get from that. Stay tuned.

02-17-2013, 11:55 AM	#24
Ol' Ron Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Chester Vt Posts: 8,890	Re: 1949-1953 Loadamatic Distributor When running a SBC distributor in a Flathead, you can't use the original spark curves as the Chebby has a totally different combustion chamber. However the GM unit is easy to Taylor the curves which makes then very valuable for tuning the curves for different applications. The only problem is the person tuning the engine rarely finds the optium performance of the ignition/carb combination. Over the past few years Richard and I have tried hundreds of combinations to find the best one for OUR application. Whats frustrating is the fact that many combinations run very well and the average person may stop there, when they feel they've found the best performance. The Flathead is a very forgiving engine and runs very well when system is almost right. My future testing this summer will be done with an almost stock engine, the only modification is higher CR (7.5) and the ignition/carb combination. We'll see what kind of performance and economy we can get from that. Stay tuned.