Suggestions on flathead choice

[tubman]

There's the problem. These things aren't growing on trees anymore. I sold my second to last good 8BA block to a guy who had been through 6 bad ones. You may be better off settling for what you can find. Any flathead Ford will work, but the 8BA series presents more problems than the earlier engines.

You will need a bellhousing/starter plate from a early '50's pickup or Mercury as well as a different clutch to match the transmission to the engine. These used to be commonly available on the aftermarket, but that source seems to have dried up. They are available on the specialty market (I have heard Speedway Motors and Centerforce have the parts). The front of the engine presents other problems. not because of the mounts, but because of the extra length created by the "post" distributor and water pumps. There are two ways to approach this problem. The first is to replace all of the front end components (including the camshaft) with those from an earlier engine. The second requires modifying the cooling fan to fit in the space provided. There are a number of ways to do this, from fitting an electric fan (practical only on vehicles converted to 12 volts) to modifying the stock components to fit. Members "Heard" and "V8Coopman" (RIP) posted a thread on this forum a few years ago on how they did it. I prefer the latter, because it does away with the front-mounted distributor.

Although it is more work to use an 8BA series engine, there are a lot of advantages. First, I find they are much easier to find and are all around a better engines. Ford engineers put a lot of effort into improving the cooling, oiling, and ignition systems. They are all at least 239 ci with the 255 ci Mercury available; (a Merc crank and an 1/8" overbore provides 276 ci which is a nice street engine). One of the unseen benefits of the later engines is that they use regular insert bearings on the connecting rods. The earlier engines used what are called "full-floating" bearings which are hard to find and expensive; in certain sizes, the seem to be completely unavailable. The later rotating assemblies can be used in the early engines with appropriate modifications.

Unless you have a full machine shop and a lot of money, it boils down to what you can find, and that usually ends up being an 8BA. If I were going to install an"incorrect" V8 in an early Ford, it would probably be an 8BA type engine. With a little extra work you stand to gain a lot and maybe even save some money. If you can find a good reasonably priced early engine, go for it, but in the end you will be better off using what you can find and afford.