8BA Rod Measurements

[Ol' Ron]

Considering the fact thay we used to rebuild our engines on a chain fall in the back yard and nobody owned a torque wrench. I surprised they even ran, not only raced.
You could buy a rebuilt Flathead from Sears for 125 dollars with a trade in. I was in Industral engine rebuilders in Patterson NJ back in the early 60 and they had hunddresa of Flatheads on skids they had rebuilt for aftermarket sales. They were an otherised Ford rebuilder but also did every engine you could think of. I saw a rack with 4" merc cranks, hundreds of them. They never used them because they didn't buy stroker pistons. SSOOO they scrapped them. I suda brought some home, but nobody was working on Flatheads anymore, Chevys, Oldsmobile and Chrysler were in vogue then. And now get pickie over a few thousands of an inch.
I'd like to know what one of these hi tech Flatheads cost these days?

[GOSFAST]

Originally Posted by Ol' Ron

I'd like to know what one of these hi tech Flatheads cost these days?

Hi Ron, I had the privelege of building one of these reasonably "hi-tech" units last year for a '49/'50 Merc. It took some awards at the "James Dean Run" recently.

Had all the goodies, Eagle stroker crank, Scat rods, Ross pistons (metric "Moly" ring pack), Isky cam/springs, Johnson tappets, Edel 1116 heads (flycut valve reliefs & fire slotted spark plugs), Offy intake, and a Holley (390) 4 brl carb (for dynoing). Later rec'd a tri power setup by the owner. We didn't get to dyno the "trips"!

This was the first build for us with the "pinned" heads I've mentioned here.

The "full-flow" oil filter setup, ARP main and head studs, Fel-Pro copper head gaskets, etc.

Had some "bowl porting", stock (stainless) valve sizes, bronze-lined guides, viton stem seals, and some other little goodies.

We actually got the job over H&H out in Ca. due to the fact they didn't want to do the oiling system mod and were unable to pin the heads and gaskets! I can probably safely say today we have built the ONLY Flathead in the country with these "dowel-pinned" heads.

We did not supply either the manifold, carb, distributor, or water pumps, these were purchased separately by the customer! A build of this calibre alone is in the area of $11,000.00, including the dyno!

There's a tremendous amount of labor in this build.

The only other real options left would have been large valves, full-porting, and center main "girdle" (bridging the center main cap and tying the pan rails together)! Didn't feel it was necessary on this unit!

(Add) Back in the mid '90's I was involved in fabricating an intake to build a "Tuned-Port Flathead" for a friend, but fate intervened and ended the program. It would have been very unique for sure!!

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. I still have a faxed estimate here from another area builder in the Northeast from the time I was pricing this one out and it reads:$14,000.00 delivered (400.00 was shipping fees)!

[Junknshit]

Ol Ron, Goesfast, or any of you other serious flathead builders, years back there were a couple of different guys around the country playing around with and I believe one even ran one in a dragster, a reversed flowing ??? flat motor where the exhaust came out between the top of the heads where intake would normally set. Any of you know anything about it other than it was probably pretty spendy? I remember seeing articles about it, but not much sunk in because I was playing with early Olds and Cad then.