Turbos and flatheads...
- Thread starter SuperMag
- Start date
Flatheads suffer from a weak 3main bearing bottom end, which would seem to limit their ability to absorb boost. That being said Ron Main's Flatfire flathead powered streamliner has run over 300MPH at Bonneville running a huge Vortech blower, so the weak bottom end is obviously not insurmountable in an engine with a short life span between overhauls.
The extremely low inertia of flathead valve trains would be a huge advantage in high rev applcations and the low CR with a high quench Ricardo-style head seem to be made for a turbo. I'd still want a stronger bottom end if I were going to build one for the street
The extremely low inertia of flathead valve trains would be a huge advantage in high rev applcations and the low CR with a high quench Ricardo-style head seem to be made for a turbo. I'd still want a stronger bottom end if I were going to build one for the street
It's been a while but I seem to remember 4 mains in a flathead six. Could be wrong, though. Did the V-8 flatties have 3? One of those Donovan Model D aluminum 4-bangers with the five main crank should turbo up quite nicely 
Too bad they don't make a six. Imagine a Donovan flathead six built to take a Ford 300 crank with 240 rods and twin turbos
Joe
Too bad they don't make a six. Imagine a Donovan flathead six built to take a Ford 300 crank with 240 rods and twin turbos Joe
'Twould be an interesting project, no doubt...
http://www.donovanengineering.com/Block ... Block.html
http://www.donovanengineering.com/Block ... Block.html
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Anonymous
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That's looks like 4 cylinder briggs straton
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Anonymous
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The V-8 Ford flathead had three main bearings, same as the majority of British-pattern undersqare four-cylinders. In fact, the classical inline Euromotors generally had two crankshaft throws twixt each main, i.e., 3-main Fours, 4-main Sixes, 5-main Straight Eights, etc. (Packard reportedly built a one-off inline 12)
For pure flexy weirdness, early '30's MG J-2s used TWO mains for a four-cylinder crank., and Duesenberg Straight-Eight SOHC racing engines in the early '20's had 3-main Straight-Eight. Harry Miller copied Duesenberg's lower end design, but his DOHC 4V head breathed so much better and made so much HP that the cranks were doing evil catastrophic things...to his drivers. (Who needs a roll bar?)
Dodge/Chrysler/DeSoto/Plymouth flathead I-6s all had four mains, as did Ford's flathead AND 223/262 I-6s (indeed, so did the 144/early 170/200).
Some of the Straight Eights had five mains, some had NINE.
Odd-fire V-6's run two rods on a throw, same as modern V-8s, only four mains instead of five; Even-fire V-6s run offset throws, four mains, which sorta puts them halfway in the four-main I-6 mode
The bench race still goes on: bearing speeds, frictional gains/losses, torsional rigidity, harmonics, skinny girls v. full-figured...
Eddie
For pure flexy weirdness, early '30's MG J-2s used TWO mains for a four-cylinder crank.
, and Duesenberg Straight-Eight SOHC racing engines in the early '20's had 3-main Straight-Eight. Harry Miller copied Duesenberg's lower end design, but his DOHC 4V head breathed so much better and made so much HP that the cranks were doing evil catastrophic things...to his drivers. (Who needs a roll bar?)Dodge/Chrysler/DeSoto/Plymouth flathead I-6s all had four mains, as did Ford's flathead AND 223/262 I-6s (indeed, so did the 144/early 170/200).
Some of the Straight Eights had five mains, some had NINE.
Odd-fire V-6's run two rods on a throw, same as modern V-8s, only four mains instead of five; Even-fire V-6s run offset throws, four mains, which sorta puts them halfway in the four-main I-6 mode
The bench race still goes on: bearing speeds, frictional gains/losses, torsional rigidity, harmonics, skinny girls v. full-figured...
Eddie
No bench racing on this side of the Pacific!
SuperMag, you'll remember a while back I went on one of my more fanatical PM ramapages. In it, I talked about how I was working on making my own engine block. Well, one of the guys involved in the fasioning of his own steel 392 Hemi block in 1977 lent some huge exprience with this Super Charged flattie. With Western Austrailian bush welder, Bob St Lawrence as crew chief. Any guy with his talent will inspire success.
In the link below, these Aussie guys were working on there flattie rail with a view to really hitting the biggest nuimbers in the world with a flat headFord V8. The were always blowing heads, and suffering the thermal overloads from the exhast gases being lead out over the block, certainly the flatties worst feature. Ina turbo installation, the situation is even worse. Perhaps this is why the Ford six cylinder engine came out in 1941. A Ford V8 overheating in combat was never a pretty look....
Any way, the solution to making a hi-boost Flat-Liner is to re-organise the exhast ports to allow a bunch of bananas exhast to come out from under the super charger or intake manifold. It is a wonderfull idea, and solves most of the thermal load issues. The guys bailed on this engine, just when they were getting somewhere. There were early issues with using the intake manifold ports as exhasts, but they rapidly sorted it, and made it a realiable entity.
http://www.nostalgiadragracing.org/Latest News.htm
SuperMag, you'll remember a while back I went on one of my more fanatical PM ramapages. In it, I talked about how I was working on making my own engine block. Well, one of the guys involved in the fasioning of his own steel 392 Hemi block in 1977 lent some huge exprience with this Super Charged flattie. With Western Austrailian bush welder, Bob St Lawrence as crew chief. Any guy with his talent will inspire success.
In the link below, these Aussie guys were working on there flattie rail with a view to really hitting the biggest nuimbers in the world with a flat headFord V8. The were always blowing heads, and suffering the thermal overloads from the exhast gases being lead out over the block, certainly the flatties worst feature. Ina turbo installation, the situation is even worse. Perhaps this is why the Ford six cylinder engine came out in 1941. A Ford V8 overheating in combat was never a pretty look....
Any way, the solution to making a hi-boost Flat-Liner is to re-organise the exhast ports to allow a bunch of bananas exhast to come out from under the super charger or intake manifold. It is a wonderfull idea, and solves most of the thermal load issues. The guys bailed on this engine, just when they were getting somewhere. There were early issues with using the intake manifold ports as exhasts, but they rapidly sorted it, and made it a realiable entity.
http://www.nostalgiadragracing.org/Latest News.htm
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Anonymous
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"High-Tech Forum", indeed...and we're BSing about L-head motors (snicker)
Interesting, very interesting to read the above about the five-main lower end Ford V-8 Flathead. I had read rumors about a new five-main short block was under development, with hints that it may become available ("Build It...The Will Come...")
...Bearing Dollars, of course. I
I'm one of 'em; one of my lifetime ambitions has been to build a Stone-Woods-Cook '40 Willys coupe sortareplicar...and Ardun heads and Willys coupe are now being replicated and more available than ever. Why not a new flathead block?
Coolness !
Eddie
Interesting, very interesting to read the above about the five-main lower end Ford V-8 Flathead. I had read rumors about a new five-main short block was under development, with hints that it may become available ("Build It...The Will Come...")
...Bearing Dollars, of course. I
I'm one of 'em; one of my lifetime ambitions has been to build a Stone-Woods-Cook '40 Willys coupe sortareplicar...and Ardun heads and Willys coupe are now being replicated and more available than ever. Why not a new flathead block?
Coolness
!Eddie
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