A flathead V-8 engine

gbritnell

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Gentlemen,

For many years I've had a project in mind to build a Ford flathead V-8 engine. The unique thing about the Ford flathead is that the exhaust runners ran through the water jacket and out the side of the block. Actually this was not a good idea as the extra heat from the exhaust added to the cooling woes of this particular engine. That being said I still wanted to try and build one.
For you fellows who follow my work know I scratch build all of my models from bar stock so after many hours of layouts and drawings I just couldn't come up with a way of fabricating this type of engine from solid. The next plan was to make patterns and coreboxes. I had heard from someone that the old flatheads used 23 cores in the casting process. Having come from a Ford foundry where we cast all types of engines at first I couldn't fathom why this engine would use that many cores. A 302 V-8 engine uses 10 cores and 2 molds, cope and drag. Here again after many hours of layouts and drawings I can now understand why they used so many cores.
Now I've put countless hours into engine and model building but to make all of the coreboxes and patterns required for this engine just seemed a little over the top. I had to ask myself if I really went ahead and made them all and took them to a foundry for casting what would be the cost of making all those cores and casting an engine. Furthermore what would happen if some of the coreboxes go lost or damaged.
It was time for an entirely new game plan! I still wanted to build a flathead but the Ford type was out of the question so the next best thing is the Cadillac design. The difference in this engine compared to the Ford is that all the ports, intake and exhaust, come out of the top of the block. There are castings out there for this type. They are for the Challenger V-8 that Cole's sells but here again I like to make my own engines so it was back to the drawing board.
I have the rough Cad drawings made and have converted them into a solid model. I'm presenting them here for your perusal.
With winter just around the corner, I know it's only July but with the way time flies it'll be here in no time so I'm getting a head start on the project.
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I can't believe I'm saying this especially after the winter we just had, but now I'm looking forward to the winter to see how you progress, I love seeing your projects, you do wonderful work...!:))
 
Let's see.
Popcorn? Check.
Favorite cold beverage? Check.
Hot cocoa standing by if the weather turns? Check.
Okay, I'm ready.:))

Dave
 
Yes I think the Cadillac design should be easier. However they both ran well. I just find in my lifetime, people who could afford a Cadillac could afford
real fluids manly anti freeze and the poor Ford got all kinds of farm brew 'junk' from eggs, iron filings, oatmeal to stop radiator leaks. So, many got a
bad rap as far as overheating. Believe me they didnt heat when new. We do a share of these and just about all , water jackets 1/2 full of junk. In
fact there is one now on the operating table that filled a gallon container with rust scale & who knows junk. I read recently someone casting new V8
Ford blocks (of the French design) somewhere around Michigan. Another has already cast Model A blocks. big bucks. They didnt go in much detail as
how, but did show a pic. of the raw block before machining. Thats impressive. Here is a EAB one of the last ones before getting boiled.....
keep up the good work..
sam

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I'll sure be following this thread.
Gbritnell, what software do you use to render those drawings ? Is it expensive?
Thanks in advance. Dave
 
gbritnell,
I have read about a prototyping method where you would slice the model, machine the slices, then furnace braze the slices together to get the disired internal features. That may be the easiest way to realize a flathead ford. The best way to do that would be to use aluminum that was coated with a brazing compound, but that may be difficult to source. There are sources of brazing paste online, which are much easier to come by. I would also expect a bit of trial and error to get the process down so you have no leaks, but the casting method would probably require some as well. Looking forward to seeing this build.

CJ
 
Hi Dave,
I use an older version of Solidworks that my son had when he was taking engineering classes. I haven't checked but I would think it's one of those 'expensive' programs. A lot of fellows use Alibre or whatever the new iteration is named.
CJ, when I was still working in the pattern shop we got an experimental job to do for Ford engineering. The wanted to build a complex cylinder head from layers of aluminum. The layers were all different thicknesses depending on how the slicing through the head fell on certain features. Once cut and cleaned up the parts were assembled using an aluminum soldering sheet similar to sheet silver solder between each layer. The whole affair was then placed in a furnace and brought up to just below the critical temperature of the base metal and everything would fuse together. The idea of the project was if they wanted to redesign a certain feature like a port they could just change a couple of slices and then reweld and have a new prototype. It seemed to work well at the time.
Now on to my design. I am/was good with 3D modeling programs when I used them every day at work but it's been years since so I'm still learning this program as I go along. I have modeled quite a few more parts and added them to the assembly drawing. I created the heads, manifolds, water pumps, oil pan and bellhousing. The heads and water pumps will also have to be fabrications to get water jackets in them.
gbritnell

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Gentlemen,
Sorry for the absence but with the short summers a person has to take full advantage of them. Along with that I have had a few other projects to complete, some for myself and some for others.
The overall dimensions of the engine block required that I buy a large round chunk of aluminum, 6" diameter x 7.25" long. Not wanting to mill all the extra stock from this large piece I went to my buddies shop to slab off part of it on his cut-off saw. With that done I started milling the block into parallel surfaces leaving extra stock for future cleanup and truing.

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Once the block was close to the overall dimensions the first necessary operation was to put the cam hole in. As with castings and the way some fellows approach this it's very hard to put a true diameter through a piece with intermittent pockets so I prefer to do this first. This hole would be for layout and clamping for all future steps. The machining consisted of drilling, first from both ends then eventually only from one end to keep everything in line. The final step was to ream with a helical fluted reamer all the way through. Luckily the total reamer length was just long enough to accomplish this. With the cam hole complete the part was layed out to find out where I had to remove extra metal to get the sides and edges parallel to the cam hole. I minimal amount was removed and then the part was reading for some real machining. I made up a fixture plate to mount to my angle table. This would have a set of dowel holes for locating the block both from the top and bottom surfaces. In addition 2 brass plugs were turned up to insert into the cam hole for clamping. This was done by machining up a couple of aluminum blocks that would slide onto the plugs and have through holes to bolt down to the fixture plate.
gbritnell

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