Looking for a Ford Flathead V8

[chris vickery]

Hi Jordan

Good luck finding a running flathead that you seek at a reasonable price....

Never trust the "ran a while ago story" neither as flatties invariably seize up tighter than a drum after time due to the nature of their construction. I always assume that unless a guy can start it for me right there and then that it is a "rebuilder", period, and only worth scrap.

Flatheads are also prone to cracks and you may have what appears to be a good one turn out to be scrap. You may need to go through several before finding a truly rebuildable one. It might cost you a bunch of time and money tearing several down and then having hot tanked and magnafluxed before you have a decent block.

At one time I had 4 engines, tore them all down and ended up with 1 good one and 3 boat anchors.

Lastly, a flathead rebuild is going to cost you big time. The last one I had done was in excess of $3000 and that was several years ago.

You might want to entertain one of the crate engine flatheads floating around, I believe that the were French rebuilds and came in a couple years ago. Marcus at Willys Acres had some and they were reasonably priced compared to doing a complete rebuild. They were slightly different but for the price not a bad sub. Alternately you could consider re-powering the carrier with an alternate motor. I always thought a small diesel would be neat....