Ford flathead

[Francis Lafrance]

For ford engine flathead center neck one or two thermostat ?

[rob love]

One in each head.

The Ford flathead is in fact two separate cooling systems sharing the same radiator.

[Lynn Eades]

Hi Tony. Ford actually supplied a service tool (jig) that was used to grind out the valve relief in the older heads to fit the later engines. You flipped it over to grind out the other valve relief in each chamber.
Just to add to Robs bit about the separate engines. One side always runs slightly hotter than the other side. That's normal apparently. The C.R. is not exactly the same, one side to the other. There are other things as well.
Henry Ford's original concept for the F.H. V8 was originally two Model A's, sharing the same crankshaft.

[Private_collector]

I'm hugely relieved to hear that info, Lyn. It had been troubling me since the heads were modified. I couldn't find anything that told me why they wouldn't work without messing with em.

I took the heads to local engine rebuild place and they did the hard work. We used a head gasket as the pattern where to grind the chambers back to. Figured it was probably a strange quirk with the French flathead blocks. Guess it was a quirk with dear ole Henry instead. He must be up there laughing at all the confusion he's caused!