Info needed: French Flathead into a F60s LAAT

[Mark Towers]

Hi,

If anyone can kindly lend any advise I would be very grateful.

A friend of mine is breaking a Simca Sumb and I'm considering purchasing it's French Flathead and installing the entire engine into my 1944 F60 LAAT.

Will the French Flatty go straight in ? Or will there be a lot of things to change )

I'm aware that I will need to keep and fit my early oil pan to the French engine and I understand that I will need to fit my original water pumps too (for engine mounting).

Is there a way of adapting the Cam to accept the Crab type Distributor? Or is it best to leave the French Distributor on.

I welcome any feed back and advice...

Kind regards,

Mark

1944 F60S CMP LAAT
1942 40mm Canadian Bofors

[Petr Brezina]

Generally speaking it is possible but with some effort.
I'm using French flatty in my carrier (not from SUMB though) and had to change pan, manifolds (exhaust+intake), pumps. For fitting crab dizzy I had to shorten the cam, exchange timing gears cover, add dizzy adapter.
A lot of work (and money) but now it looks as the proper engine.
Hope it helps a bit.

[Mark Towers]

Hi Petr,

Thank you for your reply ! Sounds like you did a good job.....

The cam shaft work sounds a lot of work .... if I was to just fit the the engine with the correct oil pan fitted and correct water pumps , and exhaust manifolds ... would the engine go straight in and marry up to the gear box?

I was going to make the French engine look original to the Ford LAAT but I'm thinking now to just keep the French inlet manifold and French Dizzy to keep cost and work down... would this work out ?

Any thoughts ...

Kind regards,

Mark

[Petr Brezina]

Have no idea Mark, it depends on room within the engine bay.
Have no experience with fitting it inside the truck. It wouldnt work in the carrier, but could work in LAAT.

[Mark Towers]

Hi Petr,

Thanks for getting back to me .... if I decide to fit the French Flatty with all the French components attached then I'll let you know how I get on 👍🏻😀

Many thanks

Mark

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Hello Mark,

If you search for French Flathead on this forum, you will find quite
a few references to this engine. Brian Kitcher in the U.K. first fitted a Ford diesel, and then a French Flathead in his F60S LAAT. No details about the conversion, though I have heard several people did this conversion.

Maybe this webpage is of help, as it "outlines the necessary modifications and changes when installing the French flathead in an otherwise unmodified Ford V8 vehicle": http://www.btc-bci.com/~billben/french.htm

Here's hoping you go ahead with the conversion and document it here for the membership to learn from.

Hanno