I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It Out.

[PAUL161]

Cleaning out the back of the barn, one of my old race engines came to light. There's another back there under some old sheet metal somewhere. This is an old Ford 60 converted for racing. The stock 60 had a weak bottom end, but in racing form, it was a little bear. To you youngsters, it was Fords scaled down V8 built in the late 30s and very early 40s. It was much smaller than the 85. Back then, engines were rated in horse power rather than cubic inches. This engine was rated at 60 HP in stock form when the regular V8 was 85 HP. The 60 engine in the photo will produce about 100 HP on regular fuel, it'll go a little more on a "blended" fuel. Seeing it again rekindled my intrest in restoring it back to running condition. I might put it in the "B"! Only kidding, only kidding.

 

[DrEntropy]

Me da' had a '39 Merc... 239 C.I.D version.

Whopping 95 HP. Gotta respect ol' Henry. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

 

[Bugeye58]

Had Stromberg 97's on it , no doubt!
Jeff

 

[PAUL161]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Me da' had a '39 Merc... 239 C.I.D version.

Whopping 95 HP. Gotta respect ol' Henry. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

That was the first year for the merc wasn't it? I'll bet you wish you had it today. Mohair and all.

 

[Healeysince59]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

V8-60 in an MG TC or TD was a popular swap in the 50's.

Marv J

 

[PAUL161]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Had Stromberg 97's on it , no doubt!
Jeff

Your right Jeff. There should be 4 or 5 97s in a box back where I dug this out. I think there's an old Mallory stand up mag for it that never made it out of the box in the pile. Gotta dig some more.

 

[Bugeye58]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

I had a V8-95 in a '32 coupe with 3 '97's on it. Offy heads, and a bunch of other go fast goodies. I wish I had it back!
Jeff

 

[DrEntropy]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Indeed. It was a Chevy Eater. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif He foolishly traded it in on a '49 Ford when he married mum... Regretted THAT to his dying day. I came along in '50, and he shortly thereafter (kept th' Ford fer mum) got himself a '51 Lincoln. He didn't buy anything but Lincolns for the rest of his life.


The ~other~ car he should have held on to was the '53 Lincoln. What a sled!

 

[roofman]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Put it on ebay, might be worth big bucks?

 

[BIBBER]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Paul...beautiful....(be slick to finish it out and put her on the middle of the living room reinforced coffee table as a conversation piece...of course you'd have to deal with MA threatning divorce!!!

 

[rick_ingram]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

I've seen pictures of Ford tractors (8N's and 9N's) with flathead V8s...is this what would have been used?

 

[William]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Put it on ebay, might be worth big bucks?

Heck, that Eddie Meyer intake manifold's probably worth as much as a Miata, providing it's still usable. Same for the Offy manifolds. What kinda heads are those, Offenhauser again? I don't see a name on them.

Original speed parts for flatheads are a strong market.

-William

 

[jlaird]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

I saw one in the back shed at my buds place the other day with esky heads and a pair of 97s, etc etc. Came out of his race car back in the day and he just can't give it up. Gave me a bit of a double take though.

 

[AngliaGT]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Way Cool!
Maybe you have no intention of ever selling those.
There's something about stuff like that.I hate to see it be all about money - but it's your decision.
Thanks for sharing.

- Doug

 

[Dave Russell]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Same for the Offy manifolds. What kinda heads are those, Offenhauser again? I don't see a name on them.
-William

The tubes marked Offenhauser are the water outlet manifolds. Only a certain Offenhauser head would match to them.

Other stock & aftermarket heads had single built in water outlets (no manifolds) which were located in the upper center of the heads.

The V8-60 was very popular in the low buck open wheel midget race cars. This goes back to the beginning of my car tinkering days. Very cute little engine.

As already mentioned, a considerable improvement for MG's.
D

 

[PAUL161]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Put it on ebay, might be worth big bucks?

Heck, that Eddie Meyer intake manifold's probably worth as much as a Miata, providing it's still usable. Same for the Offy manifolds. What kinda heads are those, Offenhauser again? I don't see a name on them.

Original speed parts for flatheads are a strong market.

-William

Well William, I don't think I'd sell it, not today anyway. The Eddie Meyer manifold is actually worth more than the Offy heads. Someone said I could make a display coffee table out of it. Believe it or not, I mentioned it to the wife, I won't repeat what she said. Woman don't think like we do. The engine was last raced at the Yellow Jacket Speedway in Philadelphia in a midget. I had the car, which was my dads, up until 1962. We sold it with another engine. I tried to find the car in the 90s, but to no prevail. I wish I had it back. I don't know how much I'd give for that car if I could only get it back. Probably destroyed years ago. It's a shame that only hindsight is 20/20.

I forgot to mention. A unique feature of the Eddie Meyer manifold was the replacement carb bases. The most popular being Ford 97s. You could jet them to run anything that would flow through a fuel line and would burn. But it is interesting to note that the 1932 Ford V8 originally came out with a single barrel carb. They would fit on this manifold with the adapter removed. Never saw them used though.

 

[PAUL161]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

I've seen pictures of Ford tractors (8N's and 9N's) with flathead V8s...is this what would have been used?

Rick, I'm not sure if they used the 60 V8 in the tractors or the 85hp. You mentioned that to me once about some Ford tractors with V8s in them and I looked them up. There is a very distinct difference in the water pumps and block water inlets between a 60 and 85. I'll look again.

Getting back to you Rick. It seems that the 100 hp Ford flathead was the engine of choice and not the 60 illustrated in this thread. Around 1948, when Funk Aircraft Co. started building the conversion kits for the 8Ns, 100hp Ford engines were popular and easy to get. They even had a 95 hp in line 6 cyl conversion, but the V8s were more popular. Believe it or not, you can still get a partial conversion kit for an 8N today from another manufacturer.

 

[William]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

I did not know that the Offy coolant tubes went with Offy heads. I've never seen one before like that-often you see plain chrome tubes held together at both ends with rubber hoses. Learn sump'n new, and so on.

Well William, I don't think I'd sell it, not today anyway. The Eddie Meyer manifold is actually worth more than the Offy heads.

Can't say as I blame you. Me, I'd clean it up and restore it to clean shape, then fab up a stand to display it on. I've an old issue of The Rodder's Journal (issue 15 if you can find one) that has an article on the gestation of the drag racing Hemi. It is illustrated with studio shots of a period correct, spotlessly clean, drag Hemi. A '57 A1 block, 6-71 blower on a Cragar intake and a Weiand back plate, Hilborn blower scoop and injectors, Moon valve covers, Vertex magneto (set up by Joe Hunt, of course), and handmade headers. Block and sump pan painted yellow, all mounted on a gorgeous, custom made, tubular stand on casters. It is simply beautiful, probably the ultimate in obsessive car goof sculpture, next to a late fifties vintage Ferrari V-12 or an Offenhauser 270.

See, now you got me thinking about doing this myself, and I'm working up a Flathead speed part wishlist!

-William

 

[coldplugs]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

Thanks for posting those photos. Some of my earliest memories are of the races my parents took me to when I was about 3 or 4. I had to sit with my mother in the grandstands while my father flogged whatever piece of junk he was racing that night. Women weren't allowed in the paddock then. My heroes in kindergarten drove midgets (no, I was in kindergarten, not my heros) and I still have a yearbook from the late forties.

The cars were either Offy powered or ran V8-60's - I don't remember any third option at that time. I saw a Ford flathead powered midget on dirt at a vintage event a couple of years back and it just seemed so much classier than the later powerplants like the Chevy 4 cylinders.

Wicked cool.

 

[rick_ingram]

Re: I Stuffed This Away 33 Years Ago. Just Dug It

I've seen pictures of Ford tractors (8N's and 9N's) with flathead V8s...is this what would have been used?

Rick, I'm not sure if they used the 60 V8 in the tractors or the 85hp. You mentioned that to me once about some Ford tractors with V8s in them and I looked them up. There is a very distinct difference in the water pumps and block water inlets between a 60 and 85. I'll look again.

Getting back to you Rick. It seems that the 100 hp Ford flathead was the engine of choice and not the 60 illustrated in this thread. Around 1948, when Funk Aircraft Co. started building the conversion kits for the 8Ns, 100hp Ford engines were popular and easy to get. They even had a 95 hp in line 6 cyl conversion, but the V8s were more popular. Believe it or not, you can still get a partial conversion kit for an 8N today from another manufacturer.

Cripes! 100 bhp in an 8N?!?!?!?! No wonder the farmers didn't really like them...they tended to "bury" themselves in the field from all of the torque and power! Methinks a rollcage and five point harness would be in order should I even *think* about a V8 conversion in my NAA Jubilee! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif