Posted by RDavis on Saturday, January 18, 2003 at 10:09AM :
In Reply to: What is the largest oversize hole ffpw can stand? posted by Murphy on Friday, January 17, 2003 at 4:35PM :
What exactly are you needing all those horses for? Unless your a die-hard flathead fan I'd just do the 318 conversion and if gas mileage is no problem,the 360 conversion.
Your ideas are too radical for the simple and limited flathead. The flathead can be boosted w/o such radical work.
Shaving the head will increase comp. by 1 as in 7:1 to 8:1. A dual carb intake manifold can be found or you could hand build a 3-carb system but they have to be kept sync. as in the MGB's. As for the exhaust ,well of course you just can't beat a good set of headers. There is a allison optical drop in
points & condenser conversion kit for better spark sold by crane cams. A performance cam can be had. A few other mods will add a few hp that are normally lost such as going to a electric rad. fan, a electric water pump, and lock-out hubs when not in 4x4.
Due to its design the flathead cannot breath or exhale as well as OHV engines and you can only get so much valve lift due to the head design so when you shave it you need to be carefull at high rpms.