L-head power improvement

Very tidy job. How did you fab the plate for the headers?

 

a company called Motor City Flathead did a series of articles in Rod and Custom or street rodder (IIRC) back in the early 90s on how to build power in the ford flathead v8. seems they did alot of flow work with combustion chamber and intake port design and came up with some interesting design work for improving the flow in flatheads. might be a place to look into.

 

Plate? It's just 1/2"x2" bar stock. Believe it or not, a hole saw from Lowe's & a Milwaukee 1/2" drill cut the holes. Run it slow and add a lot of cutting fluid - cuts through the 1/2" bar just fine. Used a bigger hole saw that matched the OD of the tubing to inset the tubes some, then welded the pipe in. Port matched the other side to the block after porting it out. Sandblast & paint with Por-20. Note: Por-20 don't like hot antifreeze. Put studs in the block and use tube spacers under the nuts to hold it down.

 

Yeah, that's what I wanted to know. I know there's a word for that piece...flange maybe?...but it escapes me right now. So it looks to be relatively easy then. Surprised 1/2" gets you roughly the OD you need to match the exhaust port, but then again we are talking ancient stuff here. Maybe it takes more grinding to open it up. No problem, have Foredom tool and handpieces to do the job. Now if I only had a spare head to mock up the part as I build it. Happen tp have a template lying around?R)

 

Could always use a exhaust manifold gasket as the template.

 

place the manifold flange down on the plate, spray paint around it, remove manifold and enjoy your new flange patern

 

well thats handy to know. Guess I would have figured it out once I started the rebuild.

 

Aah, but that would mean taking my exhaust off first. I'd hate to be off the road as long as that fab project would take me. Maybe I can scrounge a beat up old manifold somewhere.
GreenK, was there any math involved in your design or did you just wing it?

 

Just dropped off my new to me supersonic head at the machine shop to have it serviced. So it will be ready to put on in the near future :twisted:

 

UWOP!!

 

ahh it just looks like any old dirty head...honestly it came in UPS and I opened and glanced at really quick and took it with me on lunch to the shop. I promise pics of a nice cleaned head ready for install sometime this weekend.

 

I'm sure it wont be the first time......here have a

 

The heck with the corner...I just went straight to the LIST!!!!! :twisted: R)

 

well its def. not at the top of that list.....

 

Alright back on subject.....Should I just go with a head gasket from krage or is there a better one I can get someplace else..