Flame - Not

[William T Wilson]

On Fri, 30 Apr 1999, H Villemure wrote:

> I am more of an ignoramus than most on this list- just a fresh
> mechanical engineering graduate. Could you detail what a *flathead*
> motor design consists of?

Yeah.. the heads are flat.  ;)  Nothing in them but the plugs.

During the early part of the century up through the 50's, Ford made
flathead V8s which were extremely good engines and used in a wide variety
of their cars and a number of early street rods.  Not only Ford used
flathead engines though; I've got one in a '55 Jeep, which is an inline
6-cylinder.

There are some nice advantages to the flathead, not the least of which is
simplicity.  There are no timing belts, chains, or any of that muck; it's
all gear driven.  It is somewhat hard to get at the cams, though.  Valves
are in the block right by the manifolds, so even a valve job is easy.  It
is a very simple design.  However, the performance is lacking compared to
OHV or OHC type engines.