Why Ford Killed the Flathead V8 - The Engine That Built Hot Rodding

Comments · 38

• AN

  @anvilsvs · 6 months ago

  It was expensive to build and inefficient in operation.  Case closed.  If Henry had been rational he'd have made an OHC 6.

  10

• BA

  @bartsiegwart2996 · 6 months ago

  My first car was a 72 Olds Cutlass, My best friend had a W31 so his was faster, His friend had a 69  442 455cu in which out ran both of us..! It layed rubber when suto shifting into 2nd gear. And the SOUND of those beautiful engines with headers and dual exhaust, mmmmmmm..!

  5

• AN

  @andrewmantle7627 · 6 months ago

  I don't know why these folks pose this question as a big mystery. OHV and good castings out-paced the engineering; period. Nothing wrong with the flathead, but compared to more modern stuff, it just wasn't cutting it.

  4

• RA

  @raylocke282 · 6 months ago

  It burned oil, overheated ,only had 3 mains,hard on gas 😢

  3

• MI

  @mikefrech1123 · 6 months ago

  It was obsolete the day it was introduced.

  5

• WI

  @WilliamPittman-r1h · 6 months ago

  I wouldn’t knock Henry Ford he always was for building it so the masses could afford it and he did. All the others of that day were concerned with lining their pockets and didn’t have interest in the masses unless it benefited them.

  3

• LO

  @loyalopposition-us · 6 months ago

  Oh stop it. The flathead V8 wasn't "killed" it was replaced. Just like the Model T, steam locomotives and the rotary dial phone.

  11

• JO

  @johnkessler9878 · 6 months ago

  Simple, affordable, could work on it with common tools, spawned the hotrod industry.  I’d say thats a pretty good track record, no pun intended.

  2

• SK

  @skywatcher6064 · 13 days ago

  Did Clyde say that the block is bullet proof in his letter?

• UN

  @UncleRobsGarage · 5 months ago

  3 main bearings,and a block guarranteed to crack ,and you're surprised its gone.

• ST

  @stevenslater2669 · 6 months ago

  The flathead Ford had a long run as king of the hill - about 20 years. Advancing technology - to overhead valve and overhead cam designs killed tge Ford flathead V8. <br>And the final nail in the flathead V8. coffin was tge high casting scrap rate! I started as an engineering student at Ford Engine &amp; Foundry Division in 1963. Years later, Casting Operations was getting rid of a lot of castings they had saved in a.little informal museum in the Rouge Office Building. There were several of the very last flathead V8 block raw castings going into the dumpster. I asked one of the old-timer casting engineers, John Fortuna, if we could produce the flathead V8 block today (this was in the 1980s). His response? <br>“Hell no - the scrap rate on that block was horrendous back in the day. Today that would be a non-starter for production. Casting fins (cracked cores) in the exhaust ports were killers because we couldn’t probe for fins in the middle two cylinders’ exhaust ports - they were too long and twisted. That fault was discovered in hot test when built up engines were tested at the Engine Plant before shipment to the vehicle assembly plant. And Foundry Division got charged for the cost of a scrap engine. We were glad to see the Flathead V8 go!”

• JO

  @JohnIrving-g5r · 1 month ago

  What’s the big deal? Engineering, emission requirements and evolution moves on. &nbsp;Our ‘34 Ford woodie still has her original Flathead and going strong.