Hi Folks, More to my last note about the pix of the French Flathead
block at the Flathead Fords and Nostalgia Drag Racing website. Whoever
was displaying the block shown was committing a major flathead no-no
because the 59A block must not be hung out from a conventional engine
stand by the bellhousing like that. It sticks out too far and the four
3/8NC bolts have been known to break the casting off and drop the
mortally-wounded block on the floor. This could happen when rolling the
setup around in the shop, and is even more likely if more weight is
installed in the block. Ford did not approve of this in the good old
days. Their approved stand mounted onto the exhaust port bolts.
It is perfectly simple to overcome this problem, however, by making a
triangulated support for the front of the engine out of angle iron,
resting on the front of your stand, and bolted to the 7/16 holes
thoughtfully drilled and tapped for your use on the front of the block.
I say 3/8NC bolts, as that is what was used on our domestic 59A-style
blocks. If this French Flathead was made in France by Simca, did they
use American standard threads, or close metric equivalents?
The above caution does not apply, of course, to the '49-'53 8BA domestic
flathead block, which has a removable bellhousing attached by 7/16NC
bolts in the fashion still current today, and can be hooked up to the
common engine stand at the bellhousing flange with no problem, and no
need for a front support. Cheers Bill
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