Vintage Ford V8 film

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Truckedup
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Re: Vintage Ford V8 film

Post by Truckedup »

Not all performance guys liked Fords...
I met Bill Fisher, aka California Bill, around 1992. He was an well known Chevy 6 and GMC 6 hot rodder the 50's. His name is on one of the several aftermarket heads for those engines and he wrote at least one book on engine modifications .He talked for a long time and mentioned that a modified 216 Chevy bored to about 230 with the usual stuff like more compression,cam, multiple carbs could make a realistic 145 hp while still retaining the dipper oil system..this was equal to a typical modified Ford V8. He said it was better to have the Chevy crank cross drilled for high pressure lubrication so it was reliable above 5000 rpm. According to him a 270 GMC could make 200 hp and still be a true street engine with a reasonable idle.
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frnkeore
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Re: Vintage Ford V8 film

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The most popular bore, for the FH, in the 50's, was 3.375 (3/16 over) equaling 268 ci. At that size, your 230 engine, with similar might be equal but, with a Merc crank ( 286 ci) or a offset ground crank (296 ci) I think the FH leads. There was also the truck/Canadian block, bored to 3.438 that got 306 ci..

All that said, the 270/302 GMC was popular in the 50's and it was one of the top engines for budget racers. When I entered HS, in 1958, one of the guys had a '39 Chev, with a modified, 302 in it. It was the fastest in that class of cars but, the 303 & 326 Olds engines would bet it in the lighter cars. By '60, '49-'52 V8 engines were affordable and by then and 216/235's and all the FH's became 2nd rate engines. By '62/'63 SBC & Fords became very affordable but, we will always remember the finned aluminum heads and 3 x 2's on in a 32-34 coupe or roadster. Now that WAS a "Hot Rod"!!! Inline 6's in Chev sheet metal, not so much :)
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Re: Vintage Ford V8 film

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I graduated HS in 65 and there were no modified flathead or 6's driven by students .Where I lived old Ford body hot rods were non existent .A 265 or 283 stick in a tri 5 was the hot car for most who had a decent part time job. One kid had big fin DeSoto with with the dual quad hemi, few doctors sons had Vettes and one Stude coup with a Caddy.Or the few like me with a Y block. The rest drove junk like early Olds V8's with clattering lifters or Mopar flat 6's.
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Re: Vintage Ford V8 film

Post by Kevin Johnson »

My Dad drove a Nash Rambler with a straight six and electrically driven supercharger off of something industrial that had the luck to land in a wrecking yard near Romulus. This was when he was commuting back and forth from Romulus to UofM in the late 1950s. They did a top speed run at Willow Run and the convertible top got sucked off at 140mph.

He laughed when recalling in a story about my Grandmother borrowing it and switching on the blower, scaring her. :lol:

My Grandfather told me of the tickets he acquired.
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Re: Vintage Ford V8 film

Post by dorset »

i once worked with the grandson of one of henry ford's test drivers. as i was told the story, the early V8 design didn't incorporate an oil pump-- the crankcase was splash lubed. the test driver didn't like that, and whenever he was given a new motor to road test, he would take it out and spend all his time swerving left and right and riding the bank to keep the oil away from the crank. then when the bearings seized, he would tell his boss:

needs an oil pump . . .

eventually they relented, without knowing he had had his finger on the scale, and he got the oil pump.
i didn't mean to blow it up
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