Inliners International Forums General Discussion Ford Ford 226 and 254 flathead sixes

Hi all...

I am keen to try and find out a bit of detail on these engines. I've picked up that they were made from 1941 to about 1952 when they were replaced by the pushrod OHV engine.

First, was any of the architecture of the earlier engines used in the later ohv models?

Next, does anyone know what the firing order was in the flathead inline sixes?

I have only ever seen one of these engines in Australia, installed in an army truck. In the main, for the duration of their manufacture we only saw the V8 flatheads here. Later we did get the ohv sixes in pickups and trucks, with the 1957-60 sedans marketed here as the 'Custom 300' having the ohv six fitted.

Ray, Like almost all online sixes the firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4. I can
t answer the rest of your questions. We had one in a grain '48 truck and it handled the trips from the wheat field to the grain elevator better than the newer '52 with a flathead v8. These were far better engines that Henry wanted people to know. He, like many hot rodders, was overly protective of the flathead v8.

Thanks for that...

I was really keen to find out if Henry carried on the 1-2-3-6-5-4 firing order of his earliest sixes. Apparently he reckoned that was easier on the crank for some reason.

Now I know.

I hope someone else shows up. We have members who drive these engines. Eddie Edumunds made heads & intake manifolds. There are pictures of them on the dry lakes. They deserve recognition.

I didn't know it at the time, but I took a picture of one of these cars fitted with a six on my 2016 trip, during which I went to Belgium...

There I found in the museum under a building in the town of Stavelot:


24-hour race winner. American manufacturers put quite a bit of effort into winning the Spa 24-hours in that era. I thought this must have been a V8 because that's all we saw in Australia, but not so in Europe and the Americas.

Stavelot, of course, is adjacent to the Spa-Francorchamps road circuit.

I'd like to see that one running a road course. Here is a site with a lot of information. I have a page or two that I copied somewhere with some specs & comparisons I'll post if you want.
https://fordsix.com

The road course involved had quite a lot of straight sections...

Later it was ironed out even more in an effort to make it the fastest road racing circuit in Europe, but it wasn't too bad in the early fifties anyway.