Inliners International Forums General Discussion Bench racing Flathead six

I am in the process of divorce, so will soon be allowed to play again with old machines.I wish to start planning a hot rod powered by a flathead six.
I have a 250 Dodge six, but dislike the three intake ports. Does anyone know of a twelve port flatty? Possibly Packard? If possible a seven bearing crank would be nice, as my Dodge only has a four bearing crank.Any ideas would be welcome.
This will not be a high powered rod, but street rod. I am really trying to start with the best base flatty.

Apart from the 3-port design, there's not much wrong with the Dodge engine...

If you were really adventurous you could see about cutting the port walls out and welding in new walls to separate them.

Others to check... Pontiac, the Hudson 308 (early fifties), Oldsmobile, not many really. Did Packard make a six?

The only flathead 6 I know had seven mains was the ZSB Chrysler 6 from the twenties. On the other hand, the only flathead 6 I know had six inlet ports was the Terraplane from the thirties, which was very popular in racing here.

But you might not like the lube arrangements on it... to keep oil up to the dippers the racing people here had a little oil pump pushing pressure into a tube mounted inside the crankcase, there were holes in the tube to squirt oil in their direction.

First: Once we say "I do" we are all in the process of getting a divorce. Some of us just take longer.
Here is a 12 port flathead 6. It is a 413ci Dodge/Chrysler Industrial. It is huge 4' from crank pulley to trans mount surface.





Olds had a flathead 8 and Packard did too. There was a Chrysler 8. But this is the biggest six I seen except for the 5000+ ci American LaFrance. Yes Ray, Packard made a 6. What body will you be using?

I would like to use a 39 Plymouth 3 window coupe, or 37 Vauxhall DX coupe. I saw both many years ago & fell in love....at present all i have is a motor 250 Dodge & plans in my head. I hope to start acquiring the rest of the parts in about 12 months(when lawyer expects settlement)

Is the Terraplane the same engine used by Hudson in it's Hornet?

There were several sizes of the Hudson sixes. Clifford made quite a bit of speed equipment for them into the seventies. I don't know how much they sold or where it is hiding, but I have an old catalog.
Not sure about the Vauxall but the late '30s Plymouths were pretty cars.

Vauxhall is a British Chev, The DX was a slightly smaller body than the full size Chev/Vauxhall GY. On old speed equipment, how much of the technology in these, was done by intuition of the manufacturers, & how much on science/testing? I ask as friends years ago had Ford V8 gear from the sixties that looked good but only increased fuel consumption! I think people like POTVIN did test, but have doubts on some of the creations I have seen.

I know that some of the "Speed" equipment of the past didn't make much speed. Some of that was probably because we often mismatched the pieces we used. I for one seldom had a clear plan and often just added what I could find or afford.

Big handicap: the Ricardo quench head was still under patent, and you couldn't make a better head unless you:
1. paying him for a license
2. don't sell any
3. ruin the quench so it appears the same but doesn't work.
The Hudson 308 is not only very big but also has much racing research to draw on rather than starting from square 1.
There's another larger motor in your Dodge family: the Chrysler 265".
Much of the design work done on the Ford V8 now turns out to be dead ends, black swans, coincidence etc.
Read up on the KR motor.

Hudson seems tempting as "uncommon eng" seem to have kept the development going when others stopped. I would like a Mopar 265 but have not seen one here in Australia, though they probably exist. The most common flathead six is the Dodge 250, this was available till 1962 I believe in the local Chrysler Royal.
The other engine that does not exist is the Ford flathead six, all our Fords were V8, till the British Zephyrs came along. This is a pity as they seem to be 12 port, by pictures I have seen on the net.All the others like Pontiac, Olds, Studebaker or Continental are here but don't seem to offer any advantage over the Dodge. If I was going straight 8 I would look for A Packard Super 8, these seem to be the best of the flatty's. That is why I was curious about the Packard 110 six, is it 3 port or like it's big brother two ports per cylinder, Can any Packard lover tell me?

You should be able to find a slant six there. They made a version that had 3 Webers and made 325HP. I read that somewhere. Here are some pictures of a Packard 8 I saw a Bonneville in '08. It;s been in some magazines since then.

Slant six's were common here, the 325hp motor you are thinking of is the local 265 "hemi" this is what I would use if not after a Flat head. Or possibly a local Ford "BARRA" as these inliners are current & come factory turbo'ed ,very quick....

We parked in the same area with the supercharged Packard 8 for a few days. He was from Salt Lake and was driving out each day. One day some guys in a late model Ford pickup pulled up to check out the lakester. They asked how fast he was going when he passed them. He said he didn't know because he didn't have a speedometer but he said he had lots of throttle left and a gear to go. They said they were doing a little over 90. I think Packard 6 or 8 would be a good choice.





Totally off the subject: The guy who had the green van in the last picture brought his 13-14 year old daughter. On our second day when he opened the back door a grasshopper jumped out onto the salt. We laughed, she almost cried because she cared. Several grown men chased it out on to the service road and captured it. The girl cared for it the rest of the day and released it in a more grasshopper friendly area that evening.

The grasshopper reminds me of my kids, they looked after a grasshopper "hoppy"
as it was missing a leg...just love the caring of children. Yes I do think of a Packard, my Dad had a 110 , I can still remember the huge engine & comfort of this car. Even though it was a poor mans Packard. I was too young to really care about engine details when he sold it.