[Flathead Fever]

There was series of articles Frank Oddo did in American Rodder about installing a small block Ford in his personal '40 Ford without cutting anything. No eliminating the straight axle and installing Mustang front suspension (PUKE!). It took an Early Bronco oil pan and pickup with a rear sump. They have a rear sump because of the front differential. and there was some other stuff involved too. I think there still was a littler butchery? My neighbor was going to do it and never did. He bought a complete dry sump oil system to solve the front sump problem until he read about the bronco pan.

Then ran into a '40 Ford with a 302 in it. The front axle was still there. The firewall was still virgin, nothing butchered. I had to ask for my neighbor, "how did you ever manager to do that without destroying the car"? The secret was a '41 Ford pickup, 6-cylinder, front crossmember. The crossmember is deeper to make room for the longer inline-six cylinder. I don't know any of this for a fact since I did not do the install. But there is a different front crossmember for the 6-cylinder pickup and it sounds like it could work to me.

Maybe somebody else on here will comment on that front crossmember. A Y-block seems pretty big, I'm not sure how much longer it is than a 302? I have one of each sitting out in the garage. I could measure them but I'm in the middle up cutting up a big tree that fell over in the wind.

I bought a complete "F" bird supercharged Y-block in pieces with boxes of extra new parts. Everything is there but the crankshaft and pulley (the supercharger pulley is a big deal. Its made out of unobtanium). I think it still might be in his garage stored upstairs, mixed up with the flathead cranks. I have not had time to explore to look for it. Even has Rebuilt factory supercharged heads. They have different casting numbers, they are thicker in the combustion chambers. $1600.00 for all of it. Extra Edelbrock intake with three 97s on it. NOS 4V intakes. I really couldn't turn it down at that price. I have a 4-inch chopped '32 3-window project I could put it in?

You should be able to find a chart of the different engine lengths. I've seen it before. Then you can check and see what the length of the y-block is compared to the 302 that the guy put it.

I almost bought one of those 6-cylinder crossmembers just to put it away incase I ever wanted to put a 302 in a '41 pickup. Its on the bucket list. I didn't buy it. I must have been poor that day? It has a lot to do with what my IRA did that week. This month has not been kind to the car project fund! The IRA crashed, the one-year-old grandson snapped my prescription glasses in half. The dog got run over. $7300.00 to repair and align her front steering and suspension. That was the flathead rebuild fund and then sum.

Here are a couple pictures of my flathead money.