[Flathead Fever]

I have a 80 year old neighbor with 11 '40 Fords, the running ones are all powered by flatheads. He is a diehard Ford guy and there is no way he would ever contaminate a Ford with a Chevy engine. Ever since I have known him he has wanted to build a ’40 Ford with a small block Ford in it. For ten years now he has made me crawl under every ‘40 Ford we see with a small block Ford in it to check if the stock front axles are still there, 90% of them are not. They are usually converted to independent front suspension to clear the small block Ford’s oil pump which hit’s the front cross member, even the ones with the rear sump Bronco oil pans. The oil pump still hit’s the front cross member with the Bronco pan. Ford moved the sump on the Bronco pans from the front to the rear to clear the Broncos front axle. From what I understand if you use the Bronco rear sump pan and trim away part of the firewall you can get a small block Ford in there with the stock axle.

I have looked at every '40 Ford with a small block Ford in So Cal and I have never seen one with a small block Ford, a stock front axle and no cut firewall. The only solution my neighbor came up with was to buy a dry sump oiling system that has a belt driven oil pump mounted off to the side of the engine. It is suppose to fit in the ’40 but he has never installed it yet.

Over the years, Frank Oddo used his ‘40 Ford with a small block Ford for many of his articles in Street Rodder Magazine. Here are a few of the magazines that mention trying to install a small block Ford in a ‘40.

May, 1975 Street Rodder pg. 71
Dec, 1991 Street Rodder pg. 190
March, 1995 Street Rodder pg 112