New block, a further discussion

[Henry Floored]

Originally Posted by flatheadmurre

Are you changing position/angle of the valve or just reshaping the runner and guide ?

A little of both actually. I have a couple sacrificial blocks. I would like to tilt the intake valve towards the cylinder wall margin. This alone will force the intake port to "stretch" a little. I then would like create a gently curved intake port with no air damn in the valve pocket and a much kinder short side radius.

All this relieving business is done simply because it has been found that in a side valve engine we have have to encourage the flow to go sideways just as it passes the valve seat. Then we bounce the charge off the cylinder head to turn the rest of it down the cylinder.

I think I described this once as imagine taking your garden hose and spraying it full blast at 90 degrees to a solid wall. Messy!

No rotate to a 45 degree angle and do the same. What happens?

We are asking the intake charge to change direction of almost 180 degrees right when it's most important to keep momentum up and fill the cylinder.

We all know by first hand experience or by word of mouth that a supercharger wakes up a Flatty. They certainly do for the simple reason is a blower overcomes this basic restrictor in the Flathead's intake flow path.

With a supercharger the Flathead Ford starts to wander up near 1 hp per cubic inch where it should be from the get go.

Guys there is a reason why the best engine builders in the world are only getting 50 or so more hp out of a Flatty than me who sucks by comparison. If there wasn't something inherently wrong with side valve breathing the best would be wringing 300 hp out of a 276 incher.

The way to make any thought of a new block worthwhile to people is to give them the very best breathing they can get from a side valve engine.

Imagine a scenario where this "service block" if you will, just comes close to the best port job by a professional on a stock block. Combine that with being able to toss 100lbs of unneeded weight overboard. What impact would that have on average attainable performance for everyone?