'50 convertable performance?

[Ford Freak]

Hey guys! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. One of the few cars left on my "bucket list" is a '49-'51 shoebox. There is a nice, stock, '50 convert. for sale just a couple hrs. away from me. It is a V8 w/ a 3 spd. w/o overdrive. I am not looking for a hot rod, & I realize it's not going to be very fast & powerful w/all of 100 hp under the hood. So, what rearend gears did they come with, & what can I expect performance wise? Thanks! F F

[tubman]

My '51, made in the St. Paul plant for use on the relatively flat plains of the midwest, came with 3.55 gears. I believe the final drive ratio could vary by plant. e.g. a car made for use in the mountains would have a different ratio than one intended for the flatlands. I believe all OD cars were 4.11. Most non-OD cars I have heard about had 3.73 gears. The plant your car came from will give you a hint, but you're going to have to take a look for yourself to be sure. A lot of things have been changed on these cars in the last 73 years.

As to overall performance, my '51 with a mildly worn stock engine was marginal. I now have a '51 Merc with massaged Edmunds heads, a Rochester 2G on a Merc manifold, and a Mallory dual point. This set up provides more than adequate performance and will cruise at 70 easily. The only problem being the "gawkers" that crowd you. I still have the 3.55's and no OD. I have an OD setup going in, and at this time, plan on leaving the 3.55's in the car.

[Ford Freak]

Thanks t-man!

[ford38v8]

Having had a '49 Convertible with overdrive, I would suggest holding out for a '50 or '51, and definitely WITH overdrive. Once you have an overdrive, you never want a 3 speed without overdrive again.

[rjlester]

I second what ford38v8 said, once you have an OD, you will never go without. Converted my 3 speed to an OD over a year ago and it's AMAZING. I have put over 8000 miles on the car in the last two years, about 6000 with the OD. Took a few long road trips with it and there are a couple of improvements other than the obvious.

Firstly, you can easily keep up with modern highway traffic. I have 3.54 gears in my car, and I can do 70mph all day long with the OD. Before, 65 seemed to be about the max without the engine sounding a bit taxed.

Oil consumption went to almost zero.

Fuel economy went from 18 imp mpg (best I got with the 3 speed) to 23 imp mpg (best I got with OD), averages 20 to 21.

Oil stays cleaner, longer.

If I keep the speed to 70mph or less, oil consumption is basically nil. If I pushed it to 80, my engine starts to burn oil. One evening, the OD didn't work (long story, it worked the next day) and I drove it for about 2 hours in third, at about 65 mph. Burned about a quart in that time.

No regrets with the OD.

[38 coupe]

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A good condition well tuned 8BA with 4.10 rear axle and overdrive (factory setup) will run 75 mph with power to spare.
The factory setup (load-o-matic) works very well if everything is in working order, specifically the proper carburetor port for the vacuum source and the vacuum advance in good shape.

[Ford Freak]

Thanks guys! All good info. How is the acceleration on these cars?
I have a dual 2bl manifold and a pr. of Holley 94's laying around here.
Would this setup help the acceleration?

[tubman]

Sure, they'll help, but in my opinion, the best thing you can do is rework the heads for increased compression and optimized quench. This will result in a bigger increase in performance than the carbs will. There are numerous threads here and on the H.A.M.B. that describe how this is accomplished. The downside of dual carburetors is they are more difficult to tune and keep in tune. Plus, the 94 design is outdated. This is why I run a single small base Rochester 2G on a bored out Merc 4-bolt manifold. The 2G flows about 275 CFM, while the 94's are 145 each. A little simple math shows that 1 = 2 in this particular case. Plus you have a more modern design; just an all around better carb. Be aware that if you change the carburetion, you would be well advised to upgrade your distributor as the stock "Load-a-Matic" will only work well with a single stock carburetor. You can run a converted GM distributor or (my choice) a Mallory dual point.

As I alluded to above, this is the setup I'm running and it yielded a significant increase in performance over the stocker it replaced. (The 16 extra cubic inches in the Mercury engine helped a bit as well.)

[Dlistro1950]

I have a 1950 Ford Convertible. It had a "tired OD" and I replaced it with a the T5 conversion, 3.25 9 inch rear end from a 1959 ford. The engine is a 255 that was overhauled by Ol' Ron about 10 years ago - mild cam and a 4 barrel with a modern distributor. It goes down the road very well. 70MPH is about 1800 RPM in 5th. It could probably work better with 3.55 or 3.73 rear end gears. I went to the 9" inch because of snapping axels. Other than dual exhaust and the mods above it has a stock appearance.

Dick Listro
Southwick, Massachusetts

[38 coupe]

I agree that tight piston to head clearance is probably the lowest buck performance boost you can do. If you are swapping heads you can look around to see if you find a pair of EAB cast iron heads, they are the highest compression common 8BA era heads and will give a small increase compared to the stock 8BA marked heads.
Before planning any modifications just give the car a good tune up (if it needs it) and drive it as is. If it meets your needs then no need to mess with a good thing. If the motor is tired then bolt-on parts aren't going to give you great performance anyway. The car will let you know what it needs.

[Ford Freak]

Thanks for all the great info guys! - F F