In article ,
wrote:

Side valve/flathead engines for cars went out of favor in the 1950s.You
can buy an old Rolls Royce/Bentley car in UK for about 5,000 British
pounds money.It will cost that much money, or more, each year just to
keep the thing going.
Ask the Brits about that if you don't believe me.

I need to yank the circuit breakers and get back to working in my
attic.I need to remove a couple of junction boxes in my attic so I can
put down some plywood in those areas.
cuhulin

Studebaker had a flathead six in 1960. I know because there was one in
my 1960 Lark.

--Geary

On 11/25/09 10:07 , Geary Morton wrote:
In ,
wrote:

Side valve/flathead engines for cars went out of favor in the 1950s.You
can buy an old Rolls Royce/Bentley car in UK for about 5,000 British
pounds money.It will cost that much money, or more, each year just to
keep the thing going.
Ask the Brits about that if you don't believe me.

I need to yank the circuit breakers and get back to working in my
attic.I need to remove a couple of junction boxes in my attic so I can
put down some plywood in those areas.
cuhulin

Studebaker had a flathead six in 1960. I know because there was one in
my 1960 Lark.

--Geary


I had the smaller bore (169) of that same block in my 50 Champion
Regal Deluxe. Helluva motor.

Damn, I miss that car.

In article ,
wrote:

When I was a kid, sometimes when us kids saw a Studebaker car, or truck,
us crazy kids would sing,,, Studebaker, Studebaker spit on the wall,
Studebaker, Studebaker ten feet tall,,,,

I own an old 1950 (maybe it is a 1949 or 1951?) Studebaker center nose
ring/circle thingy which also has a Studebaker ''bullet'' in the center
of the ring/circle thingy.I also own a reproduction radiator mount
thermostat which has the Studebaker brand name on it.Studebaker
manufactured Wagons before they started manufacturing cars and trucks.

Do you really want to own an old, or new Rolls Royce/Bentley car?

Old saying goes, If you have to ask, you can't afford one!

Truth is though, You just can't beat Good old Detroit Iron!
cuhulin

Or, for the Studebaker, South Bend iron.

--Geary

www.devilfinder.com
Studebaker in World War Two

Some of the Army 2 1/2 ton trucks I drove when I was in Vietnam were
built by Studebaker.Some of the trucks were Mack trucks, Dodge, GM,
International, Kenworth,,, they all looked the same, built to Military
Specs.
www.vietnamguntrucks.com
http://vietnamguntruck.tripod.com
cuhulin

Bill Baka wrote:
Geary Morton wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

Side valve/flathead engines for cars went out of favor in the 1950s.You
can buy an old Rolls Royce/Bentley car in UK for about 5,000 British
pounds money.It will cost that much money, or more, each year just to
keep the thing going.
Ask the Brits about that if you don't believe me.

I need to yank the circuit breakers and get back to working in my
attic.I need to remove a couple of junction boxes in my attic so I can
put down some plywood in those areas.
cuhulin

Studebaker had a flathead six in 1960. I know because there was one
in my 1960 Lark.

--Geary

Rambler made a flathead six until about 1963 or 1964. We bought a house
in 1963 and the neighbor was showing us his shiny new Rambler with a
very obvious flathead six. It ran good and he was perfectly happy with
it. One of the reasons flatheads got a bad rap was they would not wind

One of the reasons flatheads had a bad rap was they had one hell of a
bad combustion chamber shape. Way too much surface area hence too much
heat loss. Smooth they were, efficient they weren't. If you want
combustion efficiency, then a hemispherical (hemi) chamber is the way to
go with at least 4 valves per cylinder and the spark plug as central as
it can get. Minimise flame propagation distance so avoiding detonation
at higher compression ratios. Throw a good bit of swirl into the
combustion chamber to get that fuel well and truly mixed with air and
properly vapourised. Then you have yourself a powerhouse.

like an overhead. They all had over 4" strokes, so duh..., no 7K RPM.
It turns out that high RPM is good for power but sucks for mileage.

High RPM is good for BHP at the expense of torque. The poor fuel mileage
is purely due to inefficiencies.

Ramblers in the 60's were actually good cars, but economy was not the
priority in the 60's.
Now we have over-winding 4 bangers trying to make up the power gap.

So explain to me how these "overwinding 4 bangers" crap all over the
"old" detroit iron in the performance stakes!

Bill Baka

Piston speed is THE defining factor in all of the above. Higher RPM
equals more power strokes in a given time frame. Long stroke engines
have a piston speed that is far too high when wound up around 7k RPM.
Remember, that piston is reciprocating, not just going in the one
direction. Usually this results in catastrophic engine failure when
piston speed exceeds sensible limits. Cut down the stroke and you keep
the piston speed reasonable at the expense of torque. Appropriate
gearing and more gear ratios compensates for the lack of torque. My
current daily drive is a five speed and its fifth gear is NOT an
overdrive. It's high revving 1800 cc 4 banger that pumps out 100KW and
it's as stock as the day it came out of the factory. The sports models
get 50% better power and still remain street drivable.

Sure isn't like my younger days when we were into street rods that were
barely street drivable. Sounded good though! ;-)

Left all that behind in the 70's and got into shortwave for the first
time. This was mainly because I was in and out of the country so much in
that era that I didn't have time for cars any more.

Krypsis

Bill Baka wrote:
Krypsis wrote:
Geary Morton wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

Side valve/flathead engines for cars went out of favor in the 1950s.You
can buy an old Rolls Royce/Bentley car in UK for about 5,000 British
pounds money.It will cost that much money, or more, each year just to
keep the thing going.
Ask the Brits about that if you don't believe me.

I need to yank the circuit breakers and get back to working in my
attic.I need to remove a couple of junction boxes in my attic so I can
put down some plywood in those areas.
cuhulin

Studebaker had a flathead six in 1960. I know because there was one
in my 1960 Lark.

--Geary

They would have been one of the last then as even Ford went OHV in the
mid fifties.

Krypsis

I got a deal on 5 1957 Plymouths in 1968 and had everything from a baby
hemi (332) to a flathead six. The Hemi (circa 1952) was gutless and the
flathead 6 was a monster chunk of iron. It did run quiet as with all
flatheads the valve noise was very minimal.

Bill Baka

The flatheads had minimal reciprocating mass as valve gear, big
advantage but they couldn't take advantage of it as they couldn't rev
much anyway. Overhead valve with overhead cam is the way to go, even
twin cam.
Keep that reciprocating mass to a minimum for better get up and go.

Krypsis

Those old long stroke engines of many years ago, on level roads, you
could start out from a dead stop in high gear, smooth and easy as
pie.They had that real good low end torque.Some of those cars had a
built in air compresser at the transmission, flip a little lever and you
can air up those tires.

Some new car manufacturers nowadays add some Bar's Leaks to every new
car and truck before they send them out the factory doors.

www.devilfinder.com
Which auto manufacturers add Bar's Leaks to every new car?
cuhulin

wrote:
Those old long stroke engines of many years ago, on level roads, you
could start out from a dead stop in high gear, smooth and easy as
pie.They had that real good low end torque.Some of those cars had a
built in air compresser at the transmission, flip a little lever and you
can air up those tires.

Some new car manufacturers nowadays add some Bar's Leaks to every new
car and truck before they send them out the factory doors.

www.devilfinder.com
Which auto manufacturers add Bar's Leaks to every new car?
cuhulin


Subaru, for one. So what?

Back in the middle 1950s, Ford had better manufacturing than GM, (GM =
Government Motors) GM had better management.They got together and worked
things out.

Ford still does have better manufacturing than GM. (GM = Government
Motors)

Motor Trend picked Ford Fusion as car of the year for 2010.
www.motortrend.com

I snail mail subscribe to Motor Trend magazines.
cuhulin

Watching Southern Expressions on the PBS tv channel.
James ''Super Chikan'' Johnson in Clarksdale,Mississippi.Check it out,
www.superchikan.com

Next up, Mississippi Roads.
I knowwwwww a plaaaace where the Riverrr is windinnnn,,,,, Oh those
Roads,,,, Mississippi Roadddddsss,,,,,,,,,
cuhulin