Look what the cat dragged in! (New school year, new project)

[ashyers]

The M has survived the summer and accumulated a bit over 1000mi. blasting around the Oakland area. Short of a few oil leaks it has run well and been loads of fun. Over the summer I did a bit of searching around and came up with:

Engine FrontComp.jpg (40.36 KiB) Viewed 984 times

Engine RearComp.jpg (44.27 KiB) Viewed 984 times

I was able to find it through the MVCC, our local Military Vehicle group. It is nearly complete and appears to be a replacement engine, as there's no chassis # stamped in the block, just T245. It was removed from its previous home due to a miss. Unfortunately the miss reappeared when the replacement motor was installed! Turns out there was a bad plug wire. Ouch! When the engine was removed they swapped the heads so they could utilize the M's temp sender. It turns out the head they installed on this engine was not "a WWII" head, but the head from a 57-59 passenger car with a 7.9:1 compression ratio . I guess they used a smaller sending unit for and idiot light, not a capillary bulb for a gauge.

I've been kicking around the idea of building a flathead motor with the students and it looks like we have good foundation. I am looking to maximize torque and durability. I am not concerned about increasing the max RPM of the engine. I need the ability to pull the hills in the area and have no need to go much over 60mph with the 4:89's. The head will help in the compression department and I'm open to suggestions about other modifications.

I'm interested in anyone who has experience with:
Offenhauser 2374 - Offenhauser Dual Carburetor Intake Manifolds
Holley 5200 series carburetors (I have a few NOS Vega (!) carbs at the shop)
Edgy Dual Carb Intake Manifolds
Stromberg 97 Carbs
Langdon Exhaust Manifolds (http://www.langdonsstovebolt.com/store/ ... ory=412417)
Edgy Camshafts
Other Camshaft suppliers

I figure bumping the compression and improving efficiency of both the intake and exhaust systems will be key. I certainly don't need a long duration cam! If I'm able to get a better quality mixture to the combustion chambers than the B&B provides, clean up the valve job, and get the exhaust out smoothly I should be close. This should be fun!

Andy

[w30bob]

Andy,

Nice find. Is the intent to put it in a vehicle once built.......or is it for dyno fodder only? I don't have any experience with the parts you mentioned, other than the Vega carb (and it was not good experience) but I've seen lots of flathead sites on the web that did what you are contemplating. I'm sure you ran across them too.

Good luck and keep us posted on what works and what doesn't. Should be an interesting build.

regards,
bob

[ashyers]

Bob,
The intent at this point is to play with this motor and swap it when it's done so we can keep the truck on the road. I may do a "back to back" with the 7.9:1 cylinder head just to see what it's worth. Since we have a chassis dyno all our tests will be done with the engine in the truck. I've tried to find what I can on these motors, but there's not a whole lot documented, and what I have found is frequently geared towards HP at higher RPM.

Andy

[52 M-42]

Andy,

Have you talked to RMS yet about dual carb set-ups for these motors? He has some data and a nice collection of parts.

It might be worth your time to look him up.

Just a suggestion.