Cylinder Heads
Early on in the Flathead era, aftermarket heads were rare. What few were available were too expensive for the average kid on the street who would have his stock heads milled for more compression, or have the head chambers "filled and milled" with weld to do the job. But since no valvetrain parts were involved, casting high-compression heads for a Flathead was much simpler than making a modern OHV head, thus within a few more years, there were quite a few to choose from. In our 1948 program, finned, high-compression heads were widely available from any parts house or "speed shop" that carried brands such as Edelbrock, Evans, Weiand, Navarro, Meyer, and Offenhauser.
Another company in our program was Cannon Engineering in North Hollywood. Their specialty was custom engine building and machine work, including welding, porting, milling, and cam-grinding. They certainly upped the compression of many sets of Ford cast-iron heads for the economy-minded rodders of the day, starting with the four-banger crowd before the war. Ted Cannon used to tell how they had to deviate from usual procedure for customers in the Stock classes for the Mexican Road Races in the '50s. It seems officials checked the head dimensions on teardown, so these customers had the top of their blocks milled instead! Remarkably, Ted's son, Don, still carries the business on today, specializing in drivelines. Back in the '70s, they made us a custom driveshaft for the R&C Clean-Air Deuce highboy.
In the early days of the Flathead, piston availability was a limiting factor. With the stock-style flat-top pistons available, the raising of compression was mostly up to the head design. The stock compression of a little over 6:1 was designed for cheap gas and a marginally successful attempt to keep the Flatties from boiling. When the hot rodders who comprised the "aftermarket" at this time addressed the problem, their aluminum heads accomplished the rise in compression, some considerable reduction in engine weight, and the finned aluminum helped out on getting heat out of the engine. Of course, they looked cool, too. With minor casting/machining differences in the same head, street compression ratios could be produced from 7:1 to over 8:1, and racing versions offered 8.5:1 to 10:1. The interesting thing from today's vantage point is how many such heads were made for engines we wouldn't guess were popular. Six-cylinder engines were also candidates for a dual or triple intake manifold and a finned, high-compression head (Flatheads); Weiand advertised a head for Studebaker sixes, Edelbrock had them for the Lincoln Flathead V-8, and other companies served the needs of speed/economy seekers with Hudsons and some other cars.
In the second installment of this story, we'll look at the pioneers in camshafts, ignition systems, and engine builders, and a retailer, and try to sum up the incredible advances of the hot rod/speed equipment business from after the Flathead era to the bewildering array of professionally made products we enjoy today for customizing and hot rodding basically the same types of cars these early pioneers were fooling with. We won't talk about inflation, or the $50 Deuce roadsters they could get!