[Bill Eveland]

That car looks great. It would totally kill it putting a v-8 in it. It's lasted this long with the straight 8, no need to change it and you should be able to get it running good and just enjoy driving it.

Instead of finding a high compression head, you could always mill yours down but will need to do some work to the top of the cylinders to help with the airflow. I would tune it up and get it running good before I made any major changes to the engine, or if any at all.

[Rusty]

Bill,

That's a good point. I'm leaning toward doing just some bolt on items for fun/interest, such as a dual carb intake (possibly) if I can find one and maybe just making a header. I guess I'm not overly worried about the performance aspect of the car, because like I said, I don't think it's ever going to really move out. I'm really just interested in the reliability factor with it. Starting soon, I hope to start digging into the starting issues I was having with it in the fall, and possibly rewiring it to a 12 volt system.

It's a pretty neat car that I think I was pretty lucky to come across for $5200. It has every chrome option that I can find for the car, so I guess I'd really like to just dress up the motor compartment a little bit.

I'm also really interested in trying to adapt power steering onto the straight 8 if anyone has any experience with that, or knows anyone whom might know, let me know. I want my wife to be able to drive this as easily as I can, but with the "strongarm" steering in it now, I don't think she'd feel comfortable driving it.

[gregneun]

keep it original or make sure that you save all of the parts to bring it back to original.

This means, don't cut the inner fender wells for a welded in V-8.

There are not many cars like that left, especially in MN. The Straight 8 is basically a dog, performance wise, but I'd embrace that. The 12 volt conversions sounds ok, and I can't clue you in the PS conversion.

You have an early 50's Pontiac. No one else at the drive-in will have anything similar. You may find some early 50's chevy's, but they are not 2 door Pontiacs.

It would make a good rod, but there are a lot of rods out there.

Just my $0.02,
Greg

[53texponcho]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Bill,

That's a good point. I'm leaning toward doing just some bolt on items for fun/interest, such as a dual carb intake (possibly) if I can find one and maybe just making a header. I guess I'm not overly worried about the performance aspect of the car, because like I said, I don't think it's ever going to really move out. I'm really just interested in the reliability factor with it. Starting soon, I hope to start digging into the starting issues I was having with it in the fall, and possibly rewiring it to a 12 volt system.

It's a pretty neat car that I think I was pretty lucky to come across for $5200. It has every chrome option that I can find for the car, so I guess I'd really like to just dress up the motor compartment a little bit.

I'm also really interested in trying to adapt power steering onto the straight 8 if anyone has any experience with that, or knows anyone whom might know, let me know. I want my wife to be able to drive this as easily as I can, but with the "strongarm" steering in it now, I don't think she'd feel comfortable driving it.

If you can't find a high compression head 7.7 compression you could have your head milled. I have a 53 and my problem was my engine was shot so I opted to go with a 55 Pontiac V8. It has been a struggle getting the correct parts but for double the horsepower I hope it's worth it. I am converting to 12 volt and you will need to get the good heavy duty voltage reducers for your radio and do some rewireing for the alternator. Your car looks good now so I stay with the straight 8 and just go throught the engine. Good luck and let us all know how it turns out.

[Jack Gifford]

Originally Posted by Bill Eveland

... Instead of finding a high compression head, you could always mill yours down...

Unfortunately, that's usually not effective on a flathead, since it negatively affects breathing around the valve heads. Combustion chamber configuration in a flathead is a whole 'nuther subject. But that doesn't mean there's no knowledge out there- you just need to tap into it.

[Bill Eveland]

All I meant Jack was instead of trying to locate a factory high compression head, he could mill his. I agree thats just one piece of the package to upgrade the performance. Just only changing the head would have no real differance if thats all that was done. Unless were talking aluminum than at least for looks it would look nicer.

Originally Posted by pontiac jack

Unfortunately, that's usually not effective on a flathead, since it negatively affects breathing around the valve heads. Combustion chamber configuration in a flathead is a whole 'nuther subject. But that doesn't mean there's no knowledge out there- you just need to tap into it.