Bob Denton sent us a cool picture of his flathead motors – one with Stromberg carbs. “Here is my flathead with three Stromberg 97’s on an Evans manifold. The heads are custom by Big Boys”, he said. Ok, I thought. Got me there. Never heard of ’em! I better find out more..
“Big Boy heads were made in Bakersfield, California”, says Bob, “by a company called CMC Engineering. I do not believe there are more than a dozen sets of these heads around. As you can see, they are quite thick due to the increased cooling capacity and they have a Ford V8 60 type water manifold on them. The company is gone. I bought these in the early nineties along with a new French block, pistons, 4” crank, and everything I needed to assemble a mean flathead. I never got around to it. And I still haven’t. However, I’ve decided to use the heads on the Mercury because I wanted to use the Evans intake with the Strombergs and Evans didn’t run a fan/generator bracket on the front of the manifold. As with all 8BA heads, the water port precludes the use of a side/head mounted generator. I am still debating this intake. I may wind up, if I stay with Evans, putting the generator low right and running a a separate belt off the crank for it.
The 8BA in my roadster is my prized engine, but it runs two DCOE Webers. The engine itself is an “overbuilt” flathead. Chevy valve seats, big valves reinforced bottom end, etc. The blower is by Jerry Magnuson. It was designed by him to go on a SBC. Jerry’s friend Tom Roberts made the pieces to put his regular (conventional) blowers on flatheads. The many pieces needed to put this blower on my flathead were made for me by Roberts. Again, this is probably a one-off. Quite honestly, I’m terrified to start it for fear I’ll blow it up. I have that much money invested in it. And I’m getting close to it being ready. Clive, I love flatheads. Always have. My first flathead was in a 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe I bought in 1956 for $24.00 and drove it home. My mother had a fit. How could I waste my money?”
I just saw a set of those heads for the first time today up in Kernville car show.
I commented to my friend on how thick they were. I had some Sharp heads back in 1960 and I thought they were the thickest around at that time.
NICE engines!!!!!!!!!! Glenn
Help Ford Barn
I am trying to make a decision as to use the big boy heads as shown in the picture on my flathead project. The flathead is 3-5/16 with a ¼ inch stroke, ¾ cam and three carburetors. The 59AB flathead is in a 34 five window coupe frame.
Dan
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Hi Dan, I am not sure the pics appeared here. We will email you in reply. Thanks.
Clive, I live in Northern CA and have, what I believe to be, the last set of Big Boys manuf. I purchased over 20 years ago and have been waiting for the “right rod” to put them in. I had the heads and water intakes polished and paired them with a Eddie Meyer vintage dual carb water cooled manifold is extremely rare as well. I am building an engine for my 46 Ford convertible but the car is not suitable for these items as they all deserve to be displayed and my car would hide them. The set up is priceless to me as I could never replace it. But if someone were interested, think high!
I’m interested in the heads. Let me know what you are asking for them. I’m in southern CA.
Sorry Tim, just saw your reply on Big Boy heads. If still interested email me at jerry@mortgagemarket.net. Jerry
I am going to sell the Big Boy heads w/water intakes, Eddie Meyer intake manifold, with chrome 97’s. All items are polished and new except for the intake manifold that looks like it was used, back in the day, but it is hard to tell from “new”. Intake manifold is water cooled as well. A RARE SET UP. I bought the last set of heads about 25 years ago from the guy that made them. The carbs where purchased new about 10 years ago and the manifold I purchased from a collector on E-Bay about 20 years ago. If you are interested in the set………jerry@mortgagemarket.net. CA