What Are The Best Years........

For me it was the late 90's. It was awesome as an early teen to show up to our local track and have 125 plus entries of ALL flatheads. Junior 1, 2 and 3 along with adult stock lite, medium, heavy and limited modified heavy! At the age of 14 I personally built my first limited flathead from an old tiller motor and money I had saved up cutting grass on the side with my grandfather.

I'll also mention 2018 when I won the Flathead 370 track championship at one of my favorite local tracks. Unfortunately after the last race that season they locked the gate never to reopen it again :(.

#FLATHEADSFOREVER
 
Two letters would get my attention at a yard sale or whatever was two letters l/C i knew it was a steel bore with better seats, possably dual bearing and some had a plastic intake manifold that you could adapt some float carbs from some bigger motors like the Tecumseh 10's. cool bores seemed faster but the alky took a lot of life out of them probably my fault as I built all my own motors because cheap and poor at the same time....also i've never heard a clone sound as good as a flatty at full spin.
 
Some of the older blocks (early '80s) had good intake port locations. The first 135 fat blocks were real good. Some preferred the red paint of the first motorsports engines, personally I never saw the difference from the black ones other than the paint color.
Today, I would take the Raptor 4 block any day over sorting through old donor blocks. The R4 block itself is so much better, and you end up dropping seats and installing guides anyhow.



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🏁Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
Carlson Motorsports on Facebook
32 years of service to the karting industry ~ 1Cor 9:24
Linden, IN
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
 
How do you tell what block is what? I know a decent amount about the flatheads and stuff like that but I dodnt know how to identify a certain flathead block.
 
And how about the later Engines? Ya know, the one's that had the Throttle and Choke Controls on the side with that Plate, and they had the big Welch Plug in the end of the Carb? Better or worse than the older Engines that had the Pull Choke in the end of the Carb?
 
Badrooster said:
And how about the later Engines? Ya know, the one's that had the Throttle and Choke Controls on the side with that Plate, and they had the big Welch Plug in the end of the Carb? Better or worse than the older Engines that had the Pull Choke in the end of the Carb?
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As outdated as these engines are I'd stop looking into them if I were you lol. By the time you figure it all out they will b long extinct. Lol. Save your time money and brain space for clones or predators. But yes the Welch plug type are the the best ones and also the only type legal to race with.
 
R4's were never offered as an assembled engine. They were only ever offered with steel sleeve and dual bearing.
The block is considerably stronger. The lifter galley does not needed welded because the casting mold was opened up to allow more material around the lifter bores. No oil drain plug in the rear, and more.
 
this last weekend after I looked at the lap times I realized the briggs flathead is such an archaic poor design of a motor that even a blueprinted one with a port job, open pipe, trick cam, springs, billet connecting rod, reworked carburetor, running on alcohol does about as well on the track as a $99.00 off the shelf Chinese pressure washer motor running low octane pump gas. Sad but true.

the best thing about the old flathead is that it was the only motor to choose from and was legal all over the country. the nostalgia around the flathead was, bigger kart counts, tighter competition and it was cheaper. one motor one set of rules. big money races, prep/tire game, 3-4 sanctioning bodies (with different motor rules), and 3 different motors ruined all of that. IMO
 
J'-remy said:
this last weekend after I looked at the lap times I realized the briggs flathead is such an archaic poor design of a motor that even a blueprinted one with a port @
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I think you are missing the point of the flathead. Of course the junk China motor is faster than it. Apples and oranges friend. Sort of like a Harley and a crotch rocket. I like my random oil leaks on the garage floor, I like lapping the valves once a week, along with the compression balls punching the followers in the face. As long as I can pull the rope I'll always enjoy the sound, feel, and troubles a good flathead produced. I hope you don't enjoy paying them sweat shop slave drivers for a power supply that keeps you on edge praying the flywheel don't kill you and the spectators. Sure u can throw a couple thousand at it but it will still never compare to an animal or equal mods. Plus that's a more fair head to head ain't it???
 
FlatheadsForever87 said:
I think you are missing the point of the flathead. Of course the junk China motor is faster than it. Apples and oranges friend. Sort of like a Harley and a crotch rocket. I like my random oil leaks on the garage floor, I like lapping the valves once a week, along with the compression balls punching the followers in the face. As long as I can pull the rope I'll always enjoy the sound, feel, and troubles a good flathead produced. I hope you don't enjoy paying them sweat shop slave drivers for a power supply that keeps you on edge praying the flywheel don't kill you and the spectators. Sure u can throw a couple thousand at it but it will still never compare to an animal or equal mods. Plus that's a more fair head to head ain't it???
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don't get me wrong I would like nothing more than return to 1 motor platform with one set of rules along with amateur classes. if briggs didn't keep milking that dinosaur flat head for a million years until the EPA shut it down, they would have been way ahead of the game as far as the clone goes. Over head valves have been around since 1910. Edsel has a 32 valve overhead cam V8. really a flat head that tech was old 100 years ago.
 
J'-remy said:
don't get me wrong I would like nothing more than return to 1 motor platform with one set of rules along with amateur classes. if briggs didn't keep milking that dinosaur flat head for a million years until the EPA shut it down, they would have been way ahead of the game as far as the clone goes. Over head valves have been around since 1910. Edsel has a 32 valve overhead cam V8. really a flat head that tech was old 100 years ago.
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Ever heard of an animal?
 
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