[b-man]

Originally Posted by geeteeohguy

I disagree with the '79 SBC. For the most part, they were all very reliable. The first year flathead V8 had some bugs that later flathead V8's did not have. That said, they had a habit of cracking the blocks and vapor locking as part of their design. Not a super robust engine, IMO. Great for what it was at its price point 90 years ago, though. I started working in the auto industry in 1979 and can verify 100% the other engines being listed as total junk. Cadillac were the worst of the worst....and GM liked to use the consumer as their test bed, rather than the lab and test track, like the imports.

On the vapor lock issue, the flathead V8 fuel pump was mounted on the top of the intake manifold at the back, there really couldn’t have been a worse place to put it.

In 1932 they increased the number of louvers in the hood sides from 20 to 25 halfway through the year in an attempt to alleviate the overheating issue, little by little.