All this flathead 6 talk has me remembering a wooden boat rotting in a friend's backyard in the '70s, the big inboard flathead 6 looked very Chrysler to me. The cylinder head said, "Gray Marine" or something like that. Does anyone have any connections with this sort of thing? Any speed parts for that beast?

Thanks,
R.

Sorry, further investigation says it was a Continental, who bought the company after WWII.

How about some Chrysler flathead 6 sped parts, though? Not the Plymouth/Dodge 6 that was known in my parts as "the engine with the lead crank" because they were soft.

R.

try looking thru the HAMB, the P-15/D24 site and the Chrysler club sites.
I do know that the big 6 is a lot harder to find speed parts for, but they are out there.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=259263&highlight=chrysler+flathead

http://www.edgyspeedshop.com/products.html

Thanks, Rod.
R

hey dogdays; my dad bought a late 40s early 50s wooden speed boat that had a 4cyc (cast in block Chrysler gray marine) motor with a 2 spd fwd and rev. it looked like a continental. Chrysler built marine engines for the navy, pt boats. these engines could run on low octane gas, rather than av gas that the Allison and rolls Royce aircraft engines needed. never thought about hopping one up. mikeh

More internet crap.......all of those 'soft' cranks were forged and some of the best pieces made by any of the manufacturers.
I'm betting that a disgruntled shiverlay sort needed to make his-self feel better about his old dip-n-throw...

So why were they notorious for breaking cranks like my '56 did? Broke at the rear main journal.

Kevin.

Soft bends, not breaks.

Probably from an over rev situation. Long stroke cranks do not like to be over rev'd.

Heck, I've seen 318 cranks break at the center journal, no one says they are soft.

I had some friends that spent many years junking cars. When it comes to crankshafts, those guys made more money if those cranks were broke to shorter then 2' long pieces. It was common practice to break all 6 & straight 8 cranks in 1/2. They accomplished that by setting rocks under both ends of a crank, and throwing another crank against the middle of the one supported by the rocks. Normally, one or two tosses would result in two broken cranks. Those guys (one happened to be a Ford fan, and the other a GM fan) both commented that they loved it when the Chrysler flathead 6 motors came in because they would use the Mopar crank as the throwee, usually the Mopar cranks would break anywhere between 2 and 3 of the other brand cranks before it broke. You can't make this stuff up. Gene

The Chrysler flathead 6 was used quite a bit as a marine engine. I believe it was sometimes called the "Chrysler Crown". I have operated a boat with one.

As far as meaningful hop up, not a good candidate. Long light rods, very close siamesed bores on the 230 and limited breathing.

You can get a moderate cam and some guys have installed dual carbs. Either or both might help a little. I run the cam in a PW. It seems to help a bit between 2500/3000 RPM which is really rolling for one of these guys.