Editing Ford flathead V8 engine (section)

===Block===
[[File:The Valve In Block Design or Flathead Block.jpg|thumb|Engine block of a flathead V8 showing the location of the valve ports (the holes above the large cylinder bores)]]

One of the most important innovations in the Ford flathead V8 was the [[sand casting|casting]] of the [[crankcase]] and all 8 [[cylinder (engine)|cylinders]] in one [[cylinder block|engine block]]. This level of [[monobloc engine|monobloc design]] for V-8 blocks had been accomplished before,<ref name="Automobile_Trade_Journal_1916_p101A-103">{{Citation |author=Editorial staff |year=1916 |title=Pennsylvania S.A.E. section formally organized and holds first professional session |journal=Automobile Trade Journal |volume=20 |pages=101A–103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqgyAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA102 |postscript=.}}</ref> but it had never seen mass production. Making it practical for the latter was an example of the production development needed to bring a V8 engine to the widely affordable segment of the market.<ref name="Sorensen1956p225"/> Most V engines of the time had multiple cylinder blocks bolted to a common crankcase (itself a separate casting). At most, each bank of the V was an integral block, but many V engines had four- or even six-cylinder blocks, with cylinders cast in pairs or triples. Like most other engine blocks of the 20th century, it was [[cast iron]]; but the foundry practice (e.g., workflows, materials handling) was a revolutionary advancement in the mass production of castings.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp107,227-231">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=107,227–231}}.</ref> [[Charles E. Sorensen]] lived up to his longtime nickname at Ford, "Cast-Iron Charlie", by leading this revolution to bring Ford's first V8 to market.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp107,227-231" />

As with any V8, the block was relatively light for the displacement supported. The cooling jacket reaches down to the bottom dead center, which is unusually low. American engineers at the time believed this would improve the piston cooling.<ref name="K215">{{Harvnb|Kremser|1942}}. p 215</ref> The bottom of the block formed the parting line for the main bearing caps. The most complex part of the block was the exhaust passage routing. The exhaust valves were on the inside of the '''V''' and exhaust flow was initially downward and passed around the cylinders through the water jacket to exit on the outside of the cylinder block. The routing of the exhaust through the water jacket put an extremely heavy load on the cooling system and led to frequent overheating, especially on early models, if the cooling system was not maintained. Somewhat primitive water pumps used until the advent of the 1948 8RT and 1949 8BA models also contributed to the overheating problem. The space for the exhaust flow was also somewhat restricted, so the exhaust passages were tall and narrow in some locations. The gas flow past the rough sand castings could be greatly improved by polishing the passages. In early blocks, some cylinder walls were extremely thin due to cores shifting during casting.