We just happened to find a video that hit YouTube on June 21, making it pretty fresh, with some unusual content. If you’ve ever wondered if an engine can run without a cylinder head on a bank of cylinders, check out this video of an early flathead Ford engine doing just that.

There is a lot of unusual things going on here, like no generator or belt that drives the generator and water pumps. These Flatties tended to be tea kettles and run hot anyway, but not having any cooling can’t be helping that at all. It also appears to be a 24-stud flathead, which was developed to provide more clamping power to the cylinder heads. Cylinder head clamping power isn’t an issue in this video.

It’s almost a shame to see an old flathead abused that way, but  for the purpose of education, it’s interesting to watch the valves open and close in synchronization with the piston movement.

It has always been fun to watch the pushrod type engine with the valve covers off as the rocker arms see-saw like an old oil derrick pump. This is one of the few times that you get to see the valve face moving as the piston moves at the same time.

Sadly, we don’t get to see how violent the air flow and combustion is with the cylinder head in place. That would be truly amazing.