1949 silver streak 8 engine

I was looking at a 1949 Pontiac with a silver streak 8 engine. Just wanted to get some information on the engine. Are they reliable? Parts still available? stuff like that.

Thanks in advance.:cool:

They were considered a reliable motor in their day but that was a long time ago. Generally speaking the life of a flathead anything was not as long as the new generation of OHV V8s and 6s then being brought out. And they were not as long lived as the engines of today.

If the engine is in good shape and you baby it a little it should last quite a while, given the low mileage such cars rack up. Normal engine life would be about 50000 to 80000 depending how well it was maintained. In those days if a car lasted 100000 miles it was something of a miracle unless the engine had been rebuilt at least once.

One novel feature on flathead Pontiacs was an oil filter built onto the oil pump. It could only be accessed by removing the oil pan, it was supposed to be cleaned out when the engine was rebuilt. In view of the car's age it might be a good idea to drop the pan and clean it out.

Are they reliable? us kids tried to blow one up back when they were a dime a dozen. Gas sand rocks in the crankcase a rock on the gas pedal it would just slow down and

stop - soon as it cooled down it would start right up again. It simply would not die. Got a whopping 5 bucks from the junkyard. So thats reliable......