[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Well, RiT, my first thought was that we mustn't assume that this picture actually dates from 1947--for '48-'50 California used year tabs on '47 plate. Perhaps, I thought, this might explain the front-mounted water outlets... But then I see that the LAPL caption gives the date precisely as July 23, 1947... so it seems that this is indeed 1947:



LAT July 24, 1947


So.. perhaps these heads are aftermarket... the intake manifold certainly does not appear to be stock Ford... the generator seems higher than it usually is... maybe this isn't a Ford flathead at all...I mean, those water pumps are pretty high....

Good thinking! It is not a Ford flathead. It is a Cadillac and I'm thinking with that side-by-side dual carb setup it may be a variation of the ones used in WWII M-5 Tanks. This one looks similar but with the tubes which are actually exhaust pipes coming right out of runners (not the radiator hoses). For whatever reason it appears the engine were mounted backwards in a tank. Likely because of the dual Hydra-Matic transmissions that connected to the track via a transfer case. The one in the hot rod appears it might be mounted backwards to what a Cadillac car engine would have been.

http://www.cadillacdatabase.org

Here's a 1938 Caddy V16 with the same carb setup



http://c.barat.free.fr/cadillac/cadillac.html