Pictures of a French flathead engine
French flathead engine. These were made for the French military up through the 1980's. The engine has late 8AB style heads but the bell housing is similar to the 59AB.
The distributor is the later 8AB style. The water pump pulleys have different diameters. The crank pulley drives several belts.
Top view of the crank shaft pulley. You can see that the water pumps are driven by different belts.
Detail showing the lefthand (driver's side) water pump. I assume the bracket is for a generator.
Detail of the front of the intake manifold. On an 8AB engine, the crankcase vent tube would be here. Something similar seems to come off the right hand side instead.
Left hand exhaust manifold showing the cast bell housing and the starter motor.
Trying to show some of the identification code cast into the bell housing.
More identification numbers on a plate riveted to the engine, but the flash made the numbers unreadable (without the flash, it would have been too dark)
Rear of the engine. In addition to the oil filter, these engines have a mechanical governor and a revolution counter. Remember, they were built for the military, not for racing.
Detail of the revolution counter. No, I don't believe it only turned exactly 100 revolutions! But I'm not sure why it wasn't set to 0 either.
Part of the exhaust manifold on the right side of the engine. These used dual exhaust (no crossover).
Exhaust manifold on the left side. Makes you wonder what sort of vehicle it was in. On American made cars (left hand drive), the steering box causes problems for exhaust headers on this side.
Top of the engine showing the carburetor, fuel pump, and governor at the back of the block.