This change has unleashed significantly more power and should make the old Ford a lively performer. $22.99. The earlier four-bangers were an entirely different matter, as the Model T, A and B gave rise to an enormous number of full racing conversions: Frontenac, Hal, Cragar, McDowell, Dreyer and Winfield, to name just the most famous ones. $29.99 - $89.99. The companys Los Angeles salesman Dewey Gatson helped popularize the heads. The FE,,, are all iron, and bloody heavy. Allard was the sole customer of Arduns Made in England and a small brass plaque replaced the cast-in words New York. They specialize in building flathead Ford V8s and Lincoln V12s and the production of Navarro Racing Equipment, Sharp Speed & Power Equipment, Austin Speed Equipment and, most recently, Wilson & Woods 8BA heads and Dixon sohv heads. Racing was, for the most part, suspended and RAJO made parts for tractors, tanks and war goods built by Caterpillar, Cadillac and U.S. Rubber Co. After the war, Jagersberger designed the compound induction cylinder head for the 1941-1952 Chevrolet 216-cid in-line six. Add to cart. History - Valve in head conversions for Flathead V8 They actually deserve their own thread!! In 1918, Jagersberger manufactured and marketed the first RAJO cylinder head that converted a flathead engine into an overhead valve power plant. The famous Ferguson racing family would continue to develop them to set Bonneville records. In 1946, he opened Scotty's Muffler in San Bernardino. Shortly after the Second World War, brothers Zora and Yura Arkus-Duntov immigrated from Germany to the United States to start an engineering R&D company. Ford passed, so Zora went ahead and, with the engineering help of George Kudasch, designed a kit. A Ford FE from the factory weighed 650lb (295kg) with all iron components, while similar seven-liter offerings from GM and Chrysler weighed over 700lb (318kg). We're not around right now. Ardun heads are the ultimate upgrade for a Flathead Ford V8 engine. He has also been recognized by the Model T Ford Club of America. The Serr-Miller overhead valve conversion boasts an engine dynamometer proven 142 HP and 200 lb-ft. of torque and has a tendency to make other Model A/B's feel insignificant. He was an automobile demonstrator and public relations man. After almost two years and more than 1,000 hours of testing on his own GE dyno, the Ardun-headed engine put out only 160 bhp. My ex-boss raced a sportsman at three different tracks each week for 5 years without doing anything to the engine beyond fluids and plugs. 190-230+ DEGREES. In fact, within just the last five to 10 years, that progress has been even more rapid and impressive, but few progressions have been more astonishing than those within the Pro Mod Diesel realm. Early versions reportedly had the intake coming in on the outside of the head. See for yourself a 1948 Ford Flathead V8 Reegineerd by Pete and Kevin Braun. By the early '50s, Scotty's Muffler was racing an Ardun-powered belly tank at Santa Ana Drags and at Bonneville. Within the family of Ford engines of the time, the FE was neither the largest nor smallest block. In 1952, a similar engine was installed in the Hill & Davis City of Burbank streamliner and set a flying mile record of 229.77 mph. About H&H Flatheads: Founded in 2003 by Mike Herman, H&H Flatheads is celebrating its 15th anniversary. The hours used to be few a week but now I believe it has regular hours. It didn't take long for HOT ROD and other automotive magazines to take notice of the Ardun. In 1897, he began his racing career in France. They do deserve a separate thread. Wisconsin native Harry Miller, who was building race cars in Los Angeles then, was a customer. He further claims 225 foot-pounds of torque at 2500 rpm and says that his engine . A step by step book on how to identfy and rebuild a ford flatheads. Jagersberger lost his right leg and an eye and spent months in the hospital recuperating. One of the most outspoken fans of the Ardun Head V-8 was Willie Glass, who set records at Bonneville with an Ardun engine, and the engine you see pictured here, which will be up for auction at Mecum's Indianapolis event (May 13-21), was acquired from Glass. He also made many improvements to his cylinder heads as well. Not only does it help to lubricate your vehicles engine, it also offers many additional benefits, including reducing friction and wear on moving parts, cooling the engine down, and keeping it clean. Cast aluminum Italmecannica oil pans are around $1,400. Consider supporting the Flat-Spot by becoming a Premium Member. Copyright 2023 BangShift LLC. The conversion was so adaptable that V2 versions were even made for Harleys. As mentioned earlier, his modification to the Stivebolt sixs 15-bolt overhead valve cylinder head added another set of three intake ports above the three originals. There was a time when Ardun overhead-valve cylinder heads were incredibly rare. The downside was trifold: The assembly was 12-inches wider than stock, it weighed an additional 60 lb and it wasnt cheap being cast from heat-treated, 355-T6 Alcoa aluminum alloy. Yeah, the 255ci in the 1953 Mercury was making 125 hp, but that's still not a hugely impressive number. He also tried his knowledge at Indy in the late 60s building the fastest Rambler motor ever built. Available with center water neck. 8 in the first Indy 500. Custom Cars . Flathead Ford Cylinder Head Stand Offs . Nevertheless, the Allard-Ardun showed great promise. And the old four bangers especially were notoriously difficult in maintenance, it's been said that e.g. Charles Scott passed away later that year. The Ford Flathead engine page. $32.00. A bit prehistoric for him. V8 faltheads were mostly a hot-rodders thing, they were not very successful in racing apart from a very few exceptions. Available in black t-shirt or white t-shirt. He started The Hot Rod Shop in 1945 where he fixed and customized cars. Founder: The Flat-Spot I am a graphic and web designer by trade. Interestingly, the Ardun had short intake rockers and long exhaust rockers, and was developed in 1947, four years before the similar Chrysler Hemi engine's debut in 1951. Rare 1948 Overhead Cam Ford Flathead V8 Motor. Aardema & Braun Joseph W. Jagersberger was a very early racing car driver who competed against Louis Chevrolet prior to the first Indianapolis 500-mile Race. The cover and tubes were supposed to keep water from shorting out the plug wires. Vintage Overhead Valve Conversions for the Ford Flathead After the race, Zora went to England and convinced Allard to hire him. Ford Flathead Gearbox Conversion - M47 Volvo . Out of the crate in 1932 the 221 ci produced only 65 bhp and even by the end of its life in 1953 the 239 ci flattie only produced 110. Made in. It was easy to keep one runningn ot requiring a lot of attention. "Easy to keep running and not requiring a lot of attention" are attributes which are not really relevant in racing. He also bought photos, timing tags, and other memorabilia from the car's racing career. Zora retained a royalty for every pair sold. Members get discounts with well known retailers, a cool membership packet full of goodies and your membership goes toward helping us upkeep and expand on this great archive. The article posted is in a wonderful museum who has a collection of engines, not all Fords, but this article is just about the flat-head Ford V-8 collection he has at the American Museum of Speed. Or the 429/460. Related Articles Import Engines: A Look, A Hearse isnt your typical drag car, but that didnt stop Jason Pickett from outfitting his 1993 Buick Roadmaster Hearse with all the necessities for the track and the street, including a twin-turbo LS3 engine. Looking For 24 Hour Tech Help With Your Flathead? THE BIG LS CAM MATRIX-HOW MUCH POWER EVERY LS CAM WILL MAKE BASED ON DURATION. In 69 Chevrolet had an aluminium engine available! Only 200 to 250 sets were originally made. There was also a RAJO Model A that used the stock intake ports on the block and had two exhaust ports on the right. Austin Lincoln 337 Heads 33 vote (s) 33.3% Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 Next > porknbeaner Member from North Central Missouri So as most people know I am Mr Valve in head. Barney Navarro started machining Weiand speed equipment right before he started making his own in 1947. There has been a couple in classic midgets and sound great but struggle to do more than around 10 laps. Successful Ardun-powered cars include Alex Xydias' famous SO-CAL Speed Shop coupe and the Scotty's Muffler belly tank, the first open-wheeled car to go 200 mph. Once Ford introduced an overhead valve four in the redesigned NAA and offered a live PTO as an option, Funk-converted 8Ns probably seemed like oddballs to buyers. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality. How Chevy Designed the Worlds Largest Flat-Plane-Crankshaft V-8 for the 2023 Corvette Z06. Automotive resolved many of the Arduns flaws and ran over 160 mph at Bonneville in 1951. A limited number of overhead valve 6 cylinder kits were also sold before production of the conversion kits stopped in 1953. Ford Flathead V-8-N - Marvin Baumann Antique Tractors It was an ordinary-looking 1952 Chevrolet Styleline Deluxe sedan until the owner James W. Hass opened the hood. There is nothing more significant of the importance and value of this intensive work than the fact that today, the first RAJO sold is still giving that wonderful RAJO service that only this head can give.. The Chevrolet brothers' OHV head gave Ford's Lizzie new legs During the 1930s and 1940s, there was an intense rivalry between cars with RAJO power and Frontenacs that the Chevrolet brothers developed in the 1920s. The Ardun's heat-treated cast-aluminum heads feature hemispherical combustion chambers and equally spaced exhaust ports. The Model 35 became the Model C. On June 18, 1919, Jagersberger married Amanda Olle. These engines were the V8-60 block as revamped in France by Ford (taking them to 2350cc) and then Simca, then retooled in South America to have the ports removed from the blocks and bores enlarged again to take them to 2500cc. In stock shape. Ardun heads are the ultimate upgrade for a Flathead Ford V8 engine. Cotton Werksman's famous T ran an Ardun long before repops were available. The Ford Flathead V8 had become an almost ubiquitous performance engine in the United States since its introduction in 1932, as it was cheap to buy and easy to fix. It was also compatible with the Ford block and valvetrain, used the stock cam, and had hemispherical combustion chambers and large intake valves for improved performance. A lot heavier than a small block Chev, or small block Fords. Besides the Ford flathead, H&H also specializes in Ardun conversions as well as rebuilding other vintage engines including Y-Block Ford, Nailhead Buicks and Chrysler Hemis. Theyre the pinnacle of drag racing, and the engine builders, crew chiefs and teams who make these cars function at peak performance all season long are looking at every single area of the engine and the car to make it down the track as fast as possible. Edited by Bob Riebe, 09 February 2021 - 02:35. Efforts to produce more successful Ardun heads continued, however. In 1921, RAJO equipped cars took second and third place out of a field of 14 starters in a July 10 race at Independence, Mo. When Dees passed away in 1996, David Simard bought this famous engine. He apprenticed for four years in the automakers Vienna factory. Flathead Ford Valve Pilot Modification . H&H Top Dead Center T-shirt is printed on 100% cotton. But hot rodders are a resourceful bunch, and even before the factory overheads became a threat, they were repurposing and fabricating overhead conversions of their own to be fitted to the beloved flathead. History - Valve in head conversions for Flathead V8 [IMG] At Bill's. Ford experimental SOHC 1938'[IMG] At Bill's place.Well not dohc but sure would like to know how the push rods get from the exh. The engine pictured has stock Ford exhaust valves. Ray Brock of HOT ROD called it, A great hot water heater.. Drag racing changed a lot in the 60's, and Dick Landy was right in the middle of it all. Related: Mark of Zora2020 C8 Corvette Fulfills GM Visionary's Mid-Engine Quest. This one was twin cam, 16 valves, 1920s, on a production block. Yet another oddball engine design by automotive legend Pete Aardema. I have seen a Frontenac T racer which sounded quite sharp on leaving the venue. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------. 240ci 6, 302W V8, 351W V8, 400M engine V8 and 429 both base models and Super cobrajets as well as the venerable 390 in base and 4 barrell form. John. He has done some odd OHV Fords such as the MEL thing for an engine power competition. Somewhere in the range of 1,500-1,700 horsepower, this LS-powered 68 Chevelle made a new personal best pass for owner Tanner Stover at Sick Week this year. Everything you need to convert a 1928-1934 Ford, four-cylinder engine to full (intake and exhaust) overhead is right here! Stephens overhead valve conversion to flathead v8 skeeterbuilt 50 subscribers Subscribe 29K views 11 years ago This is 1 of 4 known to exist. After his apprenticeship, Jagersberger went to work at Mercedes main factory in Stuttgart, Germany. Metal Flat-Spot License Plate. Funk built a series of conversion kits for the 8N that exchanged the stock inline-four for a flathead inline-six, a flathead V-8, or a Ford industrial overhead-valve 215-cubic-inch inline-six. Tom Senter wrote a series of Ardun White Papers that appeared in Rod & Custom in the early 70s. It came in three versions, with the BB having a higher compression ratio and the BB-R using two spark plugs per cylinder. In spite of the Rube Goldberg nature of this setup, they were very successful, especially in the hands of flathead masters Clem TeBow and Don Clark at C-T Automotive (see above for more on their work with the Ardun). Cornhusker Rod & Custom, Inc. Borg Warner T-5 overdrive transmission conversions, . To find out more about Lot S197 or to become a bidder, visit the Mecum Auctions listing. The advancements within the performance diesel world over the past 20 years have been nothing short of phenomenal. Bolt-On Hemispherical Heads for a Small-Block Ford - Street Muscle It belonged to someone who had purchased it with plans to race it but never got around to it. "It only made sense to honor both Senter and Scotty by joining these two together," he told us. It was very obvious as early as the late teens [now over a 100 years ago] that OHV was going to be better and was simpler to cast as well. Van Ranst created a cylinder head that was both powerful and durable. Zora Arkus-Duntov went to England, where he worked for Allard Motor Company, which offered Ardun engines in its aluminum-bodied J2 sports cars. His success with USAC earned him a ride in the 1974 Indianapolis 500 in this very car. They lived at 320 14th St. in Racine. If so the tooling would have had to be modified though with the volume I guess that was not that hard. Joe Jagersberger then passed away, leaving a long legacy of automotive achievements behind him. Unfortunately, he did not finish. That's the only way I could afford to do it and I had seen how these guys and so many others did it. And was still around 50years later and saw off many 'replacement' engines such as the Clevo/ M engines. Later versions (like those featured here) used adapters to allow for a stock-style flathead intake manifold. But before he rose to fame, he created these heads to improve upon the flathead's relatively low power and tendency to overheat. Bloody dreadfull in a Mustang etc as they were so heavy and destroyed any balance the cars have. In 1949, his grandfather Joe Jagersberger developed this so-called Compound Induction Cylinder Head for the Chevrolet engine. Ardun OHV Conversion - Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed Is a Flathead Ford still a flathead with a valve in head conversion Yes damn sure is :D 66 vote (s) 66.7% Oh hell no!!!!!! For the last few months, we've been hanging out with youvirtually, of courseat East Coast Custom in Leominster, Massachusetts, David's Boston-area shop and the barn that houses his impressive corral of traditional hot rods. Rather than have the middle pair of exhaust ports asthmatically siamesed into one, the Ardun, a contraction of ARkus-DUNtov, breathed better through four equally spaced ports. This engine ran at the August 1950 Bonneville Speed meet in a streamliner sponsored by Lee's Speed shop. Austin Lincoln 337 32 Barrel Intake Manifold, Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 3:00pm Let us count the ways. Did Ford ever learn? Those V12s were even worse. I believe the Ardun heads were used in South America on production engines. H&H started in 1972 with rebuilding all early Ford Flathead engines from Model A, B's, T's and V8 Ford Flatheads from 1932-36, LB's, 59A's, 8BA's,V8 60's, Lincoln 337, Lincoln V12's and Y Block Ford and Mercury. Watch . All FE and FT engines have a bore spacing (distance between cylinder centers) of 4.630in (117.6mm), and a deck height (distance from crank center to top of block) of 10.170in (258.3mm). The next year a RAJO modified engine won Noel Bullocks Pikes Peak Championship. Blower Kits. Made in the USA. These heads were built by Rudy Moller and Kenny Adams and used a hemispherical combustion chamber that was similar to the Ardun, but used some complex rocker geometry to make it happen. Between 1907 and 1909, he built and raced the speedboats Miss America 1 and Miss America 2. Engine Masters? R. randytrish. Its everything you need to make the conversion. The famous Ferguson racing family would continue to develop them to set Bonneville records. Later, Jagersberger did the same for Harry Harkness, vice president of Standard Oil Co. and a copper baron named McCoy. Miller Hi-Speed HeadsProducts - MILLER HI-SPEED HEADS TMCP #542: Ask Rick Mecum 23 Indy Auction Recap, What Sold, What Did Not, and Why You Need To Check The Paperwork! The conversion sold for a hefty $500 and installation took six skilled hours. Eventually, Don passed the project on to Don Ferguson who continues to produce the heads further updated with modern technology. But prehistoric in the 70s. The home of the Ford Flathead rebuilding specialist from mild to wild. If you have something to share let us know. AD adapted Subaru flat-4 heads to ancient 1928-31 Ford Model A L-head blocks, netting. Flat-Spot Have You Driven License Plate Topper. The OG Movie Review of The Fast and the Furious, 229 Mike Keller And Mason Drehs: A conversation between an 18 year old builder and a veteran builder, 228: Lonestar Round Up And Stray Kat 500 Recap, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Of course supercharging can absolve many sins of inefficient design so that's often the configuration seen on record cars. We are always looking for good bang shifty stories, projects, photos & videos. Each of the carburetors was engineered to feed fuel to all six cylinders. Technical Riley OHV V8's-Flathead Conversion and SOHC Of course, no engine is perhaps quite as stunning as a fully polished Ardun especially when fitted with one of the Italmeccanica oil pans and a S.Co.T. Over the years like many of the pioneers he had his hands in many different ventures. Two thousand inquiries resulted from a feature in Popular Mechanics but few sales materialized. A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine or valve-in-block engine is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as in an overhead valve engine.. Flatheads were widely used internationally by automobile manufacturers from the late 1890s until the mid-1960s but were replaced by more efficient overhead valve . The Duntov Brothers (and others) sought to solve this problem with OHV conversion kits, some . Are we supposed to stop? Ken Austin grew up on a farm in Newberg, Oregon where his interest in cars started when he got his permit to drive to school. Talk to the experts. How cool is that? History Valve in head conversions for Flathead V8 Modern Ardun - MotorTrend Consider supporting[]. Working with designer George Kudash in New York, the Arkus-Duntov brothers created an overhead valve conversion kit for the Ford Flathead engine. It won its class at Nassau and Daytona, then disappeared into a Chicago garage for 47 years. Now it's in Massachusetts, part of Dave Simard's collection. Previous four-cylinder engines had aftermarket overhead valve (OHV) conversions available, so it was only natural for the same idea to filter over to the flathead V-8. This Hearse is definitely Haulin Ash and its our Engine of the Week! Home - H&H Flatheads They did a lot of work for different companies around L.A., including some of the early speed equipment makers. And at around a 150 cfm you need a lot of them! For sale: 3D printed Smith Jiggler overhead valve conversion for the Ford Flathead engine. Copyright 2023 Tony Thacker All rights reserved. it would have to be with overhead valves and short exhaust ports. The conversion sold for a hefty $500 and installation took six skilled hours. blower. Dees used Senter's Ardun engine in his '32 ford roadster at Bonneville and later in a Camaro. The Ardun remains famous today thanks to the efforts of Clark and TeBow as well as several hot rodders that have continued to develop them over the past 70 years. He started racing at tracks across the country, until he had a very serious accident on Nov. 4, 1911 in Columbia, SC. Ford showed no interest and so Zora went ahead anyway buying a couple of V-8s and designing his own heads with the help of engineer George Kudasch. Sick Summer 2023 Day One Live Stream From Cordova Dragway, Presented By Gear Vendors, Mondo Machining: This Video Shows Milling and Turning Processes And We Could Watch It All Day, Watch Warren Johnson Take On Lee Shepherd In One Of Our Favorite Pro Stockers Ever, 1320 Video Experiences: Worlds FASTEST UTVs 800hp+ MONSTERS. What they came up with would become the pinnacle of flathead V-8 performance equipment. The Maxi heads shown above right were used by Ed Iskenderian in his infamous T. According to D. Randy Riggs writing in Automobile Quarterly, Its cast steel push rods were too heavy as were the valves, and the seats came loose. Enter brothers Zora and Yura Arkus-Duntov and the Ardun Mechanical Corp., New York. Chapel created the Tornado OHV Conversion seen here. But it was those three years of track and road contests which gave me the idea for designing the RAJO cylinder head. He went on to explain how he had spent an entire year in designing, testing and perfecting the RAJO Valve-in-Head before it was put on the market. R&C called the series "the most comprehensive work on the subject ever compiled." Enter brothers Zora and Yura Arkus-Duntov and the Ardun Mechanical Corp., New York. He raced at Watkins Glenn on September 17, 1949, but was black-flagged. These heads were of an F-head design, which relied on the stock flathead intake passages and moved only the exhaust valves and ports out of the block. The 1/3 scale ARDUN V8 flathead Ford engine OHV conversion. And overheating was the biggest issue once the casting problems were sorted. In our classic Supermods we have Y blocks and A Mopars with three per engine and a LA 360 with 6 of them. A matching S.Co.T. Rather than have the middle pair of exhaust ports asthmatically siamesed into one, the Ardun, a contraction of ARkus-DUNtov, breathed better through four equally spaced ports. Things We Love About Automotive Styling Through the Decades, Strange and Amazing Race Cars Through History. Only the V8-60 appeared in serious numbers in Midget racing as an economy solution. There are also some tips and tricks to keeping them happy and sealed up, so make sure you pay attention while watching. How to Build a Supercharged Ford Flathead Engine, Designed by brothers Zora and Yura Arkus-Duntov and the Ardun Mechanical Corp. of New York, Purchased from Willie Glass, who set records at Bonneville with an Ardun engine, Originally intended as a build for the Grand National Roadster Show. The new Sharp V8 60 flathead cylinder heads with front water neck. Model A-B - Red's Headers Automotive American Classic Vintage & Modern. Written by Mike Herman and Tony Thacker, foreword by Ray Evernham. But there was a second, unintended consequence to these feats of engineering: they were absolutely beautiful. K&F Show #263: Doubleheader! Yes they maybe a similar weight to a BB Chev or Mopar both are better engines and have more capacity.
