Moser SBC twin cam heads? 70's OT maybe?

doing a little research i stumbled on a VERY interesting but heartbreaking short description of an early 70's dirt track SBC motor with DOHC heads... made by Richard Moser and Harvey Crane. they were featured on the cover of Hot Rod in the 70's as well, but other than a photo of a Moser equipped SBC at speedy bills museum i cant find anything else on them...

anyone out there have information on these things?

 

Harvey is still around,you might be able to ask him.

 

The second '32 roadster Tom McMillen built had a set of those heads. The car is owned by a local guy and I believe he has a set of them but runs a normal SBC in the car now.

 

I have bits & pieces, and I believe, I have an old mag article on them...I have absolutely no idea what to look at, though (usually I can find stuff, but I can't even remember whether it was Hot Rod, PHR, or what...). If I happen to remember I'll post it.

If you want to see something more along these lines, try these: http://www.araoengineering.com/ (warning to anyone interested: do a Google search about Arao)

http://www.coatesengine.com/index.html

 

Alex Morales ran em in the Tamale Wagon sprint car

 

gentle "nudge" for the morning crowd . . .

vertex mag, kinsler(?) injection and a dry sump... dam this small block ment business

 

A semi OT addition to this thread, but I thought that people might find it interesting anyways.

Seems that you can get a set of dual overhead cam heads from Nissan and mate them to an SBC with just some cooling passage mods!

http://turboinfiniti.net/viewtopic.php?t=789&start=0&sid=52a275b1726920db4dda984d1ce01f82

 

Calling bullshit on this one... the Chevy block has a VERY different arrangement for the head bolts than the Nissan head. The poster mentions that the block deck will need to be re-drilled for the head bolts, but doesn't mention that some of them are over water passages... You'd probably have better luck getting them to fit on a Mopar block.

The guy who was "engineering" this idea later asks another poster if the drive ratio from crank to cam should be "about" 2:1...!, and he is trying to size cog belt pulleys by diameter, not tooth count. 'Nuff said.

Down in that thread there is a neat picture of an old Aardema DOHC SBC setup. Slap one of those heads on an Iron Duke block and you'd have something that looked a lot like an Offy...

 

That is actually kind of cool. The dude has a long way to go, but still cool.

It could also be a 350 that some people REALLY hate.....a 350 with ricer heads on it. A double whammy!!!!.

 

WOW the Tamale Wagon, that brings back memories of Ascot! Wasn't that the winningest car in Ascot history and it became kind of like the house car for visiting big name drivers? you know like Roger McCluskey, Parnelli Jones, Mike Mosely, Billy Vukovich, Jr. and A.J. Foyt, Ron Shuman, Jan Opperman, Bubby Jones, Troy Cline, J.J. Yeley, Bobby Olivero, Billy Cantrell, Paul Jones, Rick Goudy, Mike Sweeney, Tracy Hines, Bob Hogle and Don Hamilton.

 

did you read it to the end?

i did... this has some merit... especially when you conside that Pete Aardema is sending the guy parts and drawings and has been guiding the guys progress since the get go.

 

That is Marshall the car came with a smallblock ,he then found the moser motor and my understanding is he paid as much for it as the Roadster...

 

What kind of boost in power do those heads give the engine. Is it a normal sbc or a really built up lower end?

 

looks awesome..but alot more rotating mass to get up and spinning..

and that dude at the show with the neck tie...hahah oops

 

gotta wonder why anyone would put nissan v8 heads on a chevy, when you could just use the nissan block.... is there something really wrong with the nissan block like a weak lower end?

would be less work to adapt and decomputerise the nissan block as a whole I would think?

 

I think I will stick with my Dual Cam Modular Ford Engines the Lincoln versions are very inexpensive and make lots of power and the engineering is done , plus if you need a part its readily available , sullivan performance sells intakes and valve covers that make it look like a Hemi and they get good mileage . looking at the pictures of the head gasket on the block it looked like the lower water passages were off the deck surface which could cause some serious issues and welding up those chevy water ports and drilling and tapping i dont think its a great idea unless you have an aluminum block cast iron isnt the easiest or the strongest thing to weld , im not sure i would trust it to hold a set of heads on just my opinion though and i know everyone has one lol

 

That is sort of the thing I ran into with my old Italian Roadracer.

There is a OHC Japanese head that's close.
The guys that have done it had to weld up the top of the engine to move the waterpassages and mounting points.

So its possible, but changing the bellhousing would be a lot less work.
But if I was going to swap in a different engine, that would not be the one I'd choose.

So I never got any farther than getting a head, some gaskets, and a couple of days of measuring.


I wonder what the big advantage of this SBC/Nissan conversion would be...
Bigger bore and stroke?
( more than you'd be able to punch out the Nissan?)
Or the fact that you can still call it a Chevy?

 

---------------------
All that I ever heard about them was they suppoesdly suffered from cracking problems
and that's why production stopped. Harvey Crane talks a bit about these heads on his
site ( http://harveycrane.com ) About the supposed cracking problems - if that was an issue, - guys like Crane and Moser are no dummies and not prone to quittng easilly either. I'm sure it could have been solved by a bit of re-design or using a slightly different alloy or heat treatement. I'm wondering if there was really some other reason that production stopped after only a handful of heads were producsd. I'm just speculating, but perhaps a falling out between Crane and Moser or some legal or patent isues and the cracking story is a bit of a cover???

mart
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</cite>

 

easier to just use a nissan dohc v8

 

Talking about OHC SBC conversions...

I really like this one.

I'd build a Hot Rod around that....

 

August 1971 is the HRM article...found that via the cover picture pages at HRM site.

 

that, is sexy... chain drive and all

 

Aint it cool?

Look at the welds on the Cam Follower Plate, and the Cam Bearing Supports.
And the Hammerwelded Valvecovers...

Somebody spent a lot of time on that, but found a low Tech way of doing it.

I'd like to find out more about that engine...

Who built it.
When it was built.
How it ran.
etc...

 

you and me both...

 

Old thread, I know.

FWIW, according to Tony Hornak @ Dart Machinery you can buy a Little M or Iron Eagle small Chevy block and request NO head bolt holes.

 

CJ Batten produced some 4 valve dohc heads for chevies as well...I think donovan may have too.

 

actually, thanks for bringing it up again. got busy on 926,185 other things that my ADD riddled brain has going on at any one given moment and forgot all about this thing.


so, if i'm reading your reply correctly, you can get Dart heads "as cast" with only the mating surfaces and valve work done?

hmmm....

 

I think he means you can buy the block with no head bolt holes.

 

I saw Jackie Howerton driving a USAC sprint with the Moser Chevy in it, ?1972? You might find more info in the Vintage open wheel thread here on the HAMB.

 

Gotta love the booger welds on the "doubled" valve cover...