History Super Find!! Joe Gemsa head still in box after 30 plus years...Pictures

A close friend of mine emailed me this morning with the pictures i am posting with his permission. He had heard about a complete Gemsa engine that was on another Island in Hawaii{he lives on Oahu}. He has been trying for years to purchase the engine as he is an avid four-banger fan,and owns several Model A's .Well he finally struck a deal to purchase the head,the block is in possession of another individual which he is now negotiating to buy from him. His plans are to put the engine in a very nice 31 Vicky he owns. The pictures show the actual crtae being opened for the forst time in over 30 years.

heres is the email i got this morning......



I had gone to ******on a quest to locate an extremely rare modified Model A
Ford engine. I had heard rumors that this engine, made by Joe Gemsa circa
1970, had existed on ******. I tracked it down to a fellow living "off the
grid" in the boonies. He drug out a wooden crate that had sat in the back of
his garage for 30 years and there was the Gemsa overhead valve conversion
head in new condition. I felt like Indiana Jones finding the lost ark. After
spending most of the day with the owner, I was able to strike a deal to buy
it. The saga will continue as the guy only had the head and had sold the
engine block 30 years ago. The block is still on******* and we know who has
it. So maybe in October I can pursuer it further

 

I was on 32gals puter when i posted this under her name, but we are both friends of the guy. We had actually visited him in March of this year. I will post pictures of his car he plans to put the engine in later.........

 

I'm jealous! But at least it is going to be taken out of storage and used.

 

I had a long talk with the "new" owner this morning on the phone. He will eventually get the rest of the engine built by Joe Gemsa,he knows where the block is and will not give up untill he has the whole engine . He will put it in a car.

 

Thats cool!

 

yea i was really excited when i got the email this morning,he has been talking about finding it for years. the neat part is he doesnt have anybody where he lives to help him with it so i probably will go over there when he gets the block and help him with putting it in the 31 Vicky.

 

Great find. I would kill or die to get one that good.
If your friend finds that that head won't get enough use being hemmed in on that island, let me know. I'd be more then happy to put it on my engine and flog the hell out of it.

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LOL.......he will never let go now that he has it!! I mentioned your conversion for the 5 speed and he may want one in the future,i will let ya know.

 

very cool find ... amazingly well preserved considering it's been in Hawaii for over 30 years! ... the salt air typically attacks and corrodes all types of alloys & metals.

 

anyone here that has more history on Joe Gemsa,and the heads and engines .....please chime in, i will p*** along to my friend

 

didn't he work with a lot of the Riley castings?

his model T heads are very sought after.

 

That is super cool!

 

VERY cool!

 

There is an article in the new Rod and Custom about an engine built with Gemsa components by H & H Flatheads.

 

How cool is that ?

Nice score...........

 

arent those re-pop parts?? what you see here is the real deal!

 

That first picture of him with that grin on his face is bad. You only get that look when you did some thing very bad and got away with it.
I had that same look 4 yrs ago. Was in traffic in Sarasota, at a red light in the 29 Pk Up and a fella pulled up and wanted my truck. The light turned and he said follow him to his shop, I followed him and he shows me his 30 Roadster hes building 60s style. I asked him what happened to the engine that was in it. He said its over in the corner. Well it was dark but could see enough to see 12 ports on the side of a B engine. I asked him if it was for sale. $700.00 took it and we loaded it and never talked about him buying my truck. Turns out, the engine was built in 1938, Miller Head, B Block, C balanced crank heavy mains, .060 bore and it had never been started. It was all new inside. The head was beautiful. I had just built my B engine in the truck, so it was sold at a very nice profit thank you. But that grin on his face I know about. Iceman

 

Good for him, that's cool.

 

Wow...very kool.

 

The R&C article is worth getting, I was not familiar with these. It stated that Gemsa numbered and dated every one.

 

Max Jr. told me that H&H has most of the patterns for Gemsa's model A heads. and that they will eventually repop them.

I have also been told a story about Joe borrowing the Rutherford head patterns to use and when he finished with them he sold them without the pattern owners knowledge. The last heads he made were from these paterns and he modified the patterns to read Joe Gemsa instead of Rutherford

Here are some pictures of the two heads. The one in the drag car is the Gemsa. The one on the engine stand is a Rutherford.


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When Cruzr posted this today he was so excited for his friend he forgot to change over to his nic,hence "I" started the thread. I know Cruzr and his friend have talked about this "find" for a long time. His friend who i have met has been on the hunt for years. He knew it exsisted and perservered untill he finally found and bought it. He knows where the rest of the engine is and will eventually obtain it also. Cruzr had just got out of the hospital today, and this email about the "find" really cheered him up!

 

Talk about the Holy Grail of performance parts!

 

Thats what my friend thought when he finally purchased it!!

 

I attended the Key to the Hills rod run in Boerne, TX, today. There was a fabulous black 31 A roadster there with a Gemsa engine in it. Photos attached. As suggested in above posts, the owner said it was one of six numbered Gemsa engines. He had known about this engine for many years and when the owner of it died he got the engine and it went into this roadster. The car has '40 front and rear axles and trans with Zephyr gears if I recall this of many stories I listened to today. Car was out of LaPorte, TX.

 

OK I just read the ***le of this thread and was expecting to read about cryogenics and some dude's frozen head in a box.I guess I spend too much time surfing the web.........

 

Walked right by that one today. Guess I need to look a little harder! Thanks for the pics!

 

Didn't the Gemsa head originally come from the Morales brothers sprint car head project in the '30's? Seems to me that Tex Smith had an article in one of his books that Stroker Medley wrote and showed pix of the original head and its history up to Gemsa. I know that Jiggler Gemsa and Wes Cooper were the gurus of 4 bangers and hated each other. A friend of mine bought a Gemsa and made the mistake of mentioning Gemsa's name while at Cooper's!

 

that's really cool

 

What an awesome find!!