seems like someone would have made a cast aluminum timing cover for the 32-48 style crab dizzy, 3 bolt or 2 bolt. why hasnt this been done? or has it and its super rare? anyone ever just took the stock one and then used that to make a mold for an aluminum one?
Funny, I thought the same thing, started making the mold (I have aluminum casting tools) but decided there was too much machining involved and abandoned the project. My objective was to make a mount for a Jaguar V12 distributor on the front so I could run that on my Zephyr V12 (same timing cover as the V8)
to much machining? me and my friend talked about it, and it seems like we could just fill the holes with clay, spray it with mold release, pour the bottom half so it gets the inner rope seal groove, then pour the 2 halves(one with locating bumps). then drill a big hole to pour the wax, then a few small ones for air to escape. now we would have the generic wax casting. get some sand and cast them, then just transfer punch the holes from the original, drill and tap the dizzy mount holes, and then just clean up the gasket surface with a sander.... seems to friggin easy, what am i missing here???? someone say its bad luck or something?
As I understand it, because of the shrinkage of the aluminum during casting process, the pattern needs to be sized up 10-15% to get a part the correct size. This would make using the cast iron stocker for the pattern a no-no.
The side contacting the engine, the bottom contacting the oil pan both are pretty big surfaces that have to be flat to within a decently small tolerance to keep the oil from pouring out and to make sure the distributor mounts flat and thus spins true. I don't have a mill or surface grinder to achieve this. Scaling up is not something just achieved by adding some clay, there is a little more to it then that. But if you want to give it a go, make a mold like you describe and come over, you can use my casting setup.
hmmmmm! when i have some extra time to mess with this i will make sure to tell you all how it turns out.
I have made the late model cover for years to go with the Chevy waterpump conversion and looked at doing the early one also. The problem being when I contacted the foundrys/moldmakers in this country the price for a low volume cover was prohibitive. We finally did a CNC program and do the late cover on a limited basis. The problem is the machine time to do the part and the cost of the chunk we need means that to make any kind of a profit we have to currently sell the cover for 485.00. I never was looking to sell the cheapest product, just to market a high quality part. The Flatheads Forever cover is a very good product for the money. Also my machinest retired to a mountain top in Kentucky where he invents products for the Ag market (makes lots of money) so getting parts produced takes some time.
The aluminum sand casting I use shrinks 1/4 inch per foot. So I need to make my masters about 102% oversize. If a guy was to do the front covers he could easily add about 1/8 inch of bondo to all the machined surfaces and the outer edge to build up the area for the shrinkage. Then use an original cover as a guide for his machinist to measure from. I'd suggest having the part heat treated after casting. And the machining work needs to be EXACT. Not just close. Think if the distributor was not concentric to the cam, and it made the tang walk in the cam's groove on every revolution. How many revolutions would it take for that tang or cam to wear out? Maybe an hour's worth?
Just started the cnc program for the two bolt. Should have prototype in a couple of weeks. And I believe it should come in well below $300. Anyone interested??
Hi had to go the long way around to send you a message. Has the 34 been sold? I have someone interested in my 40. If it goes thru I will be real keen on buying your ford coupe.
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