Hey guys, i have been away for a while, like several years, but here i am again. A friend of mine accuired these flattie heads saying - SPEEDWAY- Do you have any information/story about them maybe. Where they made by Bill Smith aka Speedy Bill back in the 1950´s? I have tried some forums on facebook and also mailed the museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, but no respons. I really hope you can help us. /Tom View attachment 6436011
that Audrey Farber had her own perspective on things, i'll give you guys that. you may know her as Betty Jo Bialosky
Not made by Billy Smith at Speedway Motors. Those heads have the Almquist pattern and were cast post war in the late 1940's. The Almquist heads and the Speedway heads each have the name in a semi circle in the center of each head. I'm just guessing here but Ed Almquist could have made a small run of these Speedway heads for a customer using his patterns and his foundry. Money was tight back in the day and this was common practice to get additional revenue coming in.
Those heads were made by Don Sullivan (guy who helped ford design the V8 Flathead) former partner and are basically the same castings as the Hotton Sullivan's heads. They also casted these for Sears with the Allstate name on them among others. The last set I saw was for a 8ba engine but had the water ports in the center like the 59AB engines. I know you can swap early heads on by plugging a hole but these were cast as a bolt on no mod head.
Thanks a lot hotrodlane for your answer. cool, they seem to be pretty rare then. I will dig in about Hotton & Sullivan history. THANKS!
In the early sixties, I saw a car running at Minnesota Dragways that was running a set of the "Allstate" heads. The guy must have been embarrassed about running speed equipment from Sears, because he had the "Allstate" half ground off on one side; they said "LSTAT". It sure is funny what sticks in one's mind.
So, the conclusion is.. Hotton & Sullivan made the ALLSTATE heads for Sears and one of them (or both) made a batch with the text SPEEDWAY. But why and to who? That`s the big question. I believe we can say "case closed"
Not so fast here!!! Here are photos of the Almquist flathead head I had mentioned in an earlier post. The Speedway head and the Almquist head look to be identical. The Hotton Sullivan head looks to be close but there are differences. I know the Speed Merchants did copy one another and there was a lot of copying going on. To me the Speedway head looks to be the same pattern as the Almquist head. The Hotton Sullivan head is very close also. So who copied who here?
The Allstate and Speedway head both have the cast bosses to mount an 8BA style coil, so they do could be from the same patterns. The Almquist and Hotton Sullivan do not, but maybe they were from an earlier version of the patterns.
Do the Almqvist heads in your picture have un threaded spark plug holes? They seem to be bigger then 14mm. Are they maybe 18mm or even 7/8"
Owned a nice pair of Hotton Sullivan heads in the mid 70’s, but never found ANY spark plug that was the correct reach or length so I sold them
The Almquist heads have the big spark plug holes to fit the large Champion spark plugs, and yes the spark plug holes are threaded.
You are mistaken! The Speedway heads look alot more like the Allstate head than the pic of the Almquist head you posted. Notice at the front the bosses that the allstate and speedway head has that your pic of the Almquist head doesn't? I do not know where Almquist got or made his pattern from or if he also was one of the few other customers who Don Sullivans former partner made heads for that all were basicly the same as Sullivans Original Design. But what I can tell you for fact is The Allstate and the Speedway heads came from the same Modified Patterns from the Original Hotton Sullivan design. Don Sullivan was hand picked by Henry Ford himself and He is one of the original Guys who developed The ford V8 Flathead. He was a Engineer and original designer and to my knowledge never copied anyone. Here is a pic of qriginal Hotton Sullivan heads below. However they have had the fin's milled down.
I believe @hotrodlane is correct on the Sullivan Hotton heads and have an interesting combustion chamber if I remember. I have that set in the picture and will dig them off the wall. I also have a set of Allstates and will take a picture of the combustion chamber. Had a few sets of heads that look similar till you turn them over. I love cool old heads and only see a set of the speedway once. My friend Bill ORourke had them on his shelf and never could get them from him..
One thing to remember is that back then there were Casting foundry's That like everyone needed and liked Cash and could easily change a name on a pattern and cast parts for whoever greased their palm. I am looking for a set of Douglas Heads to match my Douglas Intake. They are the basic run of the mill "Fenton style" among other name heads that were cast from the same patterns but they say Douglas instead of Fenton on the water ports. Nothing speical about them other than Douglas Speed shop was pretty small and Did not order or sell many of them. I have only seen the one set and I offered they guy who had them a Mint for them and he would not sell. Funny thing is he did not even know their history or how rare they were. They were just on his 39 ford when he bought it.
Q: regarding spark plug ports (?) & threads: could a helicoil be inserted and then a different plug installed given depth or whatever other conditions required be compensated? [that's worded awkwardly - but i think you guys can figure out what i'm trying to ask!]
Engineering is the study of what works & what doesn't. In that sense , every engineer studies what his predecessors have done so as not to repeat their failures , he also builds on previous success of others, so in that sense he's COPYING the successful work of those who came before him as well as stretching boundaries ..
The Jalopy Journal
