I am looking for information on an engine that was in my father's midget. They (EVM) ran it for a short time until the rules changed and they went to a larger engine. My father purchased it from Bill Willison who had made at least two of them. One went in the midget and the other was supposed to have gone into an old inboard speed boat. I am looking for any information on this engine I can find. If there are any other ones out there? If the one that was in the boat still exhists? If there are any more blueprints out there? My father has some blueprints and most of the casting patterns for it? This engine will be on display at the Manitowoc Historical Society in an exhibit featuring racers of Manitowoc due to open in the spring of '09. Josh
I wounder if that is the same EVM that made fuel injection units for Pinto and other small motors and was bought by Ron's Racing? I had an EVM injector on my Pinto. Maybe you could contact Ron's Racing and see if they know anything.
It is the same EVM. My dad is the "V" in EVM. I know it is they're injection. My dad said the thing didn't run well with the carbs that came on it so they made an injection system for it. I guess it stretched it's legs nicely after that. Josh
I'll put the link to this engine on the Sprint Car Thread here. You'll get an answer to your question, pronto!!!! I should get out my Offenhauser History book and research this. It sure looks like it shares too many things with an OFFY to not be one.
I believe what you saw was the Lencki engine. Long time Indy car builder/owner Joe Lencki campaigned a 6 cyl "Offy of sorts" in the 50s-60s at Indy. While the machine work was done by Leo Goosen and the crew at the Offy shop, it was designed and commisioned by Lencki. Obviously the I and E and displacement are different, but there are a lot of similarities between that and Josh's engine. Lencki was from nearby Chicago also, so maybe there is some connection. (?)
Rootie is right. I'm at the part of the Offy book where they are talking about the sixes and how many different people built them. A lot of guys bought just the blocks and cylinders and cam covers with the gears and then built there own, with there names on it. You NEED to call Jim Hemilsbeck (spl? we call him Jim longname..) at Zakira's Garage. Just ask for Jim and BE SURE TO TELL HIM I GAVE YOU HIS NUMBER! They have 90% of the original Blueprints from Miller, Offy and Goosen. They are the EXPERTS. He will tell you exactly what it is, and anything else you need to know about it. 513-272-2229 is the shop number, ask for Jim. Tell him Joshua Shaw sent you.
Thank you very much Joshua. I'll check with him right away. The motor is not for sale. However, I have been thinking of making a replica of one. As I said My father has the patterns and some blueprints. I just need to get all my ducks in a row before starting. Even if I don't start pouring aluminium it will be rewarding learning all I can about it. Josh
I stopped in Zakira's today to drop some parts off, and showed him the Engine on here (HAMB) and at the same time He got your pics, and I got to see them. Wow! Great engine. It looks like the Distributor ran of the drive in the front center, the water pump would have driven off the lower one, (under the crank nub) It appears to be a VERY exact match to an Offy. Fuel pump would have driven of the left Cam at the rear. Do you have these? Might be something you wanna start looking for in Boxes and drawers around the shop. The Three seperate Hilborn units are kinda odd.. That looks like a boat style Engine mount, but could have been used in a Midget. The fact that it has a Coil is odd too. I would have expected a Mag. (probably had one at one time) Jim is the Info man, He'll get ya straightened out. We had a Miller 8, 16, a 122, and a couple Offy fours to compare it to today all within Eye sight of the shop computer.. Here are some pics of different Sixes like yours.. The first is from Joe Lencki (Rootie's guy above)with a short story on him. This is a Shot of a "Sparks" engine.. or a "Thorne Engineering" Engine.. Depends on who you wanna count, the Money guy owner of the Business (Thorne) or the Guy making "Chips" in the Machine shop (Sparks).. And ofco****.. The man himself at far Right (Fred Offenhauser) seems to be looking directly at the "Lencki Six" in the center of this Killer Engine line up. Now, ofco**** the size and cubic inch of all these engines, inculing yours are different, but it's good to compare the design of all these.. Joshua Shaw
Saying he has one of everything was a bit of an exaggeration aka joke. Bill has over 600 motors of which many are unique or one-off. I just talked to him two weeks ago about a Sowers midget motor. The Sowers was another Offy knock off from the 30's. There were only 3-5 made and Bill has one and I happen to be helping build another. Anyways, even though Bill might not have one he might know something about them.
Does anyone know where I might be able to get some old blueprints scanned or digitized. My father lent me some old blueprints to this motor and I am rather leary of handeling them too much. I don't know just how detailed they are as of yet. I need to go through all of them and catalog what is all there. A little dad time is in order I think. On another note I spoke breifly to a good friend of the person who bought the engine from Willison. He also drove my father's car a few times and drove Eugene Meyer's car quite a bit. I have a fellow hamber to thank for that contact. Thanks Jim! Josh
I don't know if I would trust Kinkos or OM to do scanning of large, old, frail prints - make sure they can lay it flat and not mess it up - you might need to find a true print shop.
Call Jim again.. They had all there original pencil prints redone.. Ask him who they trusted with them. JD
Quick update: Here are a few pics I got from the historian that is putting together the exhibit. He had a friend clean up the motor and build a stand with one of the original nosecones and roll bar. Josh
Wow - what a rare engine and cool story! I hope you find the rest of the parts and fire it up someday . . . I'd love to hear it!
Ain't the HAMB the bestest place in the world?............beautiful engine, true craftsmanship, I would love to hear it make it's "music"! Please keep this thread going, and keep us updated.
Are you talking about the original drawings or "bluprints" made from them? Sadly, the drawings were usually made on a flimsy vellum which did not hold up well to age and handling. A true blueprint is a blue on white positive print made off the drawing.. What we typically refer to as blueprints are white lines-negative images. You would be the best judge of the fragility of your images but remember: any widely available process for duplicating large images is probably going to invole scanning the original as it is pulled thru a set of rolls. There aren't many flatbead type scanners out there. I just duped a 34" x 38" negative print at Kinkos-they let you do it yourself (with ***istance if necessary) and it turned out beautiful.
The Jalopy Journal
