I have been doing some reading on OHV conversions for the Ford banger, which led me to some interesting threads on the HAMB about the '28 Chevy head, most of them posted by member Sawmill, who hasn't been on here in a few years: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/chevy-ohv-banger-progress-pics.201943/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/jern-chevy-ohv-setup-showed-up-today.156319/ From my research, it seems as though this one-year-only Chevy head (and possibly an earlier Olds head) is almost a direct bolt-on to a banger with the proper adapters and so forth and can be done at a hypothetically more economical cost compared to the new Cragar/Roof/Riley heads that are available.... if you can find the '28 Chev head. Neal Jern seems to have been the man for this, producing these "Thunderbolt" kits to adapt these heads to the Ford engine. Unfortunately, it sounds like he has passed away, and it looks like less than 100 of these kits are in circulation. From what I understand, he manufactured every part required to painlessly adapt these heads. Does anyone know if anyone has taken over this endeavor for him, if any of these new conversion parts still exist anywhere? Furthermore, are '28 Chevy heads unobtanium at this point? I get the sense that they are. If I come across one, is there a going rate for these, or are the prices the prices?
Know nothing about the kit Neal made but I have a complete 28 head if your interested. Ask on the monthly banger meet, maybe someone knows of a kit.
I'm interested, can you shoot me a PM? I'll post over on the banger meet, but I think that these standalone threads show up on Google a little better than topics asked inside the banger meet threads.... hoping this might provide some more information to anyone searching for this topic in the future.
I understand the interest in the overhead conversion but question why most think its automatic hp. Building a fast banger requires multiple improvements to get to good hp gains. Case in point the fastest car at the north woods hill climb this fall was a valve in block b motor that smoked the competition including a few with overhead valve conversion
That motor looks great. The appeal of this to me is the cool factor, just as much as any increase in power, and this specific setup looks like it strikes a balance between having a unique motor with some interesting period performance modifications and not having to own a machine shop or something.
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