Hot Rods ardun heads

I bet you could get them delivered to El Mirage

 

Just try and keep the dust of them please. Hopefully you guys will get some runs in

 

This is a HI to Rich from the new user of SCTA # 104 . STEVE in Tucson with late '30 Austin roadster using Austin flathead engine , trans , rear , etc. 520 591 6318

 

If I had an Ardun conversion, I would be proud to have my engine considered overhead. It would even start performing like overhead engines do...............................excellent !

 

Man you kids can argue over some trivial*****. Truth be told, it's just an ARDUN once done. No more, no less, just the stuff of dreams. Now if you really wanna dig deep some of the old bastids called those and the OHV engines from Olds and Caddy "Monkey Motion". "Yeah, we dropped a monkey motion Caddy in it and..."

 

Without a picture it didn't happen. You are using the 44 cid Austin engine and drive train? May not get you in the 2 club.

 

Just to still the pot because it is late Friday,,, what do you call the SBC with a set of 'ARDUN' heads from the Fergusons??

 

What do you call Kaitlin Jenner now? No longer a 'Bruce'...(but close)

 

IMO it's not a SBC. It's an aluminum flathead Ford with all the machine work you need to put on a set of ARDUN heads. The rear face was just good thinking.

 

If you replace the block,crank,rods,pistons,heads in a Chevy,like many do,is it still a Chevy?

 

I'd just like to call it "mine". TheHighlander is right, this is one trivial discussion-and I'm just the fool for getting this far along with it.

 

I recall reading that the Ardun conversion was developed for trucks.
Maybe I dreamt it.

 

I buy lottery tickets every week, it's just a matter of time. Where can I get one?

 

DDD....Yep.

 

http://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/Ford-Flathead-V-8-Ardun-OHV-Conversion,9123.html

 

I have a friend who used to drive my race car. His grandfather used to run a 32-34 4 cylinder Ford with a Riley 4 port head in the forties and fifties. He made an attempt to "move up" and purchased one of the few Riley V8 OHV conversions. Word has it that the Riley's were unreliable at best, and the attempt was unsuccessful. I have a bunch of pictures of the car someplace. I believe that this engine ended up in an AMBR winning car several years ago.

Just another Ford V8 OHV conversion. I also remember that a speed shop (Lee Chappel's?) in California offered an OHV conversion called the "Tornado".

Also, I think "Smith Jiggler" is the proper term for the V8-60 conversion shown. Ardun also made a few conversion sets (13?) for the V8-60.

 

I knew that Duntov was the guy who came up with the Ardun conversion, but in a million years I would never have guessed that they were originally designed for Ford trucks. Aint the Hamb great ??

 

Not just any trucks...Trash trucks!

 

I was at Don Garlits' place last March, I heard him tell another guy next to me the history of the Ardun truck conversion and his personal experience using it, Don really knows his stuff. Next time you talk to him about the Ardun, ask him about his personal experience with the "Auburn" OHV conversion, good stuff right there!

 

There are multiple stories about why Zora and Yuri Arkus-Duntov developed the Ardun heads...one was the cooling problem faced by Ford trucks because the flathead engine got especially hot under truck-like loads. There is another story that the brothers developed their engine primarly for racing. There is also some confusion about what inspired the hemi design, and whether the Ardun in turn inspired the Chrysler hemi designs. Supposedly Zora was inspired by the French Talbot hemi, though this is just a story. Chrysler claims that the Ardun did not influence their choice of a hemi cylinder head design, though yet another story has Zora seeing a billboard advertising the "new Chrysler hemispherical head, and telling his wife, "they got that from me!" I heard all these stories when I ran my own Ardun in the early '60s, and have heard them since.

 

Personally - I believe that Duntov was basically an entrepreneur - a guy in business with a new product that he wanted/needed to sell. I'm sure he tried to sell them to a variety of different places. It is hard for me to believe that Ford actually was involved in the product and sold it to meet a contract requirement in England - that just seems far fetched (not based on any factual knowledge by me!).

I wonder how much of this story is true - and if so, how many found their way into trash trucks? Can't say I've ever seen a picture of one in a trash truck - anybody have such a photo? Duntov obviously got involved in selling heads to the custom sports car world and probably individuals as well. I wonder where the "few hundred sets" of the originals actually went - and how many were produced in New York versus England . . . or were they just shipped to England? As always - more questions than answers I'm sure . . .

 

http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Speedway-Motors-Museum-of-American-Speed.htm