The Chevy 6 With a V/8 Head Punch!

what I wanna know is how the hell did anyone ever realized that it was even possible to splice a Chevy head in the first place. And further more can this appliocation be made streetable and what shop does this kind of head work? Cuz thatd make one wicked fuckin hotrod motor!

 

Smokey Yunick was the king of "innovation" because he knew the rule book inside out... and anything that WASN'T in the rule book was fair game to him.

 

maybe I missed it in the posts, but what is it about a V8 head that has it over what could be done to the stock 6cyl.

What exactly is meant by "spliced", and in one post "horizontally spliced" ? Does it mean that someone would take 2 V8 heads, cut away a length of 1 cylinder off each, (in effect, they'd be mirrors of each other) then fuse or weld them back together.

Just for curiosity sake; is there a drawing around that shows how this is done?...or is that "trade secrets" ?

 

most 6 bangers have both ports on the same side, v8 heads are crossflow and have a much better flow rate.

to do this one chamber/cylinder is chopped off each head and then you weld the 2 halves together.

You can use windsor heads to do this on a 300 six as well, I've made one for a guy using a set of edelbrock aluminum heads.

 

If i recall all of these spliced together heads were deemed leagle at the time because they were "brazed" together not welded. And you thought NASCAR guys liked to split hairs.

 

The first one(top left_) is a 250 or 292 with an aluminum Sissell or Duggan crossflow heaqd, the next is a 235 or 261 and the last 2 are a 4200 GM Atlas engine.

 

I can understand completely how a head would cut apart and be spliced back together and made to match the CCs the sixes cyliders. What confuses me is getting the bolt holes to match up. Is it just dumb luck or did the Ford and Chevy engineers have that MUCH insight and figure a hotrodder may wanna give this a shot sometime ? And again is this streetable?

 

I doubt the bolt holes match up. You would probably have to redrill the holes in the block.

In America, six cylinder engines are strictly for granny and the tightwads. They get the cheapest cylinder head design cheap to make and good for gas economy. V8s are the performance engine. You can get performance heads for the V8 so why not make them fit on the 6, since there is no performance head for the 6?

This was not the case in Europe. Cars like Jaguar Mercedes and BMW have featured high performance straight sixes for years.

The first Jaguar Mk VII sedan in 1951 had a DOHC straight six with the same horsepower as a Cadillac, that was actually smaller displacement than the Chevrolet 6.

Newer BMW and Mercedes sixes have as much HP as a stock small block V8 in spite of being smaller and getting better gas mileage.

The point is, it is quite possible to get as much performance out of a 6 cylinder as a V8, everything else being equal. There is nothing magic about a V8.

 

my ford 300 with tripower, still have to rebuild the carbs. badass thread!

 

And the cost of those German engines compared to a Chevy? And anyone who has built an American inline 6 knows they ain't cheap either when you build real power.

 

Thats a cool motor set up, old school. An old friend of mine had a chevy II with a 292 with a turbo set up. That thing was a torque monster.

 

I can't show the drawings, but here's one that is horizontally spliced and ready to be furnace brazed back together. Nearly impossible to tell from looking at it on the outside. AMC Pro Stockers used this technique too.






Ford also had a little known R&D project with a crossflow, 12 port cast iron head for the 300 six.

 

Here's the build of Santucci's spliced head and block
http://www.customdesignperformance.com/leo/leo.html

 

The .27 mile tracks, of course.

Bob

 

The infamous Santucci head being assembled

 

That's some serious welding right thar

 

Here are more Chevy sixes that have posted some very impressive "Go fast" times in competition. The Ford inlines and the MOPAR Slant Sixes aren't a slouch either.
Normbc9

 

more hope, rydell and lange......

 

Cool. I have heard of this but these are the first ones I have seen

 

The first one of these I ever saw was done by Kay Sissel many years ago. Very successful drag race combination as I recall.... Maybe a D/MP Early Corvette I believe...
It was made from Chevy iron "fuelie" castings.

 

The car I mentioned earlier is a J/Altered Ness built Berreta ex pro stocker called "Igor". Its a Chevy 6 with I believe a Dugan crosss flow Australian head on it. Good enough to run mid to high 7s anyway

 

Oh yea, furnace brazed heads were real low-buck, back-yard stuff. Where do people get this ridiculous shit?? I was there when this was going on, and I was working in a shop that did record holding MP and gas class motors, and no-one was doing it to "express" themselves, they did it because at the time the records and ESPECIALLY the indexes in the six cylinder classes were relatively soft, and fast H & I gas cars were far and few between, so if you built one, it was pretty unlikely you would have to race another one heads up in eliminations. And the fast six cylinder MP/Gas cars SURE AS HELL were not cheap!

 

I have enjoyed this thread and all the info posted . Thanks Guys. The Santucci 292 block had a lot of work done to it so the head bolts could be moved to match the spliced hybrid head .
If a person wanted to hop up a Chrysler slant 6 , I would recommend a Industrial engine . It has bigger throws on the crank , bigger exhaust valves , it looks and measures the same as a car engine on the out side but the inside is different . Rebuilt one in a Hesston swather once learned about the difference real quick .

 

I am so old I remember when they ran it in the Anglia. Very successful car. Sixes are a lot of fun . Sometimes because you have to make most of your speed equipment which is always more interesting then writing a cheque. V8s are for folks who can't make HP
(Not really. I have done both but sixes are a lot of fun. If you lose that was to be expected. If you win the V8 guys go nuts. Last race (last Sat) I had no pairings but had to do all my runs alone. MMMMMMMMM why would that be?) Working on a project is great therapy. The quiet in the shop is very relaxing. Hope his health improves. Maybe he will bring it to Picton. Be nice to See Mothers Worry there too someday.
don
Sept 20 is the next one

 

What are you talking about? I have built lots of sixes for drags and other forms. Dodge Chev and Ford. Very inexpensive. Engine to the left cost so little I can't even remember and I always run with the V8s heads up. And I do win now and then too. It depends what kind of racer you are. Cheque book or hands on. Built to make power or build to look cool. The Ford I built (300 Bob Gauley T bucket) won a ton of races and was always in the top 5 in points at our local track.It was also sent to delware to represent TMP one year. I charged him $3200 which included his cyl head work. (porting etc) A Chev six 250 can be done for so little it is embarrassing. IE The Engine in the "Four America" 35 Chev stock car which came out of this shop was mostly labour. Last I heard it is still running in Florida. Sixes get a bad rap for no good reason. fortunately they don't know that and just perform. Like the old ad for Cherry Blossom chocolates used to say. "Try one. You'll like it." Und als fuer deutsche moteur, Ich kann das auch tun.
don

 

Fast forward almost 10 years. It was at the WOW in Winnipeg, March 22, 2024

 

Here's my Ford 300 w/ crossflow head ten years later. Still haven't driven it, but the engine has been test run.
Getting close

 

It's looking Good French, just remember nothing done right and completed over night is done right.