Buick engines made gobs of power. Check out this picture. It is awe inspiring to be in the room with all those Nailheads. Half of all the speed equipment in the world for Nailheads is sitting right there on those engines. When was the last time you saw that many injection units at the same time?
You can't tell too much from these pics on how the engines worked together but I thought you might like to see them anyway.
If you put the two slant sixes side by side, you already have solved you reverse rotation problem. Then you could easily machine some gears that would mate both engines... Thinking about this is going to keep me awake all night. Geno
Check out V-drives for boats. Several manufacturers run two engines into a single box, usually a ge****t, that has two inputs and one output. I bet a divorced truck trans could handle whatever you put on it, if you could find some ratios that worked out ok. Logically, it seems that Ivo's method of running ring gears together wouldn't be very strong, but the 2-engine car would smoke them all the way down the track, and i've never heard of it breaking the ring gears... The chain coupling on the showboat seems to have held up ok too.
This is an interesting thread! Didn't read the whole thing, so I don't know if this has been told before, but, as far as I know, on the twin Buick powered Ivo dragster, they connected the engines together with the flywheels. One motor runs the other way then the other. It has an opposite cam grind. Pretty *****in'! I think that's one of the coolest dragcars in history...
about the 4 engine job, once upon a time i seen this car make an exabition run at Kearney(nebraska) Dragway(ALL concrete strip, rough as hell). they couldn't get the car to turn a tire, much less smoke 'em (the car was called "wagonmaster" at the time). out comes the Gojo and they slimed up the tires..... well, that did the trick! no **** story!
wow ****! great pictures!! like the picture of "the man himself" you can see the enthusiasm of youth is strong in that man! thanks for sharing Paul
More reading... HOT ROD August '61.... Mickey Thompson's twin Pontiac powered MONSTER.....also,look closely and there is a Valvoline ad featuring Jack Chrisman and the twin Chevy engine Howard Cam Special.......
The only place we will ever get to see Ivo's SHOWBOAT is on film,I'm afraid....check out the 1964 cl***ic "BIKINI BEACH" for a scene where the SHOWBOAT smokes all four,driven by stuntman Janosz Prohaska in a monkeysuit..( at least for the end of the scene)....keep an eye peeled for other recognizable creations in quick edits....
For the cheapo, lowbuck method, I always thought that a 4x4 chain driven transfer case could be used to couple two engines. Hook one up to the input shaft and the other to the front driveshaft. You'd have to use a 1:1 ratio in the transfer case, but I think it's doable, if not a little hokey.
The Jalopy Journal
