Completely off topic!!

B

Butch Lambert

Active member
Who will be the first to identify this engine and trans?
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Butch
 
Butch I will take a stab at it! My first guess is a Ford 427 SOHC engine. Made around 1963 to 1965. Some where in there.

I would need to see a picture of the side or front of the engine.

As far as the trans goes? My first guess is a truck type 3 speed. The reason I say that is when my uncle race super modifieds and modifieds he used a trans similar looking to this one.

Tracy saw it and he wanted us to take a stab at it.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels
 
1964 Rambler? If that had a 427 SOHC in it I would beat you up to drive it first.

Frank
 
Cascarino sent a PM with the correct answer. It is an Ardun head flathead Mercury. It was made by Arkus Duntov originally as an add on for Ford trucks. Ford evidently didn't buy the idea and they were aftermarket. This one was a bored and stroked motor with Hilborn injection and a Vertex magneto. It was hooked up to a Cad LaSalle trans and a Quick change rearend. The rear end is in another photo. An extra set of heads and 3 extra magnetos were in the storage shed also.
I will not tell you what else that I found at this time.
Butch
 
The water pumps on each bank of cylinders is a giveaway if you don't recognize the heads.

Most folks believe that the Arden conversion was developed for high performance use, because some hot rodders used them...and they did move more air through the engine and make more power. Interestingly, they were intended for use on trucks......truck engines would overheat because the exhaust heat was concentrated in and directed through the block. The overhead valve conversion got the exhaust heat out and added surface area to the cooling system.

Great pictures......I'm going to print them out and take them to work for an older fellow who loves flathead fords. In fact, up 'till not too long ago he had a complete new conversion kit in the original packaging. He didn't want to part with it, but the $$$ was more than he could resist....I don't think he ever told me an amount...only that it brought "a lot".

Good stuff...
-Dave-:)
 
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Complete name........

I believe his name was Zora Arkus Duntov. Worked for Chevrolet and developed the "097" camshaft, among other performance firsts.
BA
 
Zora Arkus Duntov...

A name that showed up in Hot Rod Magazine year ago. As I remember, that Z is where the Z came from in ZL1 (As in All Alum ZL1 Vette (and 2 camaros). I don't recall what the L stood for.

IIRC, He was heavily involved with the early Camaros and late 60's Vette's. Without googling, I also seem to remember him having something to do with the quad overhead cam small block engine of the 60's also. AJ Foyt and Bobby Kinser bought that tooling and all the rights to those heads from GM way, way back. There was another mean motor! Hehe....

My memory for such things is not so good, I may be wrong on parts of the above.

I could never have guessed the origin of this motor. About all I could think of was a 409, or something like that. But the tranny didn't even come close to anything like a Chev...
 
Butch Lambert

Butch
We have a guy up here in my neck of the woods who builds some wild flatheads.His name is Ed Bingelli but everybody calls him Bing.At one time his engines held many of the flathead land speed records from Bonneville.
He works or worked for Zootis Racing Engines making 785 hp smallblocks all day for World of Outlaw cars but he showed me a 8200 RPM Flathead he had built one day while I was picking up some blocks.It had chevy intake runners on it done by Bing himself and the horsepower on it was truly amazing.
Let us know if you plan on selling any of the parts.Lots of early Ford guys out here.
Lynn
 
239 or bored to 256?

Jeez- guess I'm lucky to still be alive and healthy, AND still remember the old flathead!! I beleive Duntov ground or engineered H.P. cams for G M as far back as 1957 ? as I rember, they were quite a bit cheaper than Isky or Schooler. And you could drive 'em on the street [for awhile]
And I wasted so much time on a BUICK !


Thanks for the memories!!

Steve Moore
 
Dusty,
You are right! Mr. Moore, some of those old nailheads ran very well, especially with the handicap of a heavy body. I have a customer that has a lot of Buicks from his 1940 model on up. The 50, 59, and 60 model are cool. The 55 Century is suprisingly quick.
Butch
 
I think mr. duntov is as important to the vette as anybody in their history. I thought I knew everything about him and never knew about that motor deal there- that's how rare that is I guess.
 
Dusty Stevens said:
I think Mr. Duntov is as important to the Vette as anybody in their history. I thought I knew everything about him, and never knew about that motor deal there- that's how rare that is I guess.
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I didn't know until recently that the heads were used on trucks in Europe; apparently there have been some magazine articles.

Duntov got interested in the Corvette when Chevy introduced their V8 in '55. He wrote to GM and got hired as a staff engineer. My curiosity has revolved around the FI heads introduced in '62 and the 30-30 cam introduced in '64; I have never heard of a direct association of himself with those two developments.

Chevy had a PowerPak option when Duntov came on board, consisting of high-compression heads and a solid-lifter cam, and Rochester was developing the fuel-injection system. Duntov took over the FI program, and it was introduced with the 283ci engine in the '57 Corvette along with the 097 cam and Borg Warner 4-speed transmission. The FI small-block option was retained until mid-'65 when the 396 big-block was put in the Vette.

For those of you who are interested and would like a different perspective on Duntov and the FI program (as well as some of the most interesting reading available), Smokey Yunick's autobiography is available. I recommend it highly!

www.smokeyyunick.com/

He has a lot to say about NASCAR et al you won't hear anyplace else.

Interesting story about the Ardun heads. Duntov was smuggling gold out of Germany during the late '30's. Going downhill in the mountains, he was impressed with the flathead Ford's bottom-end strength and decided to improve the engine's breathing. Didn't have much to do with trucks (he was in a '40 coupe). On his last trip, he picked up his girlfriend, Elfie, if I recall, in Paris. She was a showgirl (Folies Bergere) and, from the pictures I've seen from GM functions (published in a magazine around the time of Zora's passing), damned good looking.

- are there not any corvette lovers here?
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No. I'm right here. Had a '64, '66, and '63. Raced the '66 (SCCA).
.
 
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