Think about another point: "BOWSTRING FACTOR"

At an angle, there is a vibration through the length of the pushrod.

It weakens it, and wears it out - assuming it doesn't just snap.

Such an arrangement is not reliable (to put it mildly)

 

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Well I would have to say that it has something to do with the aborted "tunnel-port" development which I think was ended sometime in 68. But that was also in Trans-Am, was it not?

Take a look at the chambers. I'd have to say they look a lot like GT-40s. But they are rotated off the center-line of the head... Hmmm can you say "Twisted"?

As Barry pointed out, Bunkie got canceled. And a whole lot of his wild stuff went with him.

Yeah the side loading would have to be an issue. Particularly in the dish area of the lifter. No way this thing could have gone 500 miles at race speed. But who knows what Smokey had up his sleeve?. I was just impressed with the "What-If" concepts in metal that survive today.

Notice no guide plates via the pedestal mounts. That 5th head bolt now is a part of Dart's Iron-Eagle block. Those ports, lord they're nearly 2-inch square.

All in all, I thought it was an interesting little peice of Ford history. Heck, you should have seen the display for the GM Indy SB. OHC, glass case, flood lit...

Thanx for the intrest guys

 

I wish I had pictures of the ports on the 351M I built back in the early nineties.

The heads were factory four barrel cast iron, and I was lucky to find a set. The originals had about nine cracks in them together from overheating (the PO was pouring a gallon of water in it each direction he drove to work with it and back, but never noticed anything wrong )
*The "IDIOT LIGHT" had stopped working, so he thought it was okay...

I'm not kidding even a tiny bit!

But they were about three by four inch ports if I remember right. I could stuff my hand in them up to the base of my thumb, and my "RATCHET GRABBERS" are not small.

I had to take a second look at the casting details to be sure what I was seeing. I hope the below is interesting to some of y'all:
Note particularly the core plugs next to the rocker pivot mounts, and that they have alignment flats on the pivot mount bosses.
I'm not sure what's up with the core plugs being there

If I'm mistaken and they are bolts - that's real interesting.

The head bolts appear to be allen head too - if that's what they are.

A LOAD of money was sunk into this...

 

I can't really pull much more detail out of this - I was trying to get a close up of the rockers themselves

There's no telling what the upper chambers looked like. The valve stem angle smells to me like at least a partial hemi-dome. I tend to think full hemi, but it could be a combo of a hemi and quench head (which is a truly wild notion when you think about it)

I have a gut feeling that what Smokey was after was a way to convert a standard block into a hemi by developing a seriously wild set of special purpose racing heads. Yet look how thin they are... The weight savings over typical hemi heads of the day would be substantial.

*The inner wall of the valley area is shown in this view, where the pushrods come up from the lifter galleys. You can almost see the division between block and heads. But the heads don't appear to extend much above the ports. CONCLUSION: That isn't a very thick billet that they were cast and machined out of.

If that engine did have a hemi upper chamber, those have got to be the lightest V8 hemi heads of their time. Particularly if they were aluminum alloy

NOW: Imagine if you could order that from FORD Racing... Cast, say for instance, out of 70/75 T-6 or so

 

Okay Guys let's keep this going, Let's move it to the new May thread.

 

"Mother may I?"

(If I could resist that, I'd need a big boot in my behind)


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