Hey GN7

[2manymustangs]

See if you notice a familiar name in the start of this video (on the wall)

[gn7]

The Dave Zueschel valve cover.
Just one more famous engine builder that wanted nothing to do with your cherished SOHC.

[HB Vic]

We had a Donavan in the shop one day years ago. I asked the guys what the hell are we doing to that little thing (relative to what we normally work on). Guess we welded up the journals and line bored it. Had no idea we could line bore that small

[2manymustangs]

The Dave Zueschel valve cover.
Just one more famous engine builder that wanted nothing to do with your cherished SOHC.

............

[gn7]

We had a Donavan in the shop one day years ago. I asked the guys what the hell are we doing to that little thing (relative to what we normally work on). Guess we welded up the journals and line bored it. Had no idea we could line bore that small

The physical size of a Donovan 417(392 Hemi) is not much different than a small block Chevy. But damn if they didn't kick serious ass on all those high dollar Ford SOHC engines.

[2manymustangs]

On strait methanol or race gas/av gas none of the Hemi's OR a wedge head could touch a SOHC... Apparently on fuel however the factory 427 iron blocks couldn't handle the power that was unleashed with the flow/RPM of the SOHC heads... THey did have PLENTY of success where there was a supply of blocks from FOMOCO:

[2manymustangs]

We had a Donavan in the shop one day years ago. I asked the guys what the hell are we doing to that little thing (relative to what we normally work on). Guess we welded up the journals and line bored it. Had no idea we could line bore that small

Based on the posts I have read in the past from the old timers of the drag boat world AND from the footnotes in my DRAG BOAT book, Dave Zeuschel was not only active at the asphalt 1320' but at the liquid 1/4 tracks...

I have CRS so ole Bob will have to give you any details about Dave Z. and Donovan...

Bob likes FE FOrd engines but HATES the SOHC version, this discussion has been going on for some time now...

[2manymustangs]

starting at 8 minutes in... Discussion about Dave Z...

[gn7]

On strait methanol or race gas/av gas none of the Hemi's OR a wedge head could touch a SOHC... Apparently on fuel however the factory 427 iron blocks couldn't handle the power that was unleashed with the flow/RPM of the SOHC heads... THey did have PLENTY of success where there was a supply of blocks from FOMOCO:

Don't try to school me on M/Ts Mustang Bruce. I spent a whole summer chasing that thing from track to track. I was there when that thing went 211 @ 7.11 at Irwindale and set the Funny car class on its head. It also lost the block on the run or the next. No matter, he had plenty of them as Ford was shoving them out the door to make room for the Boss, WHICH BY THE WAY M/T SWITCHED TO IN 1970, ALONG WITH KALITTA. The SOHC was DEAD!!! 1 year with the SOHC was enough!!!



Then he REALLY wised up, and ran a Pontiac with a Dodge hemi.

[2manymustangs]

Don't try to school me on M/Ts Mustang Bruce. I spent a whole summer chasing that thing from track to track. I was there when that thing went 211 @ 7.11 at Irwindale and set the Funny car class on its head. It also lost the block on the run or the next. No matter, he had plenty of them as Ford was shoving them out the door to make room for the Boss, WHICH BY THE WAY M/T SWITCHED TO IN 1970, ALONG WITH KALITTA. The SOHC was DEAD!!! 1 year with the SOHC was enough!!!

Bob, I would never try to school you on anything... I'm just saying...

AND, I realize that you can throw enuff money at any project and make it fly which is not really a great measure of success...

By the way, Engine masters #1, #2, #3 were OHC engines... And EFI to boot...

The factory 392 had PLENTY of success as a fuel engine, obviously, BUT as I understand it wasn't bullet proof as a fuel engine...

From Willem Wertman:

" We had been using the wedge-head big block V-8 engine and we weren’t doing very well with it [in racing], we were being outgunned by the very experienced and well-equipped Ford and Chevrolet teams.
Our senior management thought it would be nice for us to win races. They asked the question “What would it take for use to win a race?”

After a lot of consideration, the engineering response was that we should go back and try to see if we can run our Hemi engine again because we did so well with the first generation Hemis that had come out in 1951 and had been raced in NASCAR and had a tremendous amount of victories.
The inquiry came to us in engine design, “could we put a Hemi head on top of a raised B (RB) engine?” That’s when the story started and ended up with our indeed being able to do that and we had engines ready for the 1964 NASCAR race in Daytona Beach and we did extremely well and continued doing well during that season.
This one was before my time but it was certainly possible. [I heard that] When the original "Double Rocker" was expanded to 392 cid, a weakness was discovered in the main bearing bulkheads, which would crack leaving the crankshaft to fail eventually. And, at least on lab endurance engines, this lead to unbelievable mayhem. The block would sort of disintegrate spewing out all sorts of parts from pistons and rods to valves and pushrods. Not to mention pieces of the crankshaft. All in all quite spectacular.
You know that basic engine continued to be a favorite with the dragster guys but perhaps you're aware that they all used a "steel girdle" between block and oil pan to hold things together."

Original is at Hemi Development Stories http://www.allpar.com/mopar/hemi/sto...#ixzz2ml1RjOMs
Follow us: @allparcom on Twitter | allparcom on Facebook


Original is at Hemi Development Stories http://www.allpar.com/mopar/hemi/sto...#ixzz2ml0wM1hs
Follow us: @allparcom on Twitter | allparcom on Facebook