Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I own a 1952 Allard which was the only car to be produced from the factory with an Ardun conversion Ford flathead. In the early '50s Zora Arkus-Duntov (later considered the father of the Corvette) worked for Sidney Allard at the Allard moror car company as a driver and engineer when Allard realized he needed more horsepower to keep his vehicles competitive. So for a short period of time in the early '50s between the time the Allards equipped with Ford 85 to 100 hp flatheads lost their appeal and before bigger American overhead-valve V8s (Cadillac 331), Allard used the Ardun Ford conversion for some of their vehicles. Although the Ardun engine in my car is long gone, I do have some of the correspondence between the original owner of my car (James Sisler) and all sorts of big-name hot rod guys on the west coast in the quest to rebuild his Ardun after it had troubles early in his ownership. This first post is the letter from James Sisler to Zora Duntov after Duntov started working at Chevrolet. Duntov was kind enough to answer Sisler.

(I retyped the original letters for easy reading because they didn't scan well and were hard to read since one letter was a bunch of questions and the other was a bunch of answers)

I have more letters - let me know if they are interesting and I will post more.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

That is some amazing stuff, and straight from the desk of Zora, no less! I had the opportunity to meet Zora and his wife Elfie on two occasions, well onto 30 years ago, now. I'm up for seeing more of Zora's writings, if possible. And the time you must have spent re-typing is MUCHO appreciated! DD

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I always enjoy reading information about the Ardun conversion from the very early years of their existence. Some of Zoras suggestions were part of the reason most Arduns performed poorly in their day.
Ronnieroadster

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Thanks for the replys - unfortunately I don't have any more letters from Zora Duntov as he was working at GM - Chevrolet at the time he answered the request for Ardun info. I imagine his head was awash with his new job and trying to distance himself from what he probably considered a failure at the time. Anyway - a good testament to his character that he did respond even though he really didn't need to do that.

Here's an exploded view of the Ardun that isn't commonly seen. I'll send more stuff when I get it scanned in.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Why not build an original Ardun and put one back in it? Cost issues aside, it would surely help the originality and value of your car. Heck, I might even know of a couple of us who have original heads. ;)

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Nice!

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/attac...3&d=1616712863

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

It’s totally my dream to put the car back to original. That’s why I bought the car. I know Don Ferguson has some spectacular repos which makes a great plan B but if possible I’d like to try and keep it original when done.
Heck I’m a tinkerer so I’m not all that worried about perfectly reliable. So if you have any leads on parts - please let me know.
So the car also had a Canadian Mercury 99A block if anyone has an idea where one of those is sitting around. It looks like 10k or more were made. Must be at least one around.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Interesting comment! Would you care to elaborate? Please??

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Do you have any pictures of the Ardun that would have been in it? I'm wondering if it had the early or later production heads (they are different). I would imagine that it came with the later heads and center water outlets (not on the front). Also, what intake manifold and carb setup did it have?

Don's repop heads are excellent - better than the originals (especially the rocker arm system). But - they are not originals. A Mercury 99A block is not easy to find - and I'm not sure if that block was actually produced in Canada or the USA. I have a 99A type block in my 32 Cabriolet. Back in the day, this block was considered one of the best to build for performance usage - though I personally don't see it as any better than a good 59x 239 block.

Given the cost of finding original parts and then building an Ardun - is that on your table, or is it in the "someday dream" category? Your car should have a real Ardun in it. ;)

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Here is a part of the original brochure - showing the early front-mounted water outlets:

Attachment 459427

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

A few magazine articles that I collected over the years on the Ardun.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Number 2

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Number 3

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Sure let me elaborate.
Simply put the Ardun conversion was a short lived project at the Ardun Engine Co. the original designer of the Ardun head for Zora was Mr. George Kudash I as well as couple of others spent many hours learning from George the complete and true story on what took place during the brief development period. Two areas of concern which are extremely important was the oiling and ignition. Those of us who have spent years working on the Ardun have by way of back yard engineering solved these vital areas of the conversion. As one of the very few who have actually put many thousands of miles on an Ardun head converted flathead block driving twice across America and back I think my experience with all of the above speaks for itself. Actually in the good weather my supercharged Ardun is driven daily its not the best on economy but heck I don't care about no stinking economy.
If the original poster is interested I do have an original set of heads available.
Ronnieroadster

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Thanks for the info! Another question: I read a magazine article years ago that stated the ARDUN head was originally designed for New York city garbage trucks that were under powered and overheating. Is that correct? I assume that no heads actually ended up on these trucks.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Please see a few photos of original Ardun Allards attached. It looks like both new and old style heads could be in the Allards but my car had the newer style heads with the water outlets in the center of the heads. (original owner mentioned that in one of his letters). The best photo of a clean unmolested correct engine is the one on the engine stand out of the car. This was from an auction in England. Looks very original without modifications.

As far as intake manifolds go, you can see the two individual intake manifolds which were nice on paper (one intake manifold design for each head - didn't need a left or right) and it used 2 Solex carburetors. The original owner of my car realized that the original intakes weren't very good for performance so upgraded to a Hilborn fuel injection. I'll scan that note in too.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

As far as the engine block goes - I think the block did come out of Canada and the big reason is that import duty to England was very high after WWII but not so bad from the British Commonwealth. I know that Allard used lots of reconditioned WWII surplus so that could also be possible and it was just a leftover but the 99A was supposed to be a '48 block so not new in the '50s but not a leftover from the war. It may not be possible to find the right block but that's what i'd like to try. I know where there is an old Z block which wouldn't be the worst substitute since Allard did use old war surplus engines.

And, yes I'm definitely going to go for the Ardun engine in the car. It has a 390 Cadillac now which runs and is pretty cool but not as cool as the Ardun.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Thanks for sharing that article. I had the first two but haven't been able to find this one yet. This is the one with all the really good stuff in it!

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

There was never any truth to that story about the garbage trucks. The only press release published about the ARDUN engine company did state a new truck engine conversion using revolutionary aircraft techniques this was printed in the New York Times in I believe in 1950 or 1951.
The conversion was marketed to help gain horse power and torque for a truck conversion. It may be possible a few sets of head's were used in some type of commercial application but I and others have never seen any picture's from that era showing an ARDUN in a truck. Shortly after that New York Times article the company went out of business. The remaining heads were then sold to two company's. C&T in California and the the Granetelli brothers speed shop also know as Grancor. From that point on the heads were now being purchased by racers and Hot Rodders ending up at Bonneville and Lakes speed trials races and latter on drag strips and at Indy plus other forms of roundy round races.

Ronnieroadster

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Found a couple of better photos of how the intake and carbs should have been on the Allard as it was originally built. Hard to find photos like this because, for most performance oriented people, carbs and manifolds were the first to go...

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Here's a good summary from the original owner of my car why he needed to rebuild the Ardun. From the early letter, Mr. Sisler sounded confident that he was far along in the rebuild and just needed a little help. Turns out he was only starting on his journey.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

WOW, that's quite a letter. Was there a response?

I think he should have considered the re-paint, in lemon yellow :)

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Well as I wrote above ignition and oiling was a big problem due to the lack of complete development when first designed. That parts wish list even in 1954 would have been very difficult to fill. Today it would be no problem to get the parts requested as it pertains to the engine side of the issues he was having.
Ronnieroadster

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Interesting that in at least a couple of the pictures you show, they are of later 49-53 flathead blocks - not the earlier ones. Did Allard put any of those engines in these cars?

A '99A' block is pre-war (first came out in the 39 Mercury) . . . the designation was used for the original 239 cubic inch blocks. I'm not aware of any 99A blocks being produced after 1942.

In the letter where Zora talks about the 99A block, this was probably just following the numerous wives-tales that the 99A block was the best and thickest of the flathead blocks -- I've not found that to be true . . . but it was passed on through the gossip channels for many years. I've sonic tested a lot of blocks and the various claims that "this XXX block was the thickest" . . . or "this was a high nickel casting" claims are just that - stories to pass on.

I have a NOS 99A type block in my 32 Cabriolet - and the only reason is that I wanted to rebuild the car as the pre-war HotRod that is was - so I needed a large displacement pre-war block . . . hence the Mercury or WWII production blocks.

Are you racing it on any of the vintage meets? Is that a goal of yours? If so, I'm sure it would run a lot better with a Hilborn fuel injection setup - but they are really hard to find and very expensive. This is what I'd run with the car - as long as the goal wasn't to make it a street driver.

My suggestion is that if you really desire to put an Ardun back in this car, that you talk to RonnieRoadster or myself at some point - and get an idea as to what the build specs could be, the approximate budgetary costs, etc.. I would definitely try to put an original Ardun in it - as that will be the best as far as value and authenticity is concerned. As many find out, they can "invest" a lot in an Ardun - but few are sorry that they did. (As long as the cost doesn't cause a divorce!). LOL

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I enjoyed reading the letters! Wishing you success with your project!

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I'm not sure of all the different Ford configurations wound up in the Allards originally. Still new to the group and most of the guys I have talked to so far either had Cadillac engines from new or Cadillac transplants at some point although. Many of the cars were shipped to the US without an engine and the person who bought the car had their favorite engine installed. Cadillac was popular and a few had Chrysler Hemi's or Oldsmobile engines. In reading the Allard book from Tom Lush who worked there back in the day, it sounded like whatever was available went into the cars shipped with engines. Also, the cars have been reworked lots and people race the J2's and J2X's without too much regard for originality as far as I can tell.

Thanks for the info on the Ford 99A block. I haven't found a lot of info on that one so still learning. James Sisler called it a Canadian engine in lots of his letters so maybe it was a C99A? Not sure if that matters.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I'm a mechanic at heart and not a race car driver so my goal is to try a non-competitive rally or tour, take it to meets, take the kids and wife out for drives on nice days. If I had a chance to take a lap or two around Watkins Glenn, sure wouldn't turn that down (won't get there any other way than driving an oldie). I'd hate for the thing to be locked away in a garage gathering dust. I'll probably wind up with a carburetor setup. Either dual or triple 94's or 97's look really great.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

This may be of peripheral interest to the O/P. It has a 21 stud Pilot engine.

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...ghlight=allard.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Allard Motors weren't too much help to Sisler from his previous letter as Allard was having trouble selling cars in '54 and lost Duntov who went to Chevy so they had other problems to worry about (although Allard did manage to come through with lots of other stock parts later but not upgraded parts as Sisler was hoping for).
I'll save you all the many letter drama of the Ardun engine rebuild when the original owner sent the heads to a shop where the shop ordered new valve guides from C-T Automotive. The repair shop never actually measured the dimension required for the new valve guides and C-T custom-made a new set of cast iron vale guides that were loose like the set that needed to be replaced.
These letters are to and from Clem TeBow when James Sisler still has a pile of parts and trying to figure out how to get his engine back together

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I am kind of surprised that they put an Ardun in an "L"; I thought they all went into J2's.

Live and learn.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I can tell from the letters that Sisler knew enough to be dangerous and Clem pretty much told him to "let us do it" and we'll do it right. Some of the dialog about chrome lifters and steel cams - pretty much tells you there can be some issues with the setup if that is what Sisler believes he needs to run. Also, given all the requirements that Sisler has (which I can understand), he really needed somebody like CT to build him a complete engine, dyno test it and deliver the entire package - but that would have been some serious money (then or now!). ;)

My guess is that Sisler never sent the heads to Clem and maybe didn't know enough to get all of it done with his own methods . . . and the engine probably never came back together (or continued to have issues). Clem was correct in not trying to just "send parts" (for the heads) - as the result is usually not good (especially with an Ardun and all the little tricks it takes to get them correctly running).

Did you ever find out where the engine actually went? Do you know the serial numbers for the heads?

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Yes, an excellent response from Clem. If only folks would listen to their engine builder.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I think you are exactly correct about Sisler. He knew a little bit, was trying to gain as much advice from everyone who he talked to (and as you know everyone has a different opinion), and he was trying to do it all on a budget.

Find the letter exchange that happened next with C&T(next post). I don't know if Sisler actually sent the heads and engine but I suspect he didn't. He did mention having a fire in early '55 and needing new carburetors, linkage and fuel supply next spring so either got it running and had an issue or wanted to upgrade to the fuel injection system and claim the old induction system on insurance. Somewhere between '54 and '56 he did get the engine bored to .020" over but didn't go for the 4" Mercury crank.

The Ardun engine number on my car was supposed to be 2036-Z. Not sure if that was stamped on the heads or engine or just a record keeping number.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Next correspondence between Sisler and TeBow

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

I did a quick inflation check. The $400 would be $3910 today.

Not bad, at all for the work requested.

I love reading this communication for that period!

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

For $400 . . . he should have taken him up on that deal! If so, maybe you'd still have an Ardun in the car. ;)

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Since today the actual work required would now fall under the title of specialty work. Taking that into consideration you should add an additional multiplier of 3 to the adjusted for inflation price. The now adjusted figure of $11,730 is more in line with the reality of today.
Ronnieroadster

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

The next letters are to and from the Crankshaft Company. I don't think Sisler used them or at least didn't stroke his engine as he later mentioned having a 3-3/4" stroke.
Thought it was interesting enough to waste a few electrons on. You can see what was available and how much it cost nearly 70 years ago.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

So the next big challenge is to find a good cam (66 years ago today). Scans have some other good info about valves, springs for the Ardun and other services from Iskenderian.
I know other grinds came out later that were probably better, but this is where things were at in '55.