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
 

Please post away, any Flathead and Ardun info is always appreciated. Will be in your neck of the woods next weekend and would love an opportunity to see or hear about your car some more.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Hi Gary, Nice to hear from you. I accidentally posted this thread twice so to try and ease some of the confusion I started will try to post to the thread that launched first. Happy to have you over and show you the car. It's still pretty early as a project so not that much to show but still fun.
I'm only a junior member so apparently can't send a message to you directly.

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Post six more very short messages, or just the current time every ten minutes, and you'll be ready for messaging before dinner! Heck...just ask six different dumb questions. Welcome to the 'Barn!! DD

Re: Rebuilding an Ardun OHV 1954 - 1956
 

Oh hell yea. Welcome.