Quote:
Originally Posted by tubman
Beautiful work Dale. I guess there are other flatheads beside Fords.
I have one question : "Ol' Ron" is a proponent of moving the spark plug into the transfer area, and for myself, I prefer Edmunds heads because the spark plug is moved into the transfer area enough, allowing the use of extended tip plugs. The "KR" chamber seems to refute this, with the spark plug directly over the exhaust(?) valve. Why would this be?
|
It is actually over the intake valve. I've not had the luxury of talking to the original designer, though Jerry Branch was pretty much one of the gurus of taking the factory KR design and making additional improvements. My neighbor used to talk to Jerry about the various improvements he was making. While I've heard many "Ford Flathead" guys claim the KR has the plug in the wrong place, I decided that due to the amount of dyno and track work they did, they probably knew what they were doing.
I have a couple guesses:
1) The plug is cooled by the intake charge.
2) Given the design of the chamber, with the angled "shelf" area, my guess is they wanted the charge to fire above the valve (the "back" of the chamber) and then progress toward the angled shelf and piston. One of the reasons I think the shelf is angled (at a very specific angle), is that it uncovers the cylinder on that side . . . so the combustion is driven toward that side, down the cylinder, etc.. My guess is that it causes a "swirl" into the cylinder, which may increase the efficiency of combustion.
I only wish I had a dyno and unlimited time to try different chamber designs. Really, I would like a 1 cylinder Flathead Ford to screw with! LOL