The Ford Barn

woodburnranch · 01-26-2018, 07:25 PM

I recently toured the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. The service station display included some early Corvettes and 2 Ford Flathead engines. The first was a complete stock engine just inside between the 2 bay doors and the second was an Ardun conversion near the back and may have had mock heads and valve covers. I assume the Ardun may be associated with Zora Duntov but no reference was evident. Does anyone know the story behind these display engines? I'm sure someone will suggest the Ardun should have been used to replace a Blue Flame Six!!

a

hook00pad · 01-27-2018, 03:10 PM

Don't think I've ever seen a flathead-powered Corvette, but it sounds like a good idea.

V8COOPMAN · 01-27-2018, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hook00pad

Don't think I've ever seen a flathead-powered Corvette, but it sounds like a good idea.

Probably NOT a good idea! DD

scicala · 01-27-2018, 05:46 PM

Here is a copy and paste from Wikepedia about Zora ARkus DUNtov.

You can see the name of the heads in his name.

Sal

Ardun[edit]

Settled in Manhattan, the two brothers set up Ardun (derived from Arkus and Duntov) which supplied parts to the military and manufactured aluminum overhead valve, hemispherical combustion chamber heads for the Flathead Ford V8 engine. The purpose of the overhead valve design (already common with in-line 6 cylinder engines of that era), was to cure the persistent overheating of the valve-in-block flathead designs. The Ford flat-head V-8 'siamesed' the two center exhaust ports into a single tube, passing the hot gasses between those two cylinders (a massive heat transfer to coolant which was not present in overhead valve designs). The Ardun heads (designed with overhead valves, now presenting no over-heating problems) allowed dramatic increases in power output from the Ford V8—to over 300 horsepower. Ardun grew into a 300 employee engineering company with a name as revered as Offenhauser, but the company later went out of business after some questionable financial decisions by a partner that Zora and Yura had taken on.[1] Arkus-Duntov attempted to qualify a Talbot-Lago for the Indianapolis 500 in 1946 and 1947. He failed to make the race both years.[3]
Later, Zora left America for England to do development work on the Allard sports car, co-driving it at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1952 and in 1953.[1]
Driving an 1100 cc Porsche 550 RS Spyder, he also won class victories in 1954 Le Mans and 1955 Le Mans.[1]

skidmarks · 01-27-2018, 05:46 PM

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

Quote:

Originally Posted by V8COOPMAN

Probably NOT a good idea! DD

It would just be another fiberglass kit car with a flathead

01-26-2018, 07:25 PM	#1
woodburnranch Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Geraldine, Montana Posts: 76	Flathead Ford Engines in National Corvette Museum I recently toured the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. The service station display included some early Corvettes and 2 Ford Flathead engines. The first was a complete stock engine just inside between the 2 bay doors and the second was an Ardun conversion near the back and may have had mock heads and valve covers. I assume the Ardun may be associated with Zora Duntov but no reference was evident. Does anyone know the story behind these display engines? I'm sure someone will suggest the Ardun should have been used to replace a Blue Flame Six!! a

01-27-2018, 03:10 PM	#2
hook00pad Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 105	Re: Flathead Ford Engines in National Corvette Museum Don't think I've ever seen a flathead-powered Corvette, but it sounds like a good idea.

01-27-2018, 05:46 PM	#4
scicala Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Detroit suburb, MI Posts: 3,698	Re: Flathead Ford Engines in National Corvette Museum Here is a copy and paste from Wikepedia about Zora ARkus DUNtov. You can see the name of the heads in his name. Sal Ardun[edit] Settled in Manhattan, the two brothers set up Ardun (derived from Arkus and Duntov) which supplied parts to the military and manufactured aluminum overhead valve, hemispherical combustion chamber heads for the Flathead Ford V8 engine. The purpose of the overhead valve design (already common with in-line 6 cylinder engines of that era), was to cure the persistent overheating of the valve-in-block flathead designs. The Ford flat-head V-8 'siamesed' the two center exhaust ports into a single tube, passing the hot gasses between those two cylinders (a massive heat transfer to coolant which was not present in overhead valve designs). The Ardun heads (designed with overhead valves, now presenting no over-heating problems) allowed dramatic increases in power output from the Ford V8—to over 300 horsepower. Ardun grew into a 300 employee engineering company with a name as revered as Offenhauser, but the company later went out of business after some questionable financial decisions by a partner that Zora and Yura had taken on.[1] Arkus-Duntov attempted to qualify a Talbot-Lago for the Indianapolis 500 in 1946 and 1947. He failed to make the race both years.[3] Later, Zora left America for England to do development work on the Allard sports car, co-driving it at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1952 and in 1953.[1] Driving an 1100 cc Porsche 550 RS Spyder, he also won class victories in 1954 Le Mans and 1955 Le Mans.[1]