1935 Miller Ford V8 auction starts 8/18

[corvette8n]

Here is your chance to own a flathead Indy racer

https://www.mecum.com/lots/CA0816-24...cial-indy-car/

What carbs are on this V8?.

[KGS]

Maybe single barrel Strombergs???

[Bulligen]

They look like Ford Flathead six cylinder carbs

[TJ]

Originally Posted by Bulligen

They look like Ford Flathead six cylinder carbs

No six cylinder Fords in '35 unless they came off another type of car.

[Offy 220]

I looked up some history on the Miller-Ford Indy cars in Mark Dee's "Miller Dynasty" and there is some dispute who built the carbs. Quote on pg. 478, "The cars had aluminum intake manifolds with four single-throat carburetors allegedly built by Harry Miller. If these carbs were in fact Miller's and not experimental Stromberg's [as we believe they were the latter] this is about the only direct hand Miller had in the preparation of the engines, and even these carburators were to be replaced in some cars ..." A few of the photos in his chapter show Miller using Winfield SR carbs and another using a Hexagon manifold using two Stromberg 97's in Ted Horn's car [pg. 479].

[jimTN]

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Wonder who the intended driver was for this car? Here is a question for all, after reading the recent Ev8 Times article about the 33 and 34 roadster factory engine race cars, does anybody know of one of those engines and the story behind it? To have turned the rpm they did, things had to be right.

[29AVEE8]

If the Miller is too hard on your wallet the Bob Estes Ardun is also up for auction. It also comes with the 4 cam engine (some assembly required.)

http://www.rickcole.com/auction/1/it...-racing-car-53

[Fordors]

A post I made a number of years ago gives some details-

Re: Factory Flathead speed parts
Info from Mark Dee's Miller Dynasty and Floyd Clymer's Indy Race History:
Bore and stroke were stock, block was ported. Bottom end was stock components with greater clearances. Pistons had greater compression height to achieve a 9.5 comp. ratio, were of 4 ring design and had .005-.007 clearance. Bohnalite heads were reversed to place the outlets to the front and head gaskets are said to have been laminated from five layers, four sheets of .001 aluminum and one sheet of .001 copper and a 8 quart cast aluminum oil pan with integral cooler was used.
No specs were found for the racing cam that was mentioned.
Ignition was by Bosch magneto which was mounted inside the firewall. It was run off the front of the crank by a right angle drive and a flexible shaft. I wonder if it was in the cockpit to facilitate timing adjustments by the riding mechanic? Driven by the nose of the cam was a single, large water pump.
Intake manifolds were either a design by Miller with 4 single throat Miller carbs, but these are also described as having been experimental Strombergs. Some were switched to Winfields with good results. The Hexagon manifold was designed by Ford engineer Don Sullivan and produced by the Hexagon Tool & Die Company of Detroit. On the Miller/Ford (only Ted Horn's ran the Hexagon) the float bowls faced front as normal, but after WWII the Hexagon was sometimes favored because the backward facing carbs afforded clearance for the generator without need of an offset bracket.
The cast exhaust headers were in a W shape, flex tubing connected them to a central oval shaped exhaust pipe.
Given the time frame and many engineering concerns of the chassis and suspension I think it was remarkable that Miller pulled this off at all. The steering box is too confusing to describe here but was mounted above the left exhaust header and surely received it's share of heat. One box lasted the longest in the race, it had steel gears but apparently they were improperly heat treated. The other boxes had bronze components but in any event they cooked the lube and seized.
One of the Miller/Fords is in Illinois, I wonder how much of the engine is as original 1935 issue.

The info I found mentioned .001 material for the head gaskets but I wonder if that might have been a typo?

[Fordors]

From another post I made on the Hexagon manifold-


Re: Hexagon tool intake
The Hexagon was produced by them for the 1935 Miller/Ford Indy car and with that being a front wheel drive effort the engine blocks were reversed. Why Hexagon, or Miller, or Ford for that matter thought the carbs needed to be mounted conventionally is anybody's guess. Hexagon was a Detroit tool & die shop, possibly had history with Ford, and produced the patterns and machined the manifolds. The Hexagon was faster in qualifying, with Ted Horn being second fastest at 113MPH.
There was another manifold, a four carb, open plenum design (Miller?) that ran experimental Strombergs (some say Miller's) on most of the cars. It had a reversion problem with a fog of gas forming over the carbs and blowing back at the driver and riding mechanic. I'm no expert but I think reversion is caused by a "mismatch" in the intake tract length and RPM peak of the engine.
The Hexagon wasn't marketed for street use until the '40's and was popular for the backward facing carbs which afforded room for the generator in it's stock location.