Ardun on the dyno

A flathead Ford with Ardun heads and 4 Strombourgs on the dyno. Hopefully I'll get to see it do some pulls tomorrow. I forget, but I think he said that are going for 400+ HP.

Super cool !
Granted , the box was very small back then.
But Mr. Duntov wasn't just thinking outside of it.
He blew it up.

...and what looks like an old Hunt magneto.
That's all very cool !

..so cool

Very nice and unique!

What is it going in?

I'll be really surprised if it gets close to 400 HP,I was cutting my teeth on hot cars and hot rodding in the early 1960s, lots of Ardun powered street rods got their clocks clean regularly by dual quad 1957 Chevy 283 motors that had been hop up a little in 1957 Chevy bodies
Those little carbs don't help either.
Do you know which block was used and how many C.I. it has now? Those blocks only had three mains caps, spin them up to far and the pin would fall out of the grenade and go BOOM
Sorry to be a party pooper.
I really hope they break or make over 350HP
Please keep all of us in the loop

It's a 48-52 block, something like that. Dino was saying that the guy doesn't have all the stuff he really needs to make good horsepower, like a good set of headers, etc...

I may be wrong about the HP, I'll find out tomorrow. I'll get a video of a pull and try to remember more of the info on it.

Till then...

I can here that flathead starter in my head.

I don’t mean to take anything away from a very cool build, but I would think 400 is extremely optimistic.
Ive never had a chance to look at those heads in person, but I agree with Cab. If the airflow is there, with the small bore/ displacement, you still need RPM to make HP. And as said, three main caps on these blocks. Thats a lot of unsupported crank span!
Very neat engine. Hope his goals are achieved.

Not an Ardun (yet) but the 290 ci blown FH I built ok

There's quite a few 325-250HP mild boost, blown FHs getting around that are not Ardun headed.

I built mine with a 4 1/8" crank, H beams, Ross forged slugs and all three studded caps are billet steel. A short fill to the block, I ported it, added 1.6 in/ex valves, a custom blower cam and adjustables. Dual Stromberg WW 2 BBLs, it runs 8lbs of boost on pump 98 down here. Other than a popped head gasket, its been dead nuts reliable and after a recent teardown / inspection the bearings looked brand new

The ARDUN heads were originally designed for garbage trucks because the OE flatheads didn't have enough power.

I've never understood the infatuation with the pre-war relic platform. Seems like a lot of trouble for little horsepower.

Then again, people still race horses...

I still Its called cool factor to be different Is still what gives juice to our hobby

There are a couple serious flat head guys up in my neck of the woods and I was gabbing with one just a couple weeks ago.
One of them has a front motor dragster that runs stock blocks and has allegedly run in the 7's.
They use a girdle on the bottom end that essentially is a bottom end in a box........includes the caps and ties into the oil pan rails as well.
I got to work on a couple of them in high school auto shop and the rods were what scared me.
But there is still fairly significant aftermarket support for them , and some die hard fanatics who run them.

I get that and still appreciate the visual art of them. Same with ricers. I can appreciate good work no matter what the platform. Just not for me. I guess it's what you grew up around.

Scintilla Vertex?

Looks like it sort of. Heres a gennie...

I don’t think you’d want one of these to make 400hp. Very cool though. If it makes 300 or just over, the owner should be happy and it can live a longer happier life. 👍

you can always tell a flathead is under the hood by the starter sound.
and it's a CRIME to run one of them with MUFFLERS !

My only experience with a flat head ford was with my neighbor. He’s building an “A” hotrod. Wanted me to relive the block. I had no idea what he was talking about, until he showed me😀. Turned out nice.

IDT 400 hp is going to happen.
That exhaust tells me that the cam is mild.

I think it's too cool! Just remember, people call us nuts (sometimes we call ourselves nuts) for flying the Mopar flag.

I've seen a guy with a blown flattie in an FED run around here a couple times. IIRC, he did make it into the 9's.

I've actually done a lot of flatheads, and flowed a half dozen or maybe a couple of more and relieving the chamber is bad. Very bad. They also LOVE 50 degree seats.

Did it per neighbors request. The head/ piston combo needed less static compression to work with the blower. Definitely not an expert on these! My question to you as it was to him.... How in the ψξεβ do you flow test this??? You need everything in place, and i see no way to put it on a flow bench? What I did came out of some flat head god’s book.

Live update!

At the shop now, did the initial breakin, adjusting the valves.

Should have known better than to give a “fact” relying on my few remaining brain cells.

“Owner is hoping for 350hp.” Dino doesn’t think they will get this, lack of headers, questionable head work, etc...

Should have a video and some numbers soon!

Still a cool mill to be proud of.

I'm assuming that motor has adjustable lifters, correct?
I remember them days Them bad old days a long time ago
I also remember having and using 5/16 adjustable pushrod in a early Firepower Hemi to se the valves

The dyno guy had to do a bunch of fab work just to get that engine ready to go. I'm guessing the bill from the dyno shop is going to be substantial.

290 HP is my guess.

W/r/t the old school baloney-sliced ram stacks:
Whoever thought this out paid no attention to physics. Think of the air horn as a needle jet (Mikuni, Amal, Kei-Hin). As speed increases, air velocity across the top of the stack produces vacuum inside the air horn - the opposite of what you want. Might add some air if reversed with the open end forward.

280 first run. Running lean, timing light not working. Attempting to fix both.

If the timing light isn't self powered it won't work with a mag.

Agreed
But running a flat head is more of a style thing than a performance thing. Airflow with those stacks is not an issue reving your blown flat head in a parking lot

That’s not a bad start 👍.

Very much so. The project is more than that though. Brought the engine in as is was running horribly, turned out to just be very fouled plugs. But still couldn't get much power out of it, so Dino tore it down, and it had the wrong pistons, sitting way below deck. New pistons and steel main caps added, and now looking to see what it will do. Yes, going to be a hefty bill!

Here is the last dyno sheet of the day. This was after one rejetting step, (have to remove each carb to do the jets), and playing with timing by ear, as it looks like the magneto blew the timing light.

It still appears to be a bit lean, so he's going to go one more step on the jets, get a correct timing light, and see what it will do.

Notice the RPM, and still climbing! But Dino, the owner as well as myself, (even though my vote doesn't count), were scared even taking it that high, and decided not to go higher.

Not bad! Jets and maybe timing should be good for at least a few more HP.

Was very cool hanging out and watching this one get done though, just something different and unique.

Here is one of the pulls.

Here it is in the dyno room.

And while we're at it, here is my engine on the same dyno years ago.

And just for your viewing pleasure, !

That’s a great running little motor. Very cool! What’s it going in?

Forgot to ask, I'll see if I can find out.

Neat old machines, those flatheads. My first car was a '51 Custom 2-door with the V-8. Sweet old car......

Man am I'm glad you guys didn't hurt anyone or anything with that rocket car, talk about to much power

Yeah, that was hilarious! We previously tried it with one engine, didn't do much, so strapped 3 on there.

Boys will play!

The Ardun sounds nice, and bigger than it is.
The rocket car is hysterical !

Thank you for taking the time to share this. I enjoyed it

If it was mentioned I missed it.....

What’s the cubic inch?

If my memory serves me correct the 1949 to 1953 Ford motors where 239 C.I., the same year Mercury where 254 C.I. I have no idea how much the 4.0 inch stroker cranks add to either motor, CRS on the bore sizes also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_flathead_V8_engine

http://victorylibrary.com/mopar/m-table-c.htm#flathead

Around 280ci. I don't remember exactly, but somewhere in the 280's.

back in the late 40's-early '50's 300+ real horsepower would have been a big deal. put that engine in a 2000lb or less roadster and you could have a real hot rod for it's time era.

several years ago a friend gave me some early hot rod mags. I found them to be a real gas to read. one of the mags is Hot Rod Your Car, copyright was 1952. back then Racer Brown was the tech editor for Hot Rod magazine. they go thru all the American engines at the time and it really gives an insight on how these guys did things with virtually no tech. to know what I know now and to have a time machine.

Wrong very wrong. On a full race or blown flathead there are benefits to relieving. Don't believe me check out joe abbins books he does extensive flow testing.

Nice, it even sounds like a Hemi!

I still want someone to explain how they flow test these. No answer on that one yet.

One guys approach. Others have cut up a scrap block so they can set the cylinder on top of the flow bench. Others have made a model cylinder out of wood and put in metal valve seats to experiment with seat angles and machined a test head out of plexiglass.