Ardun OHV Conversion

flatrod said:
My Ardun is a pile of parts right now. It was a old alcohol sprint car engine. Had Hilborn injection and a mag that I didn't get. Also did not get the valve covers. I did get the roller cam and do plan to use it. I don't know how to put pic on here, so have no pics.
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Look forward to your getting it together and its progress. especially the roller rockers

Tom
 
19Fordy said:
Ronnie, Thanks for posting the ARDUN info. and photo.
ARDUNS are an engineering art form along with mechanical ingenuity.
The "Mona Lisa" of flathead goodies.
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and thanks to Ronnie for the information he provided to me during my build...

Tom
 
Thanks! But please elaborate, why do i need to machine the heads? My heads came with 18mm to 14mm inserts to accept 14mm plugs and they do not build that much in height.

I think I`ve seen something like the picture below used in Arduns?

Ardun said:
I used Autolite AR3934 Spark Plugs. These are 14 mm. However, these can only be used after machining the heads to receive a custom made bushing that will accommodate the plugs. Machining the heads are for experts only as the risk to hit "water" is high due to thin castings. Attached is a pic of the custom bushings. I have a complete spare set of bushings and the tool that I will sell.
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OHV DeLuxe said:
Thanks! But please elaborate, why do i need to machine the heads? My heads came with 18mm to 14mm inserts to accept 14mm plugs and they do not build that much in height.

I think I`ve seen something like the picture below used in Arduns?
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Looks like a heat range issue to me. I also had the 14mm adapters in mine. Using custom made bushings allow the proper plug depth and heat range to be used. I did read somewhere on the web, recently, that there is now a longer threaded plug that can be used if the spark plug hole is threaded fully when using the stock 14mm adaptor as you have. Are your heads first or 2nd gen?
 
OHV DeLuxe said:
Thanks! But please elaborate, why do i need to machine the heads? My heads came with 18mm to 14mm inserts to accept 14mm plugs and they do not build that much in height.

I think I`ve seen something like the picture below used in Arduns?
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I don't use plugs with that long of a extended tip, but when I machined mine I could see where that would work. I cant post pics but will send some to Ardun, maybe he can post them.
 
Ronnie,
Read your Ardun history post, good stuff. I'd like to ask a question.
Why are some valve covers badged Ardun New York and some badged Ardun London? We're they cast over here (England) for a while? That would be a coincidence as I know that the Eddie Mayer repops, Don Orosco's I believe, were cast over here then shipped to the US. Done in a little place on the south coast called Battle.
Martin.
 
scooder said:
Ronnie,
Read your Ardun history post, good stuff. I'd like to ask a question.
Why are some valve covers badged Ardun New York and some badged Ardun London? We're they cast over here (England) for a while? That would be a coincidence as I know that the Eddie Mayer repops, Don Orosco's I believe, were cast over here then shipped to the US. Done in a little place on the south coast called Battle.
Martin.
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I wonder if if it was because the UK manufactured Allard sportscar used the flathead with Ardun equipment?

GB
 

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That's a maybe GB, a chap fairly local to me cleared a barn for an old lady who's long dead husband used to race Allards, the barn contained a few flathead blocks on with really long head studs and two pairs of Ardun heads and one spare head!!!
This was this year! In Somerset England! I got one engine out of there, I heard a couple of days late. Damn, damn and damn! The heads and other stuff went to one guy, for about a third of the cost of one new pair o heads. Their was other stuff in the barn, most of it old race type stuff, including a pair of two barrel S.U. Carbs, I never knew such a beast existed, let alone see one. They went for more money than the Ardun stuff.
Always look in that barn if you can, and chase up any lead, wherever you be, it's still out there.
Martin.
 
That's a bummer scooder if only you could have got down on that stuff earlier. The Allard guys would have loved it. Allard used other engines too, eg OHV Caddy. It was the J2 model that used the flatty from memory.

GB
 
Graeme / New Zealand said:
Henry was a "luditte"

GB
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Henry a "Luddite"? Hardly! If he were, he would have stayed on the farm with the horses. Rather, his goal was to get rid of the horses and drudgery and modernize farming, so he designed and built a tractor as soon as he could. His further goal was to make his cars as inexpensive as possible so that everybody possible could own one. He did this by automating every process he could to reduce labor costs. Hardly sounds like a Luddite! Just the opposite, in fact.
 
"Tongue in cheek" 40 Deluxe,probably the greatest Industrialist of his time. Suppose the old boy was set in his ways for when it came to adopting juice brakes or independent front ends, it took a changing of the guard or him to relinquish some control for the changes to happen to catch up with the competition.

GB
 
scooder said:
Ronnie,
Read your Ardun history post, good stuff. I'd like to ask a question.
Why are some valve covers badged Ardun New York and some badged Ardun London? We're they cast over here (England) for a while? That would be a coincidence as I know that the Eddie Mayer repops, Don Orosco's I believe, were cast over here then shipped to the US. Done in a little place on the south coast called Battle.
Martin.
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We know the prototype was cast in the Long Island/New York area but how many other heads were cast in the US is unknown. Zora used a foundry in England to cast the actual production run. When a set of heads were needed they were shipped to the US directly from the England foundry where all the machine work was already completed at times the serial numbers of the heads were not in sequence due to this order when needed situation.
Some of the early valve covers were inscribed MADE IN ENGLAND and the NEW YORK was always raised lettering. When the made in England was eliminated from the core boxes is anyone's guess at this point.
Recently I revisited the spark plug issue on my ARDUN. From the very beginning I used the 18 MM to 14 MM adapters so I could run 3/4 inch reach plugs. However I got to thinking would the plugs used in the new HEMI work in an ARDUN. I discovered the new HEMI use 1 inch long NGK spark plugs. I'm happy to report using the new plugs from the current production HEMI has worked perfectly. Now the actual electrode is at the end of the tunnel fire chamber in my non modified heads.
 
We're in the process of doing that now to a friends heads, looks like a small amt of material must be removed on the set we have to allow the plugs to seat properly.
This should shorten the advance required for WOT operation. Thanks Ron.
 
Ol' Ron said:
We're in the process of doing that now to a friends heads, looks like a small amt of material must be removed on the set we have to allow the plugs to seat properly.
This should shorten the advance required for WOT operation. Thanks Ron.
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Ron the cleance needed is 7/16 a slight amount removed from the end of the tunnel the HEMI shaped dome.
 
At the turn of the century and up until right after WWII, American machine and foundry work was considered crude at best. Many of the early racer car builders (Miller, the Deusenberg Bros., etc.) sent a fair number of their "close tolerance" parts to be cast and machined in Europe.

I wonder if Duntov thought the same and had a relationship with a foundry in England to cast up the heads.
 
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