Riley OHV F/head

1931 flamingo

1931 flamingo

Well-known member
On the HAMB is a '32 roadster for sale (225K !), has a Riley OHV conversion. Poster says only 6 sets made.
I'd never heard of them. Any one know any more??

Paul in Ct

I'm a little familiar with the 4 cyl Riley's.
 
I had a chance to buy an original track roadster with one of these conversions on a '37 block (I believe they are 21 stud only) for 14K about 15 years ago. Unfortunately, I passed. I think that set ended up on the "Most Beautiful Roadster" at the Oakland Roadster Show about 10 years ago. A few years before that, I talked to the guy that restored the old track roadster several years previously, and as I remember, he said the engine was very "delicate" and wasn't really competitive.

I have some pictures of the original car with the Riley conversion somewhere in my files, and if anyone is interested I can scan them in and post them. I just got a new scanner and would love to try it out. I am also familiar with the history of the racing operation that ran this car, as I know the the grandson of the owner.
 
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32 Fords are always high end but that is definitely in the gold chainer category. A person would be scared to leave it unattended any place other than the garage at home under lock & key with the alarm set.
 
uncle buck said:
Some info here


These are the same place and I highly recommend visiting if you are ever near Lincoln,Nebraska
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This link (below) might work a little better. DD

[URL]http://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/Ford-Flathead-V-8-Riley-OHV-Conversion,15754.html

15754_L_1614e5be.jpg
 
I finally dug myself out of the snow up here and went to the shop and found my pictures of the Riley powered track roadster. Here they are.

The story, as I understand it is that the car was built by a gentleman named Carl Dahlen from Minneapolis who was quite successful running a Riley-headed four cylinder Ford track roadster. This car was supposed to be an improvement on that car, but it was not; (Mr. Dahlen proceeded on with GMC sixes after this debacle). If you look at how the input ports are set up, it's pretty easy to see why this engine was down on power. It's interesting to note the difference in the heads between this engine and the one posted by "Uncle Buck". I wonder if that engine is even a Riley; the two period pictures I show have "Riley" on the valve covers, while that one does not. I have not seen either engine in person so I will reserve judgement on this. Anyway, as I understand it, the car was not successful and was not actively raced, if at all.

My source of information for all of this is a guy that I vintage race with who is Carl Dahlen's grandson. If you notice in the close-up black and white photo, the Driver was one "Wayne T. Allison", who is my source's uncle. The family has a bit of history about the four-cylinder powered cars, but nothing about this one. The color pictures of the car were taken after it was restored by Dave Norgaarden of Rochester, Minnesota. Mr. Norgaarden has restored quite a few vintage race cars over the years. The second name on the cowl, "Harvey Porter" was a gentleman who was said to have driven for Carl Dahlen. I have met Mr Porter, but it was a long time before I know about this car, so I didn't get any information from him.

From what I have heard, Tim Ayers is correct in saying that this engine was the one in the AMBR winning car several years ago. An interesting aside is that I was watching a promo for one of the many "Hot Rod" shows on TV and swear I saw this car, stlll with the gold paint and the number "22" on it. At that time, I believe it had a regular '37 21 stud flathead in it. I watched that stupid show for the whole rest of the winter, but never saw that car again.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but I may be the only one left who knows the history of this car and thought I should get it down somewhere. "Once something is on the Internet, it will live forever".
 

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tubman said:
...It's interesting to note the difference in the heads between this engine and the one posted by "Uncle Buck". I wonder if that engine is even a Riley...
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All three engines in this thread are most certainly Rileys. The Basso roadster that is for sale and your former midget have heads for 21-stud blocks. The Speedway museum engine is a 24-stud, which requires different heads.

Your midget had an earlier 21-stud, hence the water pumps in the heads. The Basso roadster uses a later 21-stud block with the pumps in the block, so they've capped the pump holes in the heads.
 
The old Track Roadster is owned and restored by Ray Evernham and was featured on his TV show two years ago. Bob
 
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It has a flathead in it now, Ray's wife raced it at the New Jersey Race of Gentlemen, also known as TROG. It is restored in gold with red numbers. Bob
 
I'd really like to see the combustion chamber. Can't get very big valves in that style valve arrangement. But they really run pretty good, I saw one back 40 or so years at Hershey, Didnt know what it was at that time. It wasn't for sale.
 
Oh, one last thing. The O/P referred to these as "F-heads". As I understand it, "F-Heads" have the intake valve in the head and the exhaust valve in the block. The Riley conversions have both valves in the head, so they're not "F-Heads". The engines in some '50's Jeeps were "F-Head" (as well as some Rolls-Royces!).
 
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