www.flatheadmeltdown.com

Typical.  Before I get the chance to write something about Clark's roadster, he goes and sells it.  So this article is going to be about a car that no longer is.  It still exists of course, but the new owner will undoubtably be making it his own, and has started the ball rolling by asking Juarez to drop in a flattie V8.  So, over to Clark....

"After my stock Model A engine went bang I looked for another engine to build up.  The B engine was the one to have so that’s what I went out looking for. I picked one up (for free!) and luckily for me it turned out to be a Diamond B with a factory counter weighted C crank.  The first stage was to get it rebuilt plus have the work done to make it stay together in both this spec and for the future plans I had in mind.  Work included a 60 thou overbore, have the block converted to a full pressure oiling system and have modern insert bearings fitted in the rods and mains to replace the original babbit.
At this point it had standard B pistons and rods, standard B valve train, Dan Price mild cam and a Dan Price oil pump and filter setup and a cut down B flywheel with a 9" V8 clutch.  Bolt on mods included a cast iron Lion Speed Head, Dan Price header, original Ansen single carb inlet, topped with rebuilt 97 and a Mallory dizzy.

In this spec in a stock '30 coupe, 3 speed crash and skinny 19's it would run high 18's all day long. Running a best of 18.7@70mph.  Next step on the slippery slope that is racing was the purchase of an original Burns two pot manifold, a second 97 and a Scintilla magneto to replace the troublesome Mallory.  Back out again in the coupe with the new bits and fenders removed netted yet more consistent high 18's and much head scratching to why all the improvements had done nothing!!

In the off-season down-time the car, in this spec, got put on the rolling road.  I'm a big believer in rolling road tune ups and this time was no different.  It was found out that I was running very lean, so with a quick jet change and tweak of the ignition timing netted a 20 bhp increase!  Unfortunately this car with this engine in this spec never saw the track again.  The coupe was sold to my father and can be seen in its current spec here,  but I kept my engine which was to go in my new car. A '31 roadster.

The engine when fitted into the roadster got a change of head from the previously fitted Lion to an aluminium Winfield.  Back out racing again with the new car and a freshened up motor got a last run of the day best time of 16.9@78mph.

In the season down time the engine came out the car again for a full rebuild.
Now things got serious.  The block got bored out to 4" to bring it up to 3.5 litres.  It was fitted with a set of high spec steel main caps and a set of cam bearings.

New valve seats were fitted for the increase in inlet valve size to 1.7". Valve seats got a 4 angle grind on them and the ports were smoothed into the seats without increasing the size of the port. Valves and guides were modern one piece jobs also getting a 4 angle grind on them.

The flywheel was changed to an 11lb aluminium race one which was redrilled to except the smaller, lighter 9" clutch/pressure plate.  The rods were replaced for forged Crowers to which modified Chevy pistons were fitted and the cam was upgraded to a Jim Brierley-ground Winfield 1A with straight cut timing gears.  To finish it off it got a one off stainless exhaust manifold and system designed by myself.  The engine was put back into the car and briefly ran with triple 97's.

Nothing is ever easy and soon after the car was back on the road disaster struck, ironically on the way to a reliability run!  One of the modified Chevy pistons let go in a big way. Luckily I managed to shut it off quick before the damage really hit hard.

Damage was confined to two damaged bores a set of melted pistons.  The cause was very poor quality pistons that weren't fit for a standard engine let alone a highly modded one.  The engine was stripped down yet again as all the bores needed to be relined from where they had been damaged. They had previously been rebored to max so there was no meat left to take off.  I then bought a set of forged pistons from Ross.  With everything back on track and working it was back to the rolling road.  Not much change was needed but I got the print out to show what it was putting out. 114bhp and 188 lbft torque.

Back out racing finally with everything running great I finally cracked my personal goal of achieving a 15sec 1/4 mile with a 15.7@84mph.

All of this brings us to today.  The roadster has now - as mentioned above - been sold and will reappear in the Meltdown running an 8.  But of course, I've still got my engine and it will be rebuilt and it will live again only bigger and stronger"