I am looking for information about an offenhauser crossfire conversion. i.e. production numbers, others around, anything.... The motor is around a '47 Flathead Ford. It has been bored and stroked to approximatly 304 ci. As you can see in the photo it also has hillborn injection. The engine is in a sprint car that my dad drove until last year. The owner of the car has since passed away and we would like to find out about the value of the engine. It obviously is rare, but can't find anything about exactly how rare. any help would be appreciated.
Your description leaves me a tad confused. Offenhauser Equipment Co. (Not Fred Offenhauser/Meyer-Drake who built Offy engines) marketed aftermarket speed equipment such as cylinder heads and intake manifolds for Flathead Fords. There was a Norden Co. that made 180 degree crankshafts for the same engines. Typically these cranks were associated with engines that were described as "crossfire". Withiut being able to see anything in the photo, my guess is that you have a Ford/Merc engine that is equipped with Offenhauser heads along with the Hilborn Injection. There are no prduction numbers or volumes that can be related to such a combination. This engine was assembled by an individual using purchased components.
You can still get a new "crossfire" crank and cam for a flathead. I think the general consensus was that it made a bit more power but some flatty experts (i. e. older farts) agree that the power was no different but this configuration made the engine sound wierd.
Dale, Just got the word back on the engine from Speedway. It is a low production specially made crank from Offenhauser, not norden.
Well I guess I'll take some Tobasco with my crow but In over 50 years of hanging around this Hot Rod thing (including the magazine from the beginning) I never heard of Offenhauser doing cranks for flatheads. Even at that I stand by my original answer to the extent that you'll not find any serial numbers associated with your creation. Somebody built that engine using components supplied by others and a Ford block(which never had any serial numbers on it.)
50 years ago the 'old guys' when talking about engines would whisper 'its got a 180 crank',and us youngsnots would look at each other an shrug. nobody would really say as to how they were any better, they just said '180'. we had the feeling that if we asked, they would tell you that you didnt need to know, becuz you wudnt understand,[which was true]. Mostly it was used on circle tracksters, and [due to the fact that i never asked and still dont really know why], but if they fire 2 cyl at a time it stands to reason they would put out a helluva lotta torq -- very useful on short tracks coming out of the turns. .
Back in the day....Offenhauser, Edelbrock, and other manufactures were warehouse distributors for lines other than the items that they made. If you look at an Offenhauser catalog pre late 60's or early 70's you will see many items listed that they did not make. The 1954 Offenhauser catalog lists crankshafts, camshafts, carburetors, suspension components, magnetos, distributors, and other items Offenhauser never made, but warehoused and sold through their distributors. It is possible that Offenhauser sold "crossfire" crank kits but they never made them. Around the late 60's, manufacturers that sold to Offenhauser started selling to distributors direct. Hurst was the first to do so. When this occured Offenhauser and others stopped warehousing and distributing items that they did not make themselves. Dan Marvin, Owner Exeter Auto Supply
I had a Norden crank around 1960 in a circle track engine. I believe the crank was purchased from Honest Charley. Sounded like two bangers in a pissing contest.
I thought I'd bring this up again, as there seems to be very little out there on this type of crank...Norden, Crossfire, Flatplane. So if anyone's got any more info on build, cam choice, Flathead Jacks very spendy one, I'd be very interested to know what's out there. Were they just, as a lot people seem to think, a flathead dead end. Or was there a point in the competitive racing world?
In the early '60's, on my first visit to Lebanon Valley Speedway.(NY), I was approaching the grandstands and heard a motor with a very different sound. Hot laps were under way. It was the "Little Stinker", the "X" driven by Doug Garrison. A '37 flat back 2dr. It had a supercharged flat crank flathead. A great driver in a great car. Can anyone elaborate on this? The car was out of Connecticut, Winstead, I think.
LeRoy Douglas "Doug" Garrison Local Racecar driver, Lebanon Valley Speedway. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=93739979 Pictures
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