This Book is a must have for any motor head. 512 pages hard cover. 150 technical drawings and 100 charts. The most detailed book I have ever seen on the OFFY. Printed In USA. Kenneth E. Walton is the author and has co-written other OFFY books. Covers all OFFY's from the 20's on to the Turbo era. From Miller to Offenhauser to Myer Drake the history is all there. Selling on Ebay for $99.95 or a Leather Bound Edition for $150. Put it on your wish list.
'Spensive but worth it. That book is a veritable shop manual for the Offy. It's also the closest I'll ever get to owning one.
Wasnt the Offy copied from a french engine either a Peugeot or a Ballot that ran in an early Indy race?
I'm pushing close to sixty and saw my first offy at bowlin green this spring, most incredible engine. Love to have one.
Excellent book! I've known Ken for many years, and he is very passionate about anything Offenhauser... highly recommended.
I agree Ken is a great guy. I ordered my copy by calling his home phone. We talked for 20 min about offy engines. He could not have been nicer. The amount of research he did and continues to do is amazing.
Back in the early 80s I was working for a race team that raced Mazda RX7s and we did all of our engine dyno testing at Drake Engineering. John Drake, the son of Dale Drake of Meyer-Drake, was running the operation at that time. Stu Van Dyne was doing most of the engine work and John did product development and machining. At that time they got a request for a last turbo Offy that was to run at Indy, I think the guy's name was John Malard, I'll check with Stu. Anyway John an Stu assembled the final Offy race engine, all new parts, to come out of Drake Engineering. Where the serial number was usually stamped they stamped "The last Offy". At the time four cylinders were allowed to run at 56 inches of boosts. The attached picture is that engine on the dyno at Drake Engineering making 760 hps at 9000 rpm. The engine was ran at Indy but did not qualify. Rex
I tried to edit this post but lost all of it. The guy who raced the Offy midget in 1938 at Bathurst New South Wales, Australia was Paul Swedburg or Sweedburg. His car was the first Offy to come to Australia.
Thay are cool engines thats for sure. There is a guy at my work who's father built a model offy and it is just awsome. Check out the web site because he wrote a book on how to build your own http://www.ronsmodelengines.com/ Really cool stuff.
It's from the LA public library digital archives: http://www.lapl.org/ Not much info posted with the photos. The info for the one I posted: Man holds an offenhauser engine while the other looks at it. (1929?) Here's three more: http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics43/00056352.jpg Two men inspect a offenhauser racing car engine. http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics28/00048511.jpg 1929 Two men in the roadway outside the Harry A Miller company which manufactured racing cars and engines http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics35/00052029.jpg Old Miller front-wheel drive race car. Owner Griff Bergeson, watches as U.S. Customs examines the relic. Photo dated: August 1, 1959 Enjoy, Mark
The last pic with Griff looking at a spark plug is one of the two Packard Cable Specials that Griff brought back from France. The whole deal was covered in Sports Car Illustrated. Griff was a great Miller Fan. Great Photos, Thanks for posting
In the mid 70's I used to go see ole' Joe Hunt (Hunt Magnetos was in Torrance, about a 1/2 mile from where I grew up). I'd developed a friendship with Joe due to flathead ignitions. He helped me rebuild my Harman-Collins dual point first (even had NOS parts that he let me have for little of nothing) -- then he recharged my HC magneto and set it up). Anyway, he had some original Indy cars back in his shop -- with a collection of Offy's and Offy parts. He showed me how the blocks were constructed of one big block of material (if I remember), the cranks were works or art, etc.. He had multiple complete Offy engines - old ones, turbo ones . . . I believe even a supercharged one. He also had a few NOS engines, cranks, etc -- a heck of a store of the stuff. I used to do work for him after high-school (running parts, etc). He was a wonderful old guy . . . was a shame when he died and the business was moved. I wish I knew what cars he had and what happened to them -- maybe they went to his son?
The first McGee quad cam top fuel engine was based on the Offy, it had the cylinders and heads in one piece with a seperate crankcase and the crank was similar to a 426 Chrysler.
The engine was banned by the NHRA, the McGee Brothers both live in the USA now and Chris concentrates on the Junior Dragster market with a range of products to suit. Chris lives in Calif. and Phil is in Montana I think. Yes Bernstein played with them for a bit.
HA! I worked on "The Last Offy". It was in 1981. It was owned by a guy named John Mahler and it was installed in a Penske PC6 copy built, originally, by Longhorn Racing. What a horrible fate for "The Last Offy". The car was horrible with over 65% rear weight bias and Mahler was a total idiot. The engine would run about ten or twelve laps and "spin a bearing" or "throw a rod". After two weekends of this, I decided to take the whole oiling system apart and have a look at the pumps, lines, fittings, filters, coolers, etc..... all clear and working. The oil tank was a big "shoebox" looking thing with a top "return from engine" line, bottom "outlet to engine" line and no inspection plate, so my only option was to cut it open. What I found was horrifying. Half way up the tank was a welded in "baffle" with about a half a dozen, quarter inch "drain back" holes. After about ten laps, all of the oil was sitting on top of the baffle waiting to drain down through the tiny holes to the bottom of the tank to be picked up by the scavenger pumps. The engine would run out of oil and seize the bearings. I cut the baffle out and replaced it with a removable plate with about a dozen, one inch "drain back" holes and the problem was solved... but not before "The Last Offy" was purty much ruined by incompetence. I left that deal shortly after, because I had all of Mahler that I could stand and I have no idea whatever happened to "The Last Offy" or its current whereabouts........ One thing, for sure, it deserved a much better life than it had in the ownership of John Mahler. I just wished that I had been dishonest enough to "nip" that serial plate on my way out the door.
I believe this engine was sold in L.A. about 2006 to go into a speed boat. I was interested in it ,but was concerned about it,s condition. I was told it had never been in a car and only had dyno time.
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