I stopped at Joe Hunt's place 20 years ago (check that, about 30 years ago LOL)and he was restoring front engine Indy cars as a side business and had about 15 cars there and probably 50 engines laying around -- what a stash!!!! Was at the Riverside Int. Raceway museum a couple of weeks ago and they had a Drake setting in a corner -- about ten feet from a Maserati MC-12 -- about a million dollar car.
Thanks Bob, I will post some earlier pictures in the next few days of the frame and body when I was gathering up the parts to build it. Offy 220
Fiatdude, The engine in the roadster is early 1950's vintage. The Miller,Offenhauser and Meyer and Drake evolved into the Drake, and possibly others variants. What is interesting is that the engine design was basically never changed, only improved upon - valve angle / induction systems / etc. Would of loved to see front engine "roadsters" being restored, especially with all of the engines laying around. Offy 220
Hi Millerawd, I would and I think others also would be interested in your pics of your Miller/Offy 220. I currently have a 220 at Steward Van Dyne's shop that I recently sold which has poured babbitt bearings. Steward is boring the main bearing bores for inserts. I have an unfinished 220 crankshaft blank which will be ground to size. I am not sure of the vintage of the engine, I believe Offenhauser stopped babbitt bearings after WWII. When Meyer and Drake took over, I understand they went to insert bearings. Please post some pics if you can. Offy 220
My favorite engine of all time. And ive never even heard one run. Another great thread on the H.A.M.B.
Few years ago when me and Krylon32 delivered a couple deuces we sold to a guy in the O.C. area, We got invited to a little get together Bob was having at his house. One of the highlights of my life came when Bob asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in this little RPU. He's a great guy and it's a ride I'll remember for the rest of my life. Gary
Falcongeorge, Here are some pictures of the SU carb set up on the 220. We didn't have access to a foundry at the time, ended up machining one out of aluminum on our old BridgePort. Made up the linkage and bored a balancing port through the center. Offy 220
^^man, that is cool. Bet they work nice too, eh? Those carbs are under-rated by most guys, really nice design. I have 4 SU's kicking around, now all I need is the motor!
Gary, We built that set up over 20 years ago. I am going to send the carbs only to SU specialist Joe Curto [sp?] to set them up. He said he has different needles to richen or lean out the mixture. I was looking for a 2 carb 220 Offenhauser intake manifold with side draft Riley carbs. That set up is what was used by Meyer and Drake before Hilborn came out with his mechanical injector set up that is so familar today. The cost and availablity of Riley carbs and parts was more than I could afford at the time [even today!] let alone a manifold. Bob Anderson used side draft Webers on his 270 Offy. I like his set up, but the SU's were too reasonable to pass up. Offy 220
Just a note here, SU carbs obviously very popular here in the UK are the only carbs that will provide a similar power output (on small engines anyway) to sidedraft webbers, but properly set up the fuel economy will rival a modern fuel injection system, loads of info out there on the net.
Cymro, Thanks for the information regarding SU's. I have a lot to learn about them, hopefully once I get them set up properly the engine should run strong and clean. I think I might be a little over carburated right now at idle. The engine is a larger than 220 cubic inches. The crankshaft was a special billet made for George Bignotti [crew chief for Bowes Seal Fast] and is stroked 1/4". Offy 220
hey offy, back in the early 60's we had a jeep we ran sand drags &hillclimbs till the mid 70's.My dad was an old school rodder born& raised in compton. He wanted something different,he started building the little flathead 4 banger,built his own intake/header set-up using the SU's,Sig Erson designed his cam,vertexmag,Reath Auto did alot of the machine work on the block.If I remember right that little engine would wind up to around 5grand an shift.the SU's let that engine BREATH.At that point it was all about upgrading driveline The jeep was called the OLDIE BUT GOODIE an was very sucsessful for quite a few years.the flat head was replaced with a chevy11 4 banger.
Gary, Sounds like a cool Jeep and engine. My dad also grew up in the Compton/Lynwood area. He hung out at Chrisman's shop was good friends with Leroy Neumayer who later on worked on Offys. We borrowed his "Offy Filing Block" to adjust and fit the valves on the roadster engine. Eddie Hulse who was on the cover of the first "Hot Rod" magazine driving Reg Schlimmer's lakes roadster were also from the area. Reg's shop was on Tweety Blvd. in Lynwood. My mom went to school with Eddie and was good friends with his sister Betty. Eddie's brother Chuck went on to be a Champ car/Sprint car driver who survived the era of no cages. Joe Reath's shop was close to our house in Long Beach. He did all of the machine work on my 59a [3 5/16" X 4 1/8"] in my 40 coupe. I also bought the 426 Hemi [short shaft] transmission from him that is in the roadster. Offy 220
It's almost impossible to over carburate with SUs. Sounds like you might need stronger piston return springs. If you have extras, try twisting 2 springs together in each carb and see if there's an improvement. I make my own needles out of stock needles. I hold them in a dremel tool and sand them down, measuring carefully. You need a needle spec chart to try that.
Thanks Yoyodyne, I will do some searching. I also understand one needs to check the oil level as well and center the needles. I am going to go though them and hopefully it will not run rich at idle. The carbs have sat for many years, we picked them up a wrecking yard and basically made the manifold and linkage 20+ years ago. One other problem is that the Offy engine uses cartridge style spark plugs. I understand some of the racers would use a "hot" warm up plug then switch to a "colder" plug for racing. I have a wide range of spark plugs, I will probably experiment with different ones to see which one works best. Offy 220
Hi, I would like to see some pictures, I'm in the process of building a large scale model of a 220 miller to suit a dirt track race car.
Hi guys, Im new to the forum. I finally found the right Offy, and I'm looking to put it in a 32 3 window. Can anybody point me in the right direction when it comes to drivetrain (i.e. what bell housing, starter, trans, etc) is used in this car. Im not afraid of custom fabrication, but I'm also not looking to reinvent the wheel when somebody has already done what looks to be an amazing job. Thanks in advance for any help! Tom Borisch www.downscars.com
Don't forget Lou Senter (Ansen Company) with his '24 T bucket featured in...Street Rodder? or R&C? a few years back. Think it ran a 270 Offy, can't remember what box...car was yellow, with lots of detail. Also: Somewhere around 1979, a friend was down in Southern Ca., came back with some news: After the sale of the Schieffer company, it was said there were 12+ Offy engines in the building. I believe these were all 220s, but not sure...they were said to be for sale?
Could have bought my buddies offy kurtis midget in the early 70s for 2500 bucks but with 2 kids in diapers that might as well been a MILLION
The roadster is painted pearl white [the same paint and color I used when I painted the Foyt/Watson Bowes Seal Fast Special] and my dad added the stripes later which is maroon along with the wheels and grill insert. I am in the process now of replacing the 4 SU carbs and manifold with 'period correct' Riley carbs and Offy manifold from Josh Shaw's shop - Zarika's Garage.
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