I posted this on the "Ford Barn", and since I had to scan some pictures in, I thought it might be of interest here. This all started because I believe there is a "For Sale" ad on here for a '32 roadster with a Riley conversion. It seems these conversions are extremely rare (I have heard 6 were made). What is interesting is that the intake porting on this engine is much different than on the Riley conversion in The Speedway Collection. It looks like there may have been more than one version. 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 earlier. 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, 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".
So, just to confirm, the engine from the Dahlen #22 car is the one that went in Don Orosco's black roadster? And the Riley in the Basso roadster (now for sale in the HAMB classifieds) came from a different source? What's confusing is that both of these roadsters are black with Ford green trim on them. I remember another Riley shown on the HAMB in the last few years being built at a shop a HAMBer worked at. That car was a lighter colored '32 roadster, maybe a tan or yellow? I think it might have had red scallops or beltline on the body. Somebody knows where the #22 car is now. Cars like that don't just disappear even if the special engine is removed from it.
Like I said, I'm sure I saw it with another engine on a TV show promo last winter. After all of this, I am starting to think that there were probably more than 6 Riley V8 conversions produced. I would expect that the heads on this track roadster are early models, perhaps prototypes, because of the single intake port
I just found the tan car, and I was mistaken. It's a Riley overhead V8, so it's heads aren't the same. Owned by Don Smith.
I doubt they are the same engine, as there's no evidence to suggest it. Why would Orosco switch from an early 21-stud to a late 21-stud, and ditch the in-head pumps for the cast adapters? I'm sure finding the individual adapters is even harder than finding a complete set of heads. Not to burst your bubble, but... You have to take claims like "only 6 made" with a huge grain of salt. For example, it's been said in print and repeated numerous times that there are "only 7" ALGON fuel injection intakes for the 348/409. I know for a fact that's false, as I've owned two of them and have photos of at least a dozen different ones. All of the 21-stud Riley heads appear to have the singular intake port. I doubt the pair you had were a prototype.
I think Orosco's water hose outlets are just '32 tall pumps with the guts removed. Maybe he wanted to install the heads on a later block for the loose bearings available?
A guy replied to my thread on the "Barn" and said that the Speedway Museum Riley is a 24 stud engine. So it seems Riley made both 21 and 24 stud versions on their heads. This is really news to me. I think there maybe a lot more out there than we think.
That looks like Ray Everham's car from the show "Americarna" on velocity but now with an engine swap ( or head swap)... His wife ran it at TROG. Sweet little ride, and cool show... They did another episode on Ardun heads that was cool.
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