Hot Rods Spalding Bros Repro, for "Too Tall" Ganahl.

That is looking real good.Looks like Mr G is fixing to have more fun that the law allows.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

They became less popular when it became more fashionable to take your hot rod to the local burger joint rather than the race track. Folk just don't fit in them anymore.

 

Absolutely Beautiful!! What great craftsman ship!
In any of your track roadster builds did you ever adapt a CAE/Halibrand torque ball housing on to the back of the '39 ford to use the sprint car torque ball/tube?
Thanks for sharing this build!

 

In the 4 or so that I built using a closed drive-line, we used a stock Ford u-joint. I am sure the CAE torque ball would be stronger.

 

WHAT!?

 

Thanks! I am working on a Watson roadster clone with a 39 box, would like to put the CAE torque ball on it to match the rest of the drive line better.

 

Nope, not yet!

 

I took the car to my favorite gathering today, the Portland Transmission Spring Classic. I knew it would be wet, so I took the precaution of double tarping it and taking my EZ Up. Despite the rain, there was a bright spot, a gentleman that follows along on this forum, brought a distributor for me to look at. He didn't want to sell it, but showed us the steps to convert a stock unit to work. He was quite knowledgeable and has a 39 Chevy coupe with a 270 Jimmy engine ! I had asked Pat's permission to take it, and warned of the wet conditions, he said, "take it, if it gets wet, wipe it dry !". Luck was on my side, it's home safe and sound. It was great to see some HAMB members present !!!

 

Was the dizzy a Spalding unit or the guy's own version? What breaker plate was used?

 

Good to see you and the car today, Marty! I took almost the same pictures as you haha. These two were a couple of my favorites, but that flamed '36 coupe is hard to beat.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Mike, I think it was a Spalding, I should be in touch with him again soon, and maybe I can take notes.

 

That distributor looks a lot like a HC Ducoil. I have a few V8 versions. Not sure what car the cap would have come off of originally, because I'd bet it wasn't a special made part to begin with. Did Nashes have fancy dual plug/coil six cylinders? That seems to sound familiar.

 

Nash twin coil twin plug six.

 

Marty, go down to NAPA and order up a cap and rotor for one of those Nashes, borrow that distributor as an example, and I bet you could wittle a copy up in a weekend.

 

I don't think there is much chance of NAPA having those caps, but if they do I'd like to know. They're out there but expect to pay a lot. You need the cam off the Nash distributor as well so the rotor will fit. It's an Autolite but it fits right on to the Delco shaft, just need to adapt the lugs for the advance springs. A twin point breaker plate is required. Knock 3 lobes off the cam.

 

How do you know this stuff ?

 

Old age and treachery. Well that, and I've got a Nash dizzy to play with.

 

I have read that The Spauldings ran with a 5 or 6 carb manifold prior to converting to Hilborn but have never seen a picture. Anybody have info on this?

 

Here is a shot with the 6 carb setup, Pat will fill in here, but I think they ran 3 carbs ( like Pat is using) on the ovals before switching to the injection.

 

Thanks Marty,
I assume this is what they ran at the Lakes.

 

The Spaldings started as lakes racers, running several inventive cars. So when they built the track roadster, they ran it at El Mirage in '49, then took it to the first Bonneville that year (where they ended up loaning their engine to the City of Pasadena lakester). The six carbs were tried for top-end runs, only, and weren't successful--way too much for a 248-inch six. You can see the three holes in the hood bubble for the three BXOV2 carbs they ran quite successfully on the track. And that's what was on the car when it appeared on Hot Rod's cover in Feb. 1950. That was also what came with my engine when I got it: an early Wayne manifold with three BXOV2 carbs. So that's what I'm using. It will also be more drivable.
I spent the day today enlarging my oil pan. Will finish the oil system tomorrow. Pictures at Eleven.
Pat G.

 

Here's another 6 carb setup for a 12 port. As you can see its not the same 6 carb intake.

Unfortunately its not mine.

Makes me wonder how many different types of intake manifolds were made for 12 port heads.

 

Good view of the fuel log.

 

Pat, are you going to use the Chrysler full flow oil filter?

 

Since you have built a bracket for one I assume you are going to at least use the canister. I assume the Casing came with the boxes of parts you got when purchasing the engine. If so it may have had modifications to the line connection and fittings to suit the installation. Some as of late are installing modern spin on filter adapters in the vintage canisters to maintain the "look". I have seen an installation many years ago(1955)on a Chevy 6 dirt car. but the rest in pictures in magazines. I was interested just how easy it was to use one of these filters.

 

What I Did This Weekend

I was going to take the Iacono dragster to Eagle Field to run, but it's still under plastic taped to the floor because I'm supposed to be painting Bill's Riviera (I did get once last coat of primer on it). But I wanted to get the oil pump/oil lines/pan situation figured out and done on the Wayne Chevy. First I determined that the pump with the flat bottom plate that came with my engine is from a 228 GMC (as Wayne used), and mine was in excellent condition. The problem is it's longer and a bit wider than the Chevy pump.
You saw the stock 216 Chev oil pan I cut the dipper throughs out of a page back. I was going to make it 1" deeper, but Marty said there's only 10" clearance from the engine pan rail to the ground, and the pan is 7-1/2" deep. That's 2-1/2" of ground clearance, which is already marginal on a dirt car. So I decided to elongate the lowest hump to clear the pump and whatever pickup I devised. It would have been much easier if I had a second pan to cut sections from, but I didn't. Here's how it started.





Did somebody mention crude welding? You can only do so much with a MIG. But halfway through I went and got a new adjustable self-darkening helmet, which helped much.


View attachment 3540383
Next I had to section the middle hump 2" for more pump clearance.



After forming a lower pan extension and two small side patches, the patchwork pan looked like this. I'd recommend doing this work with the pan bolted to a spare block, but I didn't have an extra one handy (and didn't want to work on my clean assembled one).



After grinding welds and trial-fitting the pan, I found I still had to make a small "side-pocket" to clear the bigger pump, so the pan looked like this. Note the two original baffles, which I kept in place.



Then I formed and added a third baffle to make a pocket around the pump.



Then I found a place to make oil lines to my specs. This was their first attempt at a 1/2-inch rubber flex hose for the pump. But, first, it was too much monkey business and, second, I was afraid the A-N elbow (red aluminum piece) might break.


So, using the rt. angle brass fitting that came with the pump, and a shorter hose with 3/8 NPT ends (one swivel flare), this was the simpler 2nd try.




Finally, I really wanted a pickup with some sort of screen, but pump-to-pan clearance is minimal. So I used one end of a Ford V8 pickup to make this short, angle-cut pickup tube similar to the 228 GMC seen in Wayne catalogs. Now I can clean up, repaint, and install the pan (for first oil pump test). After turning the engine back upright, I can install the (2nd try) hoses I had make to hook up the Mopar oil filter.
I'm still afraid this might be too much information. Let me know if so.
Cheers, Pat