my buddy has a pair of offy dual spark plug flatheads. are they worth it looking at or would that be a waste of time. i think it would be pretty trick, but i also want to know some opinions of others to see how well it works
Didn't know Offenhauser made such a thing. I'd be interested to see a picture wether you end up with them or not.
Oh, and the answer to a question concerning any flathead speed equipment that ends in the phrase "is it worth messing with?" is always yes!
I believe that they have to be Elco Twins if they are of aluminum mfg. I have never seen or heard of Offy ever producing a 2 plug per cyl head. Like Kevin said above, I'd love to see a pic of them.
Did Roof make some twin plug heads too? Never seen Offys - guess someone might have modified some?? Woulda thought that was a lot of work for relativley little gain...
If there the right price, good or bad they would make a cool wall hanging if your not going to use them, better let me know his number so I can check them out for you, umm.......... just what was the price he told you??
A guy here in New Zealand name of Hogan made twin plug heads in the early 60s I believe. I have seen them in the past, and I think there's a blown flattie FED currently running them with separate mags for each set of plugs.
They could be a homemade coneversion to dual plug, either way i would check them out they could turn out to be pretty neat, post a pic up when you get a chance.
I would agree, if they are Offy, they are converted units. Cools stuff. Now finding a Nash twin 8 or Cad. V16 dizzy to run them is the trick part. Or, maybe twin Vertexs like top fuelers....
Kong made them also. Offy didn't. I'd be interested in a pic of these. Also. how about a way to make them work. Dual dizzy's?
Yeah Roof made them. Back in the day they used the 16 plug Nash dizzy to fire them. What do ya think a 16 plug Nash dist cap would go for on Ebay? I have seen dual dist. drives to run parallel ignition like the Hemis do. Boy what a can of worms...Doable?...sure I've been doing this shit a long time and I'm not sure that's a project that I'd like to tackle. With the size of my wallet, I won't have to be tested. It's out of my tax bracket. This 40 is running the dual plug heads and Nash dizzy. I got to hear it run the other day. I don't know what I expected but it was as smooth as a baby's ass. A rolling hot rod history lesson. What a great piece!
ive seen a Kong setup - photo was taken about 3 years ago now... also know there is a guy over here in the UK who has a set of roof heads and ignition to match it. He was telling me that when the car is running with twin plug heads only one set of plugs/dizzy work at any time, the other set sit dormant and are only there as a backup if the first set fails heres a pic of the engine i seen...dont know what it was for or anything about it - only managed to get some pics.
I've seen a set of Latten dual plug heads. One of only four sets, so I was told. Thing about them was they were reversible. Nice quality, very well made.
The Nash Twin 8 distributor was the old way to make the dual plug heads work. Hmmm, I wonder what those would cost to reproduce? Might as well go electronic too...
There's a guy I've seen who has them for around $350. Just for the cap. I think his name is "Drrot" or something like that.
I've seen them at Hershey in the past. They sorta stand out in a crowd of dizzy caps....like what the hell does that fit? I noticed that the cap on that 40 had 2 very small dabs of paint (couldn't tell if it was factory or not) at 2 of the wire connectors 180 deg apart. I wonder what the fireing order is.
The ones that Jim made are solid, no water jackets and are quite unique. They take a water manifold that would go straight into the head then right into the block-no cooling for the combusion chamber. ie: solid/filled head. I attempted to machine a set for Jim, but was trying to fit them in between runs. I just didn't see how they would work for anything other than Flat Out racing. I decided to have him have somebody else do them. He now has the sets back in his posession & I believe that there was 4 heads. so 2 sets. I also had his set of F head Athans which were designed for use with Buick straight 8 vale train components. John gave him the pattern & these also are symetrical. Weird stuff out there that's for sure
What...Huh...Did I miss the party?? Offenhauser did not make dual plug heads, unless somone modified them. Modification to the spark plug area on Offenhauser heads would be difficult due to the water jacket design, I don't think you could get two plugs in that area on Offy castings. Dan Marvin, Owner Exeter Auto Supply
I think it would be fairly simple to adapt a mag drive for a chevy to a dual drive top from a chrysler dual mag drive and then modify the shaft/gear for a late model flathead. I know HEIs have been converted quite often so any mag drive for a chev could be made to fit in the front cover. You could make adapters from the pin drive for the mags to the early flathead distributor tangs and you are off and running. Or you could be ultra cool and just run 2 mags on it- just have to make sure they are set for correct rotation. Brad
like setting up a flathead dizzy isnt a pain in the arse anyway! so go and make it twice as hard...heheheh, got to love flatheads. dont know I would have the time to sort it all out. but they would be a great wall hanger to talk about. imagine trying to sort it out if you had a spark problem...
butcher your timing cover (s), adding the second dizzy, set them both up like there's only one (dizzy). Here's some of those NZ units in a friends roadster, goes like stink. Cheers, Drewfus
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