Minnesota Focus Owners Club

Redlineracer12 wrote: It looked like there were 6 ports on each one of those manifolds though?

Back in the day they didn't always design for optimal flow. If you look at it both intake and exhaust go on the same side of the head and they had a habit of using siamesed ports so counting post isn't always a good way to count cylinders.

Amateurs I guess half of them had to be intake ports...

Either way it was a huge engine

Redlineracer12 wrote:Amateurs I guess half of them had to be intake ports...

Either way it was a huge engine

You should see the car the engine belongs in talk about filling a lane.

The manifold is from a 1941 Buick Special - the engine may be any of the years staight eight. The distributors had dual coils into one cap. Buick didn't offer a V8 until 1953. Those were nick name "nail heads" because of the small valves also the valve cover sat totally horizontal. The customizers in the 1950s love the clean look of the engine plus it was narrow and fit in almost any thing.The "nail head" was offered from 1953 thru 1966 starting a little over 300ci to 425 ci .--Bob

I forgot to say that an old time Minnesota racer name Vern Trent (long time dead now) had a 1200 lb. dirt track T bucket (roadster) with one of those straight eights in it. The car has been at several local vintage shows in the last few years. I didn't meet Vern until he was in his 70s but a freind of mine drove for Vern and said that car was a hell of a ride-no regular trany only an in/out gear box plus wood artillery wheels with knobby tires,rear only hand opperated brakes! Called the 'White knuckle special". I sat in that thing once, for a seat belt there was rope. Vern was a big guy and the car was built accordingly. Several of his drivers were smaller men and the seat was not adjustable. Imagine beening roped in a car with pillows behind and under you hurtling around a dirt track broadsiding in a group of other cars!! Vern always built Hudsons, Buicks and Packards. He love being different and enjoyed the challenge. When I knew him he had a left over blower Packard V8 on a combine . That thing sounded unreal coming across a feild !! I got to see his 1946 Hudson coupe ,flat head 6 dual carb, match race a 66 chevy malibu, 350 V8, in about 1986 and beat the guy 3 for 3 races in the Winnoa fairground dirt oval ! --Bob

o6designs wrote:The manifold is from a 1941 Buick Special - the engine may be any of the years staight eight. The distributors had dual coils into one cap. Buick didn't offer a V8 until 1953. Those were nick name "nail heads" because of the small valves also the valve cover sat totally horizontal. The customizers in the 1950s love the clean look of the engine plus it was narrow and fit in almost any thing.The "nail head" was offered from 1953 thru 1966 starting a little over 300ci to 425 ci .--Bob

Nailheads rock, I owned a couple and we built one in one of my buddies '66 Riviera with a huge Poston cam, factory dual four intake with a pair of 730 Rochester carbs, Kenne-Bell switch pitch TH-400 and 3.42 posi.

That was one nasty Riv, it'd slam your head off the headrest on th 2-3 shift!

They were near bulletproof as well, super tough engine, massive torque but limited a bit on peak power by the stupid tiny valves and head design.

I still want another one though.

That was the deal with street racing light to light -TORQUE !!Cheaper to torque it off the line than rpm it ! If you ever get the chance to drive an old 62-64 (before they went oversized or overweight) Buick Wildcat or Electra 225 -DO IT ! They flat hauled ass. The story goes that old Vern bought a brand new Buick with the nailhead V8 when they first came out in the fall of 53 and stripped it out to go Grand National racing (NASCAR in the 50-60s). The plan was to be ready for Datonna. They had the car ready early winter and got the OK to test at the Rochester fairgrounds .The only problem -SNOW on the track. Verns driver flipped and rolled the Buick at least 4x on the back straight . Pretty much banckrupted their racing program as the car was on payments and no insurance!! If they would have made it down there and finished well racing history and racing in Minnesota racing may well have turned out much differently- Pettys,Allisons and Trent ! Who knows there could have been a NASCAR track in this state too!!--Bob

o6designs wrote:That was the deal with street racing light to light -TORQUE !!Cheaper to torque it off the line than rpm it ! If you ever get the chance to drive an old 62-64 (before they went oversized or overweight) Buick Wildcat or Electra 225 -DO IT ! They flat hauled ass. The story goes that old Vern bought a brand new Buick with the nailhead V8 when they first came out in the fall of 53 and stripped it out to go Grand National racing (NASCAR in the 50-60s). The plan was to be ready for Datonna. They had the car ready early winter and got the OK to test at the Rochester fairgrounds .The only problem -SNOW on the track. Verns driver flipped and rolled the Buick at least 4x on the back straight . Pretty much banckrupted their racing program as the car was on payments and no insurance!! If they would have made it down there and finished well racing history and racing in Minnesota racing may well have turned out much differently- Pettys,Allisons and Trent ! Who knows there could have been a NASCAR track in this state too!!--Bob

What if I told you he eventually scrapped the Riv but kept the engine and we stuck it in a T-bucket?

He was never much for tuning or getting things running right so I did that for him, it never actually got finished but the engine had been rebuilt just before installation into the T and I was really worried about the thing just from running it in the driveway because it was just going to be stupid fast and overpowered and the guy was kind of an idiot behind the wheel so he wouldn't have lasted long before killing himself.

His old Riv could almost give my Skylark a run for it's money when we used to play on the freeway.

You old farts are starting bore me...

<3

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:

o6designs wrote:That was the deal with street racing light to light -TORQUE !!Cheaper to torque it off the line than rpm it ! If you ever get the chance to drive an old 62-64 (before they went oversized or overweight) Buick Wildcat or Electra 225 -DO IT ! They flat hauled ass. The story goes that old Vern bought a brand new Buick with the nailhead V8 when they first came out in the fall of 53 and stripped it out to go Grand National racing (NASCAR in the 50-60s). The plan was to be ready for Datonna. They had the car ready early winter and got the OK to test at the Rochester fairgrounds .The only problem -SNOW on the track. Verns driver flipped and rolled the Buick at least 4x on the back straight . Pretty much banckrupted their racing program as the car was on payments and no insurance!! If they would have made it down there and finished well racing history and racing in Minnesota racing may well have turned out much differently- Pettys,Allisons and Trent ! Who knows there could have been a NASCAR track in this state too!!--Bob

What if I told you he eventually scrapped the Riv but kept the engine and we stuck it in a T-bucket?

He was never much for tuning or getting things running right so I did that for him, it never actually got finished but the engine had been rebuilt just before installation into the T and I was really worried about the thing just from running it in the driveway because it was just going to be stupid fast and overpowered and the guy was kind of an idiot behind the wheel so he wouldn't have lasted long before killing himself.

His old Riv could almost give my Skylark a run for it's money when we used to play on the freeway.

wow!!!!listen i know first hand how bad assed the buick era engines where, i get to drive from time to time an all original 69 wild cat wiff da 430( old cali car, white on metal flake blue interieor) but come on!!! a ls1 cammaro is by far faster in stock trim.

focinite wrote:wow!!!!listen i know first hand how bad assed the buick era engines where, i get to drive from time to time an all original 69 wild cat wiff da 430( old cali car, white on metal flake blue interieor) but come on!!! a ls1 cammaro is by far faster in stock trim.

You didn't actually compare a stock 40 year old 4000 pound car to a modern Camaro did you?

Theres a rather large difference between a stone stock 430 and even a slightly modded 430/455 and if that engine is in a Skylark instead of a Riv, Wildcat or other monstrous boat it's another thing entirely.

Before you go calling the Skylark heavy you should keep in mind that my '69 Skylark weighed 3410 lbs with me in it, that was weighed on a commercial scale.

Besides the fact that the Camaro is hideous to look at and has no class.

Nils' intake...???