We’re back with another challenge of your gearhead knowledge thanks to our friends at Then and Now Automotive in Weymouth, Massachusetts who let us snoop through their seemingly unending collection of old, rare, and sometimes bizarre car parts. The last time you guys came close to nailing an impossible task when we showed you the transmission oil pump from the early GM Hydramatic transmission. This time we’re at least giving a part you can identify in shape and job but we’re going to make you work for it because it is the details that we’re looking for.
This cylinder head caught our attention because of the ports…or lack thereof, the fact that the valves actually protrude from it and there is no combustion chamber machined into it, and lastly because there is a cotter pin that seems to have a really important job in keeping the rocker arms present and accounted for during the operation of the engine.
Rather than go on and on, we’re just going to direct you to the photos below and then demand that you take your best shot at guessing the year and make of this head. If you are truly a dweeb you can give us the factory horsepower rating of the mill it was bolted to.
Ready…set…guess!
SCROLL DOWN TO GET A LOOK AND THEN TAKE A GUESS BELOW –
Looks like an Austin cylinder head to me.
Looks kinda like a OHV conversion head for a flathead Ford 4 cylinder from the mid 1920s. But there were a lot of heads that looked similar from that era.
Are those spark plugs are diesel injectors? Seems diesel’ish to me.
Broken spark plugs…
Cotter pins as rocker shaft retainers? Those are hair pins.
However the [8] valve spring retainers do appear to be cotter pins.
I guess they don’t need combustion chambers in the heads if the pistons sit deep in the block.
Cylinder heads from that era typically didn’t have combustion chambers, since the average compression ratio was around 4 or 5:1
’28 Chevy Head for a 4 cyl.
The lack of a valve cover makes me think of the early Buick OHV heads but this one has way more “surface features” than the early Buick heads I’ve seen.
No left field guesses from me…
Ditto on the 28 Chevy head.
Also, these are used as speed parts on model A Ford engines.
Rich
I’ve had a set of rocker shafts that look exactly like these in my garage for years. I never knew what they were from, but this has answered my question! Thanks.
1976 Mazda 13B
Do we get an answer?