Hi Folks, just noticed something interesting on eBay, in the Flathead
Ford section. Somebody is offering a set of Smith Jiggler heads which
are a little damaged, and missing a few parts. Some other people
apparently want them badly, the bid price is near $3000 now.
These aluminum conversion heads for racing V8-60s are air-cooled, no
water in them, and the block has to be re-worked to take the water out
of the intake manifold surface. The heads have exhaust valves only in
them, the intake valves stay in the block. I assume the object here was
to overcome the tendency of V8-60s (and big Flatheads) to overheat in
short oval track racing from the low speeds and the exhaust ports
running through the water jackets.
The heads on offer show cracks in the area where the exhaust flows to
the valve seats, and one crack into a seat, so the repair work would not
be easy.
Offhand, one would think with this arrangement, the heads would get
hotter and hotter in the exhaust port area during a race, maybe to a
critical point, since the airflow on them might be indifferent, and
certainly the heads would have to be exposed to the airstream, rather
than enclosed. I imagine they were intended to be run with methanol
fuel, which would help the cooling, but on the exhaust port side, I
don't know how much. The heads don't look very thick, and the fins
aren't very big.
So here we've got an interesting technical exercise, that Smith invested
a lot of time and money in long ago. Does anybody on this List know
anything more about the history and success of these conversion heads?
Ardun Bill
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