Graeme1938
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Posts posted by Graeme1938
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4 hours ago, Narve N said:
Do you have more info on that conversion? I am struggling with disappointing oil pressure when hot engine on all my flathead Chryslers.
Hi Narve,
These are the ultimate patterns for the High Volume Oil Pump. It’s designed to take the gears from a high volume Small Block Chev Oil Pump.
When we start manufacturing these I’ll start another thread because it’ll get lost in the Head Thread.
Regards,
Graeme Louk
PS My wife doesn’t think they belong on the table cloth. I love her but women don’t get it sometimes.
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23 hours ago, Graeme C - Silverwings said:
Hi Graeme
It's good to know that Ray's cylinder head patterns have survived. I have used two of Ray's aluminium sandwich heads over the years including one which was a prototype casting which he sent over to me to see whether I could use it.
I first met Ray when he came to Western Australia in 1992 to compete with his 1929 Chrysler 75. He won that event and when I had my own Chrysler to restore three years later, I went to Ray to ask his advice. He'd put a four speed 'box and a Ford diff into his 75 (which he later removed).
I race a 1927 (1928 model) Chrysler 72 Sports Roadster with a Chrysler 77 motor built as a basic replica of a car called Silverwings. I most recently raced it at the Red Dust Revival 2019 at Lake Perkolilli in Western Australia (www.motoringpast.com.au). The car was completed in 1997 and in about 2005 I put my first Ray Jones head on it. The greatest challenge was not having to regularly replace head gaskets. When Ray went to Mille Miglia and the Le Mans Classic he always took spare heads and gaskets. For reliability, I'm now back to a standard, shaved head but another hotter engine I am building will have one of Ray's heads on it.
I guess this is a bit of background to indicate that I've spent a lot of time over the years trying to make my Chrysler go faster. At the moment I am running a set of tuned extractors Ray gave me to see whether I could get some power improvements with them. He had them made for a set of SU carbs he put on his car. The pipes had to come out and up and over the SUs. They look weird but it's all just about having fun anyway. Extractors like this definitely provide more power over the standard manifold. On a right hand drive car like mine, the steering column and the fact that the intakes are under the exhaust ports makes it very tight to get that hot exhaust gas efficiently out of the engine bay.
Yes, Ray's found that at over about 8 or 8.5:1 compression there wasn't any point in lifting the compression any higher. Also, he experimented, and so have we with what to do with the two intakes which limit the "air pump". He tried all sorts of carb combos. I am running with a couple if English Zenith updrafts which were sold in Australia as a replacement carb for Buicks. They've always been good but it gets down to how much air can you get into the engine and not have it migrate between the cylinders. Our latest engine has baffles inside the block to see whether this, along with the overlap, can work better. That then led to the obvious solution which is supercharging. I have Ray's bitsnpieces in my shed from his work on using Wade superchargers from a Commer "Knocker" engine. I've never got around to finishing off this side of things but it seems like obvious way of getting more horsepower from the Chrysler engine which is too constricted on the intake side.
There are other ways to make the engines a bet more spirited. The counterbalanced crank is heavy and some weight can be taken off the flywheel. The oil pump can also be swapped for one with Ford V8 gears. On the engine we've been building for many years, it has a new oil pump made by Ray to give more volume and reliable pressure.
Ray really was the master of making the 1920s chrysler engines reach their full potential. He once gave me his 75 to drive through Sydney while he had something to do in his garage. The cars was sensational. I couldn't believe how free-revving it was compared to my car.
Ray's passing was a great loss. He had experimented with just abut everything to do with a vintage Chrysler engine.
Congratulations on making Ray's heads available again.
All the best
Graeme
Hi Graeme,
I’ve read a number of the articles on your Chrysler Silverwings and racing at Lake Perkolilli - Another great large sports Chrysler. Plenty of WA history.
There’s lots of photos of Chrysler’s racing on Gerringong Beach over here. Generally the races were won by one of the Bugatti’s if they stayed together but the Chrysler’s were always on the podium.
Yes Rays car was very well sorted.
Out of interest have you compared your early Vintage Racing Chrysler Head with the later manufactured one. The pattern we have is the modified/ ultimate one. I’ve got some of the development pieces from earlier ones.
I’m going to visit an owner who has completed in excess of 40,000 trouble free miles in a very rapid car with one of these ultimate heads cast from the pattern we have.
I’ll start a different thread in the next couple of weeks regarding his efforts to get them to breath. I have the cast port divider patterns but I’m not sure we’re ready to go there yet.
You’re right a supercharged big engine would really produce some power however at the moment we are going the naturally aspirated route. Be a great power plant in a Group J special though and hard to catch.
If you’re willing I’d be very interested to talk to you to learn from your experiences. No sense in not using all the available resources and knowledge.
Regards,
Graeme Louk
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50 minutes ago, maok said:
Thanks for that, I wasn't sure if the larger engines (than my series 62, only 180ci) were two or three port inlets. I would imagine twin SU (HIF44's) would wake those big engines right up. Not sure how a triple would work.
I will be experimenting with a single SU (HIF44) on my 62. Not for more power but rather for drive-ability at low speeds - 10 -35mph range and throttle response.
My 75 Roadster has the most awful updraft on it at the moment. I don’t know what it is. I want to go back to an OS2 ???? Off a 1928 series 72 until it comes off the road for a complete engine build.
When that happens I’ve been tossing up as I have two new HD8 SU’s.
I like that I can buy new Stromberg 97’s and they look the goods on a flathead but don’t like that I have to spend my cash.
The flip side is I have the SU’s and so it’s mostly just labour. If I fit the SU’s they’ll be on long inlet tracts curved back over the head.
I have plenty of time just no cash at the moment.
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Hey Mo,
Not at the moment.
Depending on what owners preferences are they could go to an engineering company to get a copy of the original exhaust manifold made or any exhaust shop should be able to knock up a functional set of extractors/ tubular headers. A quick search reveals a vast difference in these.
As far as the inlet manifold goes - a 77 inlet manifold fits them all if the owner wants to go the single down draft carburettor route.
If it’s Dual carburettors they want to fit then the manifold depends on choice of carburettor. Some of the quick cars have twin SU’s, others two single throat downdraft Strombergs and others have Holley 94’s or Stromberg 97’s. I’ve even seen photographs of triple carburettors on one of these early engines which puzzled me a bit as they only have two inlet ports.
So there’s a fair bit of variation there - it’s too hard to cater for individual preferences.
Regards,
Graeme Louk
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11 hours ago, chrysler75 said:
Hi Graeme,
please count me in from The Netherlands.
We drive a 1929 series 75 Roadster, the engine was completely rebuild last year.
kind regards
Pete
Hi Pete,
Beautiful Car. Another great colour combination.
My 75 is not so pretty.
Let me know when your arriving to have a look and I’ll pick you up from the airport. Haha.
Regards,
Graeme
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Great cars. The 77 roadster pops in that colour combination. I look forward to seeing them both out and about.
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6 hours ago, Phillip Joseph said:
Hi Graeme,
I would like to confirm, I would purchase one of your new cylinder heads when completed.
I own two Chrysler 77's
1929 Roadster 6 wire wheel (arriving within 4 weeks from USA) restored
1930 Royal Coupe 6 wire wheel (Full road registration)
I am based in Sydney.I need more speed!
Kind RegardsPhillip Joseph
Hi Phillip,
You are a lucky guy with impeccable taste in cars. A 6 wire wheel equipped 77 roadster is a very desirable jigger.
I’m in Sydney to. My workshop is in Artarmon. Most of the patterns are stored in Leura. I’ve been bringing them up and down for repair and now it’ll be as we need them.
We should meet up and kick tyres and you can run a critical eye over the parts that we are going to be producing. Same goes for any other vintage Chrysler guys that want to have a look.
PM me for a phone number.
Regards,
Graeme
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5 hours ago, maok said:
If you need more speed, do what I do, go down a hill....:)
Mate, Once you start into this old car madness it’s all downhill from there.
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3 hours ago, lambroast said:
Hi Graeme,
Any idea when the heads will be available, and what the cost might be?
Hi Lamroast,
At this point we only have a ball park figure and won’t have a firm figure until they are completely finished.
There’s a few of us that wanted them so we decided to just do it and split the costs.
One guy has backed out so there’ll be one head from this batch for sale early in the new year.
We will manufacture batches of them for sale once we are sorted. I’ll put them on the AACA buy and sell when we are there. No sense in over promising and then under delivering.
Here’s where we are at at the moment - The castings have to be heat treated before we take them to the machine shop. There’s a delay because we are waiting for other casting to be done in the same material specifications so that we hold the costs. If we get the heat treaters to run an oven just for us it doubles the cost of the castings.
Once the machine shop has machined them we’ll know how much that costs. The machine shop is going to take the job on a do and charge basis. They need to make jigs and as they are getting CNC machined there’s drawings to. But with CNC machining they will be accurate and repeatable.
It been a time consuming process but it’s important to get it right and they are getting there.
As well as getting them right we want to make them a viable option as replacements for standard heads not just a high end racers whim which means containing costs.
There is no way that we could ever manufacture enough to get the prices anywhere near the mass produced go fast gear that’s available for flat head fords.
When we have a number we’ll tell people what that is. I should probably dig a bunker to hide in when that time comes as there’ll be a few that woulda, shoulda, coulda done a better job for a fraction of the price in half the time. But that’s the same with all jobs.
So that’s the long answer.
The short answer is no .....Sorry
Stay tuned and we’ll let you know.
Have a great weekend.
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3 hours ago, Vintageben said:
Yeah this is pretty cool I have just purchased a Bit of a project car that’s a Chrysler 75 that has had the Ute treatment. Not exactly sure of what we are going to do with it yet but it is always good to know of a source for parts etc. this is exciting.
Hey Ben,
Did you just purchase the 75 that was on eBay Australia. If so I say well bought.
If you’re going to put a correct engine in it get in touch as I may be able to supply some leads.
Forza Chrysler
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3 hours ago, Narve N said:
This is truly exiting stuff and a welcome initiative to improve on the HP of 7-bearing 6-cylinder engines. I will need one if I go for an entry in Mille Miglia, where an old Chrysler is welcome and very well suited.
You will also need a co-driver. Can I register my interest now and let you know that I’m available. If you need further encouragement can I also say that I serve well as ballast, I’m pretty hardy and will push until I drop, I’m not bad on the wrenches, know how to repair a puncture and I’m not overly fussy. On the downside I don’t mind a tipple but that makes me hard to start early in the mornings.
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2 hours ago, Coupe_deVille said:
Do they fit on a newer 25" block?
Sadly no: It’d open up a big market opportunity. They will fit the big pre 1930 engines 72, 75 and a 77. They could be made to fit the first Series 70 from 1926.
I’m not an expert but I think go fast heads are already available for the newer block.
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Greetings all,
The next batch of Vintage Racing Chrysler Cylinder Heads are off to be tempered and machined.
These are the heads cast using the Ray Jones (Vintage Racing Chrysler’s) patterns. We are using the same foundry and same material specifications that Ray Jones used to such good effect. These patterns are the ultimate version with the extra stiffening ribs and most effective compression ratio.
Ray did a lot of flow bench work and dynometer testing. One of the things he found was that raising the compression ratio beyond a certain point caused a decline in performance from that achieved at the optimum compression ratio.
Vintage Racing Chrysler Heads proved themselves on the super fast 72 75 and 77 Chrysler’s and the Donald Campbell replica that he built. His cars toured, rallied and raced very successfully and reliably.
Ray was timed at 118mph in his 1929 Chrysler Series 75 Roadster down the Mulsanne Straight. He completed Mille Miglia’s, LeMans and raced all over the world always at the pointy end. Hard to argue with results.
The patterns are beautiful in themselves.
We also have the rest of his patterns for the bits and pieces he manufactured including the patterns for the dress up pieces (side plates that don’t leak etc)
Regards,
Graeme Louk
Australia
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On 5/1/2018 at 9:53 AM, robert smith said:
Hi Are the 18'' rudge still available and if so have you a contact number thank you
Yes Robert. I can be reached on 0451512823 Wheels can be inspected in Leura or Artarmon just give me some notice.
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Hi Al,
Yes the two Alvis are both beaut Monoposto Single Seat Racing cars. From memory the Eastwood car is a 1935 Speed 25 Special and the Hood car is a supercharged 12/50. I’ve seen them both race - very well driven.
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Yes I have failed the technology test haven’t I. Not sure how to get it to work.
Race meeting was 2005 and was his shake down run for European Season in 2006.
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Chrysler in Competition, European Road Racing 1925 to 1931 by Ray Jones and Martin Swig (Publisher Auromobilia) contains some good photo’s and accounts of Chrysler’s Racing exploits in the day.
Ray Jones who coauthored the book had a very quick 1929 Series 75 Roadster. It was timed going through the trap at 118mph on the Mulsanne Straight. Google him and the Chrysler - he travelled extensively racing all over the world with it. Here is a link to his race practise times on Australia’s Phillip Island Circuit. Good thing is there are some pretty awesome factory race cars in the field so times can be compared. When you look at the times and other competitors you should also be aware that every other car in the field is a race car, Ray Jones's Chrysler was lugging around a vintage body and was road registered. The field had some very nice equipment running - Austin 7 is the blown rubber duck factory race car.
http://racing.natsoft.com.au/641033840/object_484662.70K/Result?1
I saw Jones race his Chrysler a number of times. It was very well sorted and a pretty car. Plenty of photographs of it on the web.
PS. Unfortunately my 75 doesn’t look or go as well as the cars Ray Jones built.
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Don’t worry about it. I don’t own a 3 litre or any WO or a 30/98. I’ve got a 1929 Chrysler Series 75 Roadster. The Chrysler goes, steers and stops AND is nice to drive. Chryslers are great performing vintage cars as witnessed by their continuing front running performances in everything from circuit racing to long distance rallying and they can be safely driven in todays traffic densities. Plus, if you ever manage to break a Chrysler parts can be bought at reasonable prices.
I bought the Wheels from the guy that raced the 3 litre Bentley years ago. The idea was to build a Chrysler Speedster but the 75 Roadster covers all bases so no Speedster needed hence I’m selling the Wheels.
There was a guy in Australia named Ray Jones who raced a Chrysler 75 Roadster in events all over the world. He also ran a business called “Vintage Racing Chrysler’s” and built a number of very fast big Chrysler Roadsters - he called them Bentley Beaters and they were.
Ive never driven a 4 1/2, speed six or 8 litre WO or a 30/98 but I have driven a really good 3 litre - did I say the Chrysler goes, steers and stops AND is nice to drive.
Even if my six lucky numbers come up I’ll stick with the Chrysler - I’d just tidy her up a bit.
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Speedster Wheels for sale
Seasons Greetings to you all.
I have five 18” Well Base, Rolled Edge Rim, 62mm Rudge Whitworth (Vintage Centre Profile) Splined Wheels in great condition for sale. They were used a few times on a 3 litre WO Bentley in the very early years of All Historic Racing in Australia. 18 inch wheels are used on 3 litre WO’s in competition so that they have better acceleration. Also the Confederation of Australian Motorsport allows a minimum of 18” rims into Group “J” pre 1930 Racing so if you’re building a car that you intend to race in Australia then these are the go. The tyres on them are only good to push a car around on while you build it.
Details of the Wheels are as follows:
62mm Rudge Whitworth Splines
18” well based rolled edge rims
70 spoke (4 with butted spokes)
Triple laced
Before you make silly offers please price a set and don’t waste my time or yours.
$3000 AUD
These are located in Australia and can be inspected in Leura or Darlinghurst NSW.
I can send images if you get interested. If someone overseas gets excited I’m happy for you to get someone local to inspect them for you and if you end up buying them I will strip the tyres off them and deliver to your shipping agent.
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Hi Chris,
I'm not really connected in the vintage Chrysler world but they are an accepting group.
I have made a friend in the Blue Mountains who is having a look for me. If he doesn't have a useable steering wheel I'll do the ring around. It's been a busy week so haven't been able to devote time to the pursuit. I've been trying to get fuel and carburetor issues sorted out as well. It had some pretty major oil leaks too but I think I've got them beaten. Next thing is braking.
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Hey Spinney,
Unfortunately I don't. I don't have a parts manual for the 1929 series 75. I would like one so will keep a look out. I do have a parts manual for a 1930 series V70 but that doesn't help. It does have some good assembly drawings in it.
I may post a wanted to buy and see how I go.
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Hey Mo,
All of the Chrysler parts have been sold. He doesn't want to sell parts just as job lots. I can understand his point.
Cheers
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Hi Spinney,
I have no idea whether the wheel is original or not or what an original should be made of. This one is definitely cast alloy / muck metal of some sort with cast in undercuts and casting part lines. It doesn't appear to have any bog / filler in it. I'll take some photos that show detail when I get a wheel to replace the broken one with.
The jury rig raised a few eyebrows as we were outside the cafes in Kirribilli and amused the evening passers by. The blade is jammed into the woodruff key hole but worst part of it was the screwdriver handle caught on my legs whilst turning.
I think 72's, 75's and 77's had a four spoke wheel and the lighter cars three spokes - but I really can't say for sure.
Regards,
Graeme
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Greetings One and All,
I recently acquired a 1929 Chrysler 75 after initially being beaten to it. Anyway my daughter and I took it for it's second run in my hands last Tuesday afternoon. It was a spirited run through the streets around Sydney harbour on a near perfect winters day. Needless to say it was very enjoyable and probably encouraged me to press on a bit. Before we headed for home we decided to stop for coffee. As we slowly pulled gently to the kerb outside the cafe the steering wheel hub broke. I think the car was looking out for us because I'd certainly been loading the steering up in the preceding drive. The failure occurred in fine cracking in the hub boss, I only had light pressure on it at the time and didn't run up the gutter (or anyone else) so no shock load. The wheel had looked OK if a little shabby and gave no indication prior to it breaking with a cracking noise. I noticed the image in the 1930 Chrysler V70 Parts Catologue that the 1930 V70 wheel appears to have a steel? Reinforcing ring. Is this the case? See the photo of the broken wheel and the very elegant temporary repair.
So a question for the Aussies - does anyone have a steering wheel they'd be prepared to sell.
Regards,
Graeme
1928 1929 1930 Chrysler 72 75 and 77 Alloy Cylinder Heads not Red Head
in Chrysler Products - General
Posted
Hi Graeme,
i know he never reached his magic number goal of 200 hp although he got close.
I saw the last engine Ray had anything to do with. It had large valves in it.
I have most of the patterns for the inlet port modification that he was planning. I just have to locate a scrap block I can cut up to work out what he was going to do. That’s a way down the track though.
For the moment it’s getting the heads out there.
Regards,
Graeme