Thread: One Way To Build A 12 Cylinder Ardun or not

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Ken,
Your project is amazing and intriguing. In a quick search there was referrence to a 3 part Ardun White Paper in R&C by Tom Senter in 1971 that was said to peek behind the veil on the Ardun. Machining heads from billet boggles my mind. Are you planning to eliminate any water flow through the heads, out of curiosity?

OK - now we know that Ken has LOTS of free time so we can watch this build instead of his latest car build.

{It has to be my age thing - I can only keep 8-10 projects going at a time now instead of the 20-30 that I used to along with the significant international business travel of my days of yore }

ken have you talked to don fergison jr at paramont forge in long beach 323 775 6803--- 310 830 0230 I havent seen him or his dad i about 20 yrs but I know he is really into old speed equiptment especially arduns he makes and sells alot of ardun parts worth a try ---ted

Bob-Thank you for the leads, I called him and left a message yesterday.
Steve- Thanks, I will be happy to just finish some of this stuff. I wish I had the energy I had 20 years.
rspears-We will see if it all works out. thanks for the info on that paper, I will try and find it. All the water passages will be put in, cooling is one of the original down falls.
IC2-I will finish my roadster first, just trying to get some of the research out of the way so we can start the drawings on the heads.
Ted- Thank you for the reference, I have an appointment with him next week.
Ken

I met with Don Furguson today, we were there for 4 hours. In case you don't know he is the gentleman that bought the rights to the Ardun name and produces the complete heads and a new aluminum block just for the heads. This stuff looks like Top Fuel stuff, it is beautiful.
He had two complete blown Arduns sitting on stands with his Scott blowers on them with two carburetors, he also makes the blowers. One was completely polished, honestly it looked like jewelry.
He got interested in my project and did everything he could to help me. He has a friend that lives near San Jose Ca. that has two V8 60 Ardun set ups that were made in Brazil. He called him and he is going to let me borrow a head and valve train to make the drawings. The V8 60 has the same bore centers as the V12 Lincoln. this will save many hours of work. Here is his web sight if you want to browse.
http://www.ardun.com/index.html
Ken

Looks like a Hemi on the top side...what is the combustion chamber like, or did I miss a pic in there Ken?????? I really like the V-12 idea!!!! Got to work on one once, fascinating engine to say the least! With an Ardun style OHV conversion would be way kewl!!!!!!

Dave,
It looks just like a Hemi combustion chamber. I'm going to move the spark plug location from where he puts his. I want that space between the two center cylinders to have enough room so I can put Ardun in there just like his valve covers are. I ask his permission to use Ardun New York on my engine and he said yes.
We made some real head way on a few crucial area's. He cut one of his heads into 6 pieces so we could look at the water passages in the castings. Since my heads will be made of billet they will be made in two pieces. The parting line will be horizontally the length of the head right threw the ports. So this way we will port the intake and exhaust runners in each half then put the two halves together. This idea actually came from Robot (Mike in Tucson, thank you).
I should probably wait and show this in our drawings when we get that far. I just thought I would share of what we have accomplished.
Ken

Should be way kewl! Anxious to see the drawings!

Keep these cool projects coming and we are going to nominate you for the hot rodders Nobel Peace Prize! I can't wait to see this engine!

Ken, What do you do about the valves in the block, this is a flat head right.
BradC

Ken,
I asked the guys at R&C if they had any digital/scanned archives back to '71 and they said they cannot help with any information that far back. Technical libraries don't recognize the author, either. Not sure how a guy might find that paper after so long... On the water flow question, it was based on a discussion with an old friend that reworked Pinto heads for a Merkur racing application years back, and they mounted them flush with no water in the head. That was racing only, and I am not sure how it would apply for reliability over time - just could not get my hands around how you could do ports until you mentioned splitting the head. Great project!!

Dave- I plan on posting as much as I can on this project. I think it will Be interesting for the gear heads here.

Steve- I will, your enthusiasm is what inspires me.

BradC-I don't know how other people have dealt with it, but I have been told they weld the block up. I'm not going to do that, we are going to bore the block out the diameter that exceeds the width of the transition port. Then press in a plug, then bore another hole next to it that exceeds the other side and actually goes into the plug we just put in, then press in another plug. Then surface the block, it will than have a nice surface for the head gasket. I will show this with photo's. My thinking is not to weld on the block taking a chance on cracking it.

rspears-The other idea we have entertained is to actually bore the intake and exhaust side all out the full length of the head, then machine the ports independently of the head. Then use dowel pins to locate everything and weld the ports in. I have done this on my pro stock motor with Pontiac heads once.
The advantage to this is being able to bore the water passages where ever you want. The intake side isn't to important but the exhaust is were all the heat comes from so a lot of care is taken there
Ken

your going to have a very hard time getting the coolant around the EX side and the chamber to keep hot spots out . like you said .there was a guy named fuelng or spelled wrong that he used stack plate s of alum and then furnace brazed it in to a head .i still thinking cutting foam on a mill center and used lost foam? my friend has a alum and mag foundry that cast heads and blocks .i know it is a very big job but like to see this

Pat-Thanks for the reply I will keep that in mind if we decide to cast this thing.


I got a good look at the V8 60 Ardun stuff, but I don't like it. The exhaust rockers and the valve geometry is so extreme I don't think it would hold together doing what I want to do. Sooo we are on our own. I'm going to make the hemispherical chamber a lot smaller than they did. This helps the valve angle. Actually putting a lot of the combustion chamber in the piston like a blown motor but for a different reason. I did this before on the Pro Stock HD project, and it really worked well. I was going to say everything we have learned so for but I think I will wait until I have pictures, it's going to get pretty weird.
Here are a couple shots of pistons I have used before, just to show what I mean. You can see the differences and still accomplishing the same thing.
Ken

Geeeeeeeesh!! If I change a sparkplug and don't crack the electrode, I feel pretty good, and here you guys are doing these kinds of things. I feel soooo inadequate!!

Don