Hey all, I was thinking the other day about how all of the valves in a Model T engine are the same and got to wondering if anyone had ever made a cam with the lobes rearranged to swap the intake and exhaust valves around. My logic on this (and I could be wrong) is that it would allow four carbs with tuned intakes but I suspect there would be some drawbacks with exhaust restriction and maybe even heat issues.

Not that I plan on ever doing it, but would something like that even work?

Tim this is a thing that has been done before. Called "reverse flow"

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/411944/468747.html?1407698295

Good to be reassured periodically that I'm not nuts. Thanks Seth.

HAHAHAHA I don't know how nuts you are or not but reverse flow is a fun idea.

Tim
The concept becomes advantageous if you wish to use long duration camshaft. I've built several engines where a have opened up the intake ports as much as is reasonably practical and then divided them in half. It has worked very well.
Another idea I have thought about was using a chain to run the camshaft. It would then turn "backwards ".
I do own a 2up 2 down crank and the appropriate camshaft with a suitably radical cam. I now have most of the parts accumulated to build this engine. It has of course been done before

In the late 1970's a old time well known Model T era speed equipment collector had a 16 valve Type B Roof overhead for sale,
the one with the exhaust ports in the top of the head. He said that he had made a reverse flow engine with one of these Type B heads,
making a manifold that took several Winfield carburetors. He said it ran very fast and better than the normal flow Roof Type B setup.

Yes it stands to reason that the exhaust flows faster than the intake air so why not have four intake ports and two exhaust ports. That makes it a four port head and so why bother with a two up two down ? At the Antique National Drag Races in California I saw a flathead V8 rail job with reverse flow installed. The intakes were on the lower part of the heads and the exhaust out the top. It was running fuel and turned 166 . . . sounded real good too.

If you want a detailed explanation of the advantage of the 2 up 2 down, send me a PM.

Seems to me that a 2 up 2 down would better space the intake strokes if you ran dual carbs. With a standard crank, every two revolutions each intake port will go suck-suck-pause-pause whereas the 2 up 2 down ought to make it go suck-pause-suck-pause which I assume would allow for a tuned intake pipe.

You got it Tim, by any chance were those 2 up 2 down parts previously owned by Ed?

Chaz, Ed Winfield made those parts. Les Shubert ...it turns it into a four intake port engine so we don't have the 1243 problem. If Ed winfield had made a four port head he would not have had to have made that crank. Simple . Look at the two port and four port Riley's . . . it's over.

I know Winfield made those parts thus the "Ed" as a past owner. I was wondering if it was the same one. I know Ed raced and won with that engine against overheads.

The crank and cam I have was not made by Winfield. The cam is my own design and is destined for a flathead T engine. I have the rods about done and main cap castings to machine

The picture is of the famous Winfield two up, two down engine. I saw it in person when it belonged to Chris Egsgaard. It regularly spanked overheads when Winfield raced it.
Reworking Ford engines for reverse ports is nothing new. A guy named Felix Graves did it by running the whole engine backwards, or counter clockwise. I don't know how he started it. He flipped the ring gear in the rear end to make the car drive as normal. He won many hill climbs with it. The concept works. There is a guy who races with the FAST club who drives a full bodied 1930-31 A coupe. Marcell runs the camshaft backwards by using a 302 Ford timing chain in place of the gears, giving him four intake ports and two exhaust. This heavy flathead coupe beats speedsters, often with a passenger riding along.

It's not that they run the engine backwards. It still turns the same way. It's the airflow that's backwards. The two intake ports become the exhaust ports and the four exhaust ports become the intake ports. The cam is changed and it becomes a four port engine.

The yellow car is normal. Well the Intake and exhaust ports are the normal way around.

Jeremy
And that is correct for a 2 up 2 down engine.

Sorry I understand now, I must have been a bit hard of thinking on Monday.