MTFCA Forum

I was looking for something else in a photo archive and I found these photos of a head made by Economy Motor Head CO. It has "For Ford Model T Motor" cast into the head. The patent date is October 1925. Is anyone familiar with this head? It has a curious combustion chamber shape. I would imagine that it would require a special head gasket.

Wow....that is a curious shape for the chamber.

Looks like lots of swirling would be going on in there. I can't imagine how that would be beneficial.

The more the compressed charge is swirling the faster and more complete it will burn. This in turn means that the engine will run more efficiently and produce more power. The combustion will happen quicker meaning that the pressure will build up faster which means that the spark will not have to be as advanced and that more pressure is available to push the piston down on the power stroke.

Thanks Neil for the info on swirel combustion chamber design. The famous Turbo Fire Chevy
engines from the 1960s, 327 & 396 etc, used swirel combustion chambers and the add people promoted them. I am sure other's had them before the 1960s. The problem I see with this flat head is the protrusion that causes the swirel also restricts the flow some what. If this head worked really well they would has sold many back in the day and we would see some around today.

I can see that pointy bit being a problem, we had the same issue on Morris and Austin heads, it would get extra hot and give pre ignition of the fuel, a glow plug.

Very interesting.

I'm also fascinated that there is a priming cup built in to each cylinder's opening.

Doesn't look like nearly as much water capacity either. I wonder how that affected the thermo-syphon system? Dave

The ill-fated Lizard head had the spark plug over the piston as well. To the opinion of some, that was not a good idea. The flame path was thereby directed from the center, towards the valve area, so when complete combustion occurred, it was in the secluded valve pocket. At least that was the thinking, as I read about it. I am not by any means a combustion expert.

Jerry, I have seen two different style's of the lizard head, one was by the valve area and the other had the flame trail casted into the head.

I have an "early" with priming cups on our '19 Centerdoor - I'll attempt to find the photo.

I forgot to add "Ricardo" !

A better way to get the swirl is to have a squish area above the piston that pushes the combustion charge into the valve area where the plug is. There is at least one aluminum head available today that has this feature. This eliminates the restriction at the intake valve. All later flat head designs had the squish area above the piston.

First thing that caught my eye (after the swirl) was the shape of the combustion chamber - maybe the predecessor of the hemispherical head... call it a Semi-Hemi? It'd be fun to try out just to see what it did - would it scald the cat or be an anchor-dragger?