Re: Edmunds head

Posted by Ross On 2011/3/20 15:30:50

For gee whizz appeal, an Edmunds head is hard to beat, and being aluminum they will tend to keep the knocking to a minimum. But I really wonder how much they had to offer besides the bump in compression ratio. If you look at the bottom of a Packard head, especially a late one, they have some rather elaborate contours for directing the flow. The plug is over the exhaust valve to ensure that hot area burns first rather than preigniting later before the flame front gets there.

On the Edmunds I have seen, the combustion chamber shape is very simple and the plug is between the valves--quite possibly a better location for very high speed.

Anyway, being a horrendous cheapskate, I only ponied up enough to put a 54 288 head on my 51 200 288. Since there were no other significant changes in that engine between 51 and 54 (288s did not get the cam timing change) I have to assume that is where the published 15 hp improvement came from--possibly with a little help from the ad department. In any event, it goes like stink for such a heavy car with such an anchronistic engine. Will someone please bring their Olds 88 by for a race?