Dear Slanters,

Some friend of mine found an old magazine (circa 1969 / 1971) were Augusto Cicaré was in charge of developing a race Head for the Slant Six for the "Formula SP" cars. This cars use a rear engine configuation like Formula 1 of the era.

The development was Ordered by "CCCC - Comision de Carreras de Concecionarias Chrysler" (something like "Chrysler Dealers Race Commision"), so this was a Chrysler development when they were deepely involved in racing in my country, and of course the engine was a Slant Six.

Augusto Cicare, one of the greates inventors in my country, was the man in charge and he came up with a head using 24 valve configuration and 3 direct injection ports per cilinder (I think, maybe 3 spark plugs, but I think that injection was it), with two Overhead cams.

The head ended up with the intake on the drivers side and the exhaust on the passengers side.

Here are the pictures for you to check, i'll have the two magazine articles scanned shortly so you can check also.

(click on thumbs to enlarge)


Also here is a brief history on "Augusto Cicare"
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Cicar%C3%A9
It's in spanish, but you can use google translator, great inventor!!! He made his first engine at the age of 11!!!! and a helicopter at the age of 15!!! Amazing!!!

This is also new for me!!!! I didn't knew anything about this ... guess it didn't reacha large production run ... I know that the "Formula SP" cars laste only 6 years.

More to find out soon!!! Enjoy!!!

Martin

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Martin Zappettini
1974 Dodge Polara RT 318cu.
1965 Valiant III Coronado Slant Six 6-Pack (soon!!)

I want one!

That is wild. Looks like it is a single overhead camshaft design. I think I see cam journals where the rocker arm used to be and it looks like the cams are wrapped up behind the head in one of those pictures. I only see one set of cam journals that appear to be centered between the valve bottoms.

Gentlemen, I believe we have found the updated design slant six head that head been discussed for years. 24 valve, cross flow, overhead cam, and direct injection. If that red rectangle behind the head in the third picture is what would be the spark plug side of a stock head, it looks like there is a longitudinal weld or seam on the side. But where are the exhaust ports? Looks like it took a custom fabricated valve cover too. Or maybe that red rectangle IS the custom valve cover. The taller head and valve cover might present clearance issues on some cars.

Any info on how the overhead cam was driven? Belt drive? Chain drive? Any shots of an assembled motor, including the custom timing chain cover? Any info on how the spark plugs were installed? I don't see any provision for putting plugs in the stock location, or through the valve cover, or even installing the spark plugs with the cam in place. I also don't see any evidence of any sort of direct injection hardware that would (or even could) fit underneath the cam. Pulling the cam to change the plugs would be a pain, but I don't even see a provision for spark plug wires. I doubt the wires were run under the valve cover to be soaked in hot oil all the time. Where did the plugs go? Or was this a diesel head?

I don't see any way for a water jacket to be included in a casting of that head. The ports simply leave no room.

It also looks like the cam and valve were intended to sit in a constant oil bath with those holes on the exhaust side of the head providing oil drainback? Between the exhaust ports? There would definitely need to be an oil cooler run with this motor.

Are the driver's side head bolt holes exposed under the intakes? If not, what are those holes?

Passenger side exhaust would be tight, but modern equipment could open up space. Run a distributorless ignition triggered off the cam, crank, or flywheel, smaller Nippondenso alternator (or driver's side mount), remote mount oil filter, move the coil.

Any chance one of these heads could be used as a pattern for a run of new heads? Or at least be thoroughly photographed and inspected?

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Maybe the coolant flows through external hoses or pipes. This is the key to big HP with a slant. Now it behaves more like a BMW slant.

Sam

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Thanks for digging this stuff out to tease us with. You and others from Argentina have shown us many special pieces from the time when the Slant 6 was a competitive racing engine down there. For some reason all of this activity took place without any awareness stateside. Now it has been so long that I wonder if there is anybody around who could chronicle what really happened in that exciting era. It looks like practically everything Slant 6 fans have ever dreamed about was actually produced down there. I have seen mention of heavy duty big bore blocks, large port heads, and now this. Has anybody ever written a book or are there avaiable magazines on this subject? If I was a younger man I would be tempted go down there and try to find any remnants of these fascinating times in the back rooms of engine building or race shops. Keep it up, this board has been really boring lately.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

That's certainly DOHC with individual cam covers and the spark plugs down the middle between the cam covers. There are no water passages in the deck of the head so it has to be externally plumbed for cooling and probably for lubrication as well. I do not believe that head is meant for direct injection as the holes into the combustion chamber are all the same size. My thought is that if you run single ignition you use the center plug hole and if you run dual ignition, the outboard two holes.

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Joshua

OH! Now I see how it is dual cams. One cover for each cam, so the big red rectangle in the background is the exhaust cam housing. Plugs go in the valley between the two valve covers. Gotcha.

I wonder if you could run three plugs per cylinder using a distributorless ignition system or coil packs? 18 coils for the motor. Insane, but in a good way.

Where are the valve return springs?

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Somethings odd comparing the combustion chamber to the top of the head picture- maybe extra holes were drilled purposely to make the head unusable.

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<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3173/2992308402_5481afb26e_t.jpg">

Valve springs are under the bucket cam followers.

Dual ignition was very popular back in the day. Often times one system was battery and the other magneto. If the rules didn't allow it though you have a plug in the middle where it would work best.

Man, what I could do to a speed record with this head.

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Joshua

No, the three holes aren't visible in the "top of the head picture." The three holes are hidden in the valley between the intake cam space and the exhaust cam space.


Wow, I really would love to get my hans on one of these. It would take a completely custom motor and accessories besides the block, crank, and piston assemblies, but I think it would be totally worth it.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

This is totally wicked!!! Rigth??!!! I've just found out about this only 3 hours before you people, so we are all standing in he same place.

Soon I'll have the two magazines with the articles on this head, and I'll post them here and translate for you. Also I can talk with some engine builders of the '70s about this and see what we can find out.

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Martin Zappettini
1974 Dodge Polara RT 318cu.
1965 Valiant III Coronado Slant Six 6-Pack (soon!!)

verry intresting looking head for shure.

reminds me of the "audrin" heads for ford flathead v8
how they go alot wider to allow the room for cams.

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1972 Plymouth Valiant / slant 6 auto

So, in addition to the head and cam drive, at the very least you need an intake manifold, headers, different pistons, and another fuel pump, oil pump and distributor, since they are driven off the old cam. Where is the SL6 in all this, an engine block??

Oh yes, down memory lane to Moser Engineering; I remember the aluminum twin-cam, four valve heads for the SB Chevy, big success! No?

The Mopar engine that took over after the SL6 in racing in Argentina was the old AMC 6 in Jeep wrapping, there was/is a lot of tricky head and intake business going on for that engine too, and Mopar just released a new 4.6 litre engine block for it. Hurrah, lets go straight 6 mopar!

If you want a twin-cam slanted six, go and buy yourselves a BMW!

Olaf.

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Aspenized

Well, yes. The slant six's reputation comes from its over-engineered engine block- massive main bearings and oversize water jacket. The slant six was always treated as an economy motor, with the emphasis on durability, not performance. Witness the same head with valves sized for a 170 being used on a 225. In fact, the head is the known real weak spot for slant six performance.

By my figuring, to use this head setup, you need:

(1) head
(2) 2 cams
(3) new timing chain/gear/belt setup
(4) new exhaust
(5) new intake manifold
(6) new carburetion or fuel injection system
(7) depending on the exhaust manifold design, possibly a relocation of the oil filter
(8) modification to the coolant path- you could just run the bypass hose to the front of the head and run a hose off the back of the head to the heater core supply, and then have the heater core return plumb back into the pump in the stock location. Or something like that.
(9) new ignition system with a different trigger than the distributor since the cam is gone
(10) redesign of the oil supply system. no cam = no oil pump drive gear.

Why do you say different pistons?

In my mind, this head would be ideal for a complete slant six update package- dual cam head with 24 valves, fuel injection, distributorless ignition with coil packs. That would actually simply installation, but would drive costs way up. I would love to see some real financial backing from a big magazine or racing company to see this project come together. An injected, crossflow-24 valve-dual-cam-headed 170 or 225 would be a VERY interesting build. Remote oil pump, distributorless coil-pack ignition. Wheee.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Running stock pistons with those domed heads will give you a comp ratio in the region of very bad if they can be used at all, they also seem to need valve pockets on both sides if you want some valve lift. And anyway, when the financing is OK, why not throw in a set of new pistons? I would guess that you will bore out the cylinders to the limit to maximize the power potential, so new pistons are needed in any case.

Olaf.

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Aspenized