VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER Chevrolet Speedsters 1930 Speedster?

I have a few engine parts that came with my 30 sedan. I have what I believe to be a 29 block, 30 crank, pistons, intake/exhaust manifold and valve parts. Basically missing a head, rods and oil pan.
I am toying with the idea of building a speedster out of it. I mentioned it to a friend and he told me where some frames are. Going to look at them this weekend. So this might actually happen.
In doing some research I don't see a lot of speedsters made out of the stovebolts. Mostly the are made from 1920s engines and parts. Most hot rod stuff form the 30s is understandably centered around the Ford flatheads. Did anyone "hot rod" the chevys back in the 1930s?
Were there any aftermarket performance parts for the early 6 cylinders? Most of what I can find today is for the later engines.

If there is any speed equipment around it is on someones shelf as a display or installed on a car. You could source a later manifold off of something like a 33/34 with a larger downdraft carb. Or possibly even add a second or third carb to the manifold. There is a young fellow in another club we belong to that bought and modified a model T. It has a Columbia overdrive rear end, and another transmission turned backwards right after the original trans. He has raced it in the "Race of Gentlemen" on the New Jersey shore trailering it all the way across country from the Vancouver/Portland area. He and his car have also been featured on Jay Lenos garage. They think it would do over 100 miles an hour. All this with 2 wheel brakes. There are official speedster clubs, but many of them have the restriction of requiring a 4 cylinder manufactured before 1934 in order to be included in an official rally. At the Forest Grove Concours D'Elegance a few years ago there was a fellow who installed fuel injection on a six cylinder Chev. Essentially it just dribbled gas into the unencumbered pipes that made up the intake manifold, pretty wild. Of course you can do anything you want. Have some fun, be creative . The limitation on the early engines is the oil distribution to the rods. I think they thought it would become ineffective at RPMs somewhere around 3200. Continental and Chrysler engines were full pressure to the bottom end early on. I for one have always liked how clean and uncluttered the top of an updraft engine looks. The side frame rails of 1928 to 1930 car frames were largely the same, and could be modified to anything you want. Art

jlw53, I sent you a Private Message (PM) with some info. Click on the flashing envelope next to your username at the top of the page.

Cheers, Dean

Thanks. I saw that episode of Jay Leno's Garage with the T. That is one of the things that gave me the idea. I've also discovered Iron Trap Garage on YouTube. He does some pretty cool stuff with old hot rods and built a T-bucket for free by buying, selling, and trading for parts.
My thought is to make it period correct. Like if a guy wanted to build a race car with junk yard parts in 1930. I don't have a death wish so I'm not really looking to go fast in it. Just look the part. Strip anything that is unnecessary to save weight. Just engine, steering and brakes.
The engine could remain completely stock. Just with maybe some bolt on stuff if it exists. A manifold with 3 carbs would be cool. As would a custom header with open exhaust running down the side of the car.
I'm thinking of using an airplane for the body. No top of course. Low profile windshield. Strip the paint and leave it bare aluminum. Give it a boat tail.

Sounds like a cool project! Keep us up to date on your progress along with some photos.

Last year I built a motor bike from different era bike parts and it was a lot of fun getting things to work together that were not built to do that. Attached is a pic. I call it the BS Flyer (for Briggs and Stratton, of course!). ;-)

Thanks, Dean

I like it! Building it will be most of the fun I think. I also like the idea of having a not-so-perfect car that I wouldn't worry about cruising down the back(dirt) roads with. There are a lot of dirt roads around me that I wouldn't dare drive the sedan on. But a home built speedster would be a blast to to exploring those in.

Update: I was just offered a later 1950s 6 cylinder engine for my project. So my idea of going "period correct" may go out the window depending on the condition. Or maybe I will build two. :)

There will certainly be more speed equipment for the later engine. Although, the engine that you have is more unique.

Either way, it'll be a blast to build and drive and take to car shows.

Keep a lot of photos for a binder to document the build. People really like seeing that info at car shows.

Cheers, Dean

The updraft engine is pretty anemic, so the advice about later manifolds is good.
I think rated HP doubled in the first few years.
More carbs would look cool, but pay off mostly at higher RPM.
Same for opening the exhaust, but it would be easy to use bigger pipe.
The really finest thing you could do is improve the rear end ratio, but that's not much of an option with the torque tube, expensive too!
Now getting an adapter so you could run a later tranny and open driveshaft to a cruise rear end would really make it go!
Then you might want better brakes.
What would I actually do? Put together what you have, maybe with downdraft, and get on the road!
WL

I like that advice.
The 29 engine would definitely be unique in a speedster from what I can find. I could always change things later after it is running a driving.
I'm going to look at three frames this weekend. At least one has axles and wheels still on it. We will see what I come back with.

It depends on what you want to do with it when finished. High road speed? Hill climbs?

Dynamically balancing the engine is the most important factor in higher RPM. Decking the head and block to increase compression. Putting inserts in the rods or finding rods that can be substituted are other options. Carbureteration is one of the easiest and least expensive changes.

If you want to mix it up with traffic on the expressways, you probably need a intelligence evaluation. Speedsters lack in crash resistance!

Here is how it came out of the barn after sitting for 40 years.

I'm not looking for speed really. No plans to race it or climb hills. Just slow speed cruising back roads. No way in hell would I get on an expressway with it.
It would be nice to be able to cruise at 55-60 just to keep up with traffic sometimes. But that is not really necessary.

Think I got it. Low $$$ just for fun, attention getting, buckboard riding project. I would consider original engine with a T-5 overdrive transmission and Pat McGowen engineered adapter for torque tube. Pat is a VCCA member in So. Cal.

With a lighter body, woven brake linings it should stop like a modern vehicle the first time. Too many stops in a short time will lengthen the distance required with warm stamped steel drums.

I play with old radio stuff too and the greatest thrill is making it work with absolute minimum of change, usually just replace bad parts with equivalent.
I'd hone those bores and polish the pistons. If the bores aren't badly worn, some new rings may make it usable!
If the crank isn't too pitted, you may be able to polish the journals and get by with removing shims/filing down the caps a little.
Enjoy,
wilson

Exactly. The less $$$ the better. I know getting the engine back together and running will probably be the most expense. Building the body from scratch or from some other parts is what I am thinking. I've been looking at airplane parts and think I could modify an old Cessna 172 fuselage to make the body. Call me crazy but I think that would be really cool.
I like the T-5 trans idea.

I play with old radio stuff too and the greatest thrill is making it work with absolute minimum of change, usually just replace bad parts with equivalent.
I'd hone those bores and polish the pistons. If the bores aren't badly worn, some new rings may make it usable!
If the crank isn't too pitted, you may be able to polish the journals and get by with removing shims/filing down the caps a little.
Enjoy,
wilson

The bores look really good. That is what got me thinking it could run again. The guy that took it apart pulled it from a junkyard back in the 70s and said the head was cracked. so he took all the valve parts off and scrapped the head. Then used the piston rods and crank on another project. His opinion was that is was good and that is why he kept it all these years.
There are two sets of pistons. The rings on them are slightly different. Not sure if they changed them from year to year?
The crank I have has a tag on it that says "hold for customer" and the customer info on it. Not sure if it was from a parts store or if it was polished and never picked up. it looks like new.

Fantastic.
If the bores look good, it sorta makes one think the pistons are OK.
That's why we have mic's!
It would be tempting to reuse the rings, but I'd go new, since they are so important.
Then there's knurling of pistons, but I have no idea who does it.
One of these days, I hope to have '29 stuff available, but not soon.
WL

jlw53,
Call me crazy, others have, but I would not have looked at that pile of parts and thought "SPEEDSTER". I wish you the best and If I have anything that will help, it's yours.
35 years ago, my buddy and I Installed an OHC head from a 2300cc Ford Pinto onto a Model T Ford block. A Model A Crankshaft, a pair of Webers from a Alfa Veloce Spider, Peugeot distributor and other assorted parts from sources no longer remembered, rounded out the package. It ran like a scalded dog and was always an attention getter.
So GO FOR IT.

Mike

I'd love to hear the whole story of making that stuff fit together!
Wilson

Mike,
Most of us are crazy but not a hazard to others except maybe our spouses. I am sure they have to negotiate the piles of valuable car parts on floors, under beds, in closets not to speak of attics, garages, etc. Crazy like a fox? Maybe not all the time but occasionally. Most people are considerate enough to not utter the word in our presence but it is circulating in their head.

It is the projects like Jlw53 is embarking on that keep the cobwebs from the cranium, bats out of the belfry, tone the torso and limber the limbs. As you I will do what I can to support the lunacy all the time thinking wouldn't it be fun to do the same thing?

So glad we are not all the same even though a few are close.

My thought process started with just putting the engine back together, paint it, and put it on a stand for display in my garage.
Then I thought if I'm going to do that I might as well try and make it run.
If I can get it running then what do I do with it?
I could try and find enough parts to make a fully restored car but I already have one fully restored car. Do I need another? No. Would I like another? Of course. :)
I've always liked the old speedsters and early Indy cars. A few internet searches later got me thinking this would be fun to build. The end result would be fun to drive and even more unique than a fully restored car. Plus I wouldn't need to find as many parts. Could fabricate my own parts. Even use parts from other manufacturers like they did back then.
Most important is that this engine and any other parts that I use will end up back on the road. I'd like to think they didn't sit for decades collecting dust in old barns for nothing.

Who knows, I could end up finding a nice 29 body and completely change direction on this.

Came across this article today. Anyone know if he is a member?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-chevy-speedster-that-took-more-than-50-years-to-build-11587480194

Yes, David Penniman is a VCCA member. l found him in the Membership database.

Below a pic of his speedster.

Cheers, Dean

It took two adapter plates and three head gaskets to get the job done.
An American Bosch front plate for distributor ignition conversion helped out. An oil pump (luckily, with an adjustable pressure relief) in place of the original gear driven generator provided oil to the main bearings. We plumbed for and installed an oil filter. We exploded two filters and inflated a third, before we got the pressure dialed back to a workable level.
The engine was static balanced and did not vibrate. I once saw 4000 rpm on our tachometer.
Mike