XHP 260 and aluminum blocks

[alexopm]

Originally Posted by Dan Case

All the known that I can document XHP-260 and HP260 engine blocks are cast iron; I have documented one XHP-260 casting and two different ones used in HP260s. The various versions of cylinder heads on XHP-260 and HP260 engines in Cobras have been cast iron also. From my Weber/Cobra database the cross ram system was designed and built by Shelby's team. Legend says it was too complicated to make and difficult to tune compared to the benefits. The prototype side draft and three prototype down draft systems are included in evaluations that I have documented in some way or another. The side draft design was abandoned. CSX2043 used #3 of 3 down draft prototype systems., I owned that 3 of 3 system for a few years but now it resides in an early Cobra again.

I have no idea how many XHP-260 engines were made by Ford but CS probably wasn’t the only one to get them. At the time Falcon rally cars were being raced by Holman-Moody. The highest serial number that I have found recorded in period is fourteen (14). Based on published information serial numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, and 14 were installed in very early Cobras.


XHP-260 Engine #4 survives to this day in unrestored form. It was carefully dismantled, extensively photographed, analyzed dimensionally (things like camshaft details), reassembled and shown in public on a display stand a few years ago by Bob Mannel. The engine block was originally stamped serial number 2 but was changed to number 4. Many of the internal small parts are engineering specials and some appear to have been made one at a time on a lathe or mill. All the handmade prototype parts carried individual serial numbers in that engine, not for the engine assembly but for the parts themselves. It is an interesting engine. The effort to document what was in engine four was a three way arrangement among the owner of the engine, me, and Bob Mannel who did all the work. Whenever Bob updates his engine book this engine is to be included.


There isn’t much in comparison between a XHP-260 with very many engineering special parts and an almost production HP260. The information around indicates that Ford was planning to offer HP260 engines in Falcons. The European rally cars used HP260s and Dearborn Steel Tube outfitted a Falcon for testing as a production ready test car but the release of the HP289 engines ended all of that apparently.


Specific details of what was in engine 4 are way too long to include in a web post, certainly the dozens of close up pictures wouldn’t fit.

Dan

PS. There might be a clue to how many XHP-260 engines were made in a “day two” picture of CSX2000 and engine XHP-260-1 in it. The earliest photo of XHP-260-1 being installed in the car that I have seen published shows a vacuum advance ignition distributor with vacuum line installed. Pictures taken not long after show a fully mechanical distributor. The Ford engineering stickers on the second dizzy calls out an experimental engineering assembly number and that it is unit number 6 of 35. We will probably never know for sure.

Hi Dan. XHP 260 -4 was fitted in the De Tomaso Intercontinental/Formula Libre car that was purchased by John Mecom Jr in 1963. There are pictures of the engine in the car during a photo shoot in Modena, before shipping it to the USA. This was before the P70 project. Mecom didn´t use the car beyond some testing, and it was later sold to Bill Frank, who raced it with a 3 litre engine. I don´t know when #4 was removed from it (if before or after the purchase.

[Dominik]

Dan Case is typically your best resource. I had a similar inquiry for an aluminium block Chevy Small block. As it happened I bought this book, and the author confirmed:

Chevrolet-racing ...?: Fourteen years of raucous silence!! Hardcover – January 1, 1972
by Paul Van Valkenburgh

Same book MIGHT mention Ford as well, being the competition in those days. But I cannot access it for a few months.

A good read either way, just a bit pricey on Amazon.

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by alexopm

Hi Dan. XHP 260 -4 was fitted in the De Tomaso Intercontinental/Formula Libre car that was purchased by John Mecom Jr in 1963. ...

There must be some explanation. Perhaps HP260 (semi-production High Performance 260) number 4 is the engine you discuss as the history of XHP-260-4 (Ford engineering Experimental High Performance 260 serial 4) is very well known. There was also an XHP-260-14 but it was documented as going into a new Cobra.

Bob Mannel was good enough to slowly dismantle, gently clean, and do a reverse engineering study on engine XHP-260-4 for me and the engine’s owner years ago. Bob’s analysis has been on public display before and is published.

At the time the study was undertaken I was only moderately sure which new Cobra received engine XHP-260-4 in 1962. I am as sure as I can be now of which Cobra received it without some kind of new car documentation; which I have not found so far. I will not share my educated speculation without some factory documentation to back it up.

The image below of one of the show boards displayed in public with the engine after Bob’s study. It covers mid-1962 through the time the study was done. We even know who talked the Ferrari owner into replacing the Cobra engine with a Ferrari one in the 1990s.




This next image is from a set taken after Bob finished his engineering study. He reassembled the engine without refinishing it. The Ford generator and ancillaries are not Cobra correct but I failed to find and original alternator and hardware as supplied by A.C. Cars Ltd for the engine in the Cobra; I still have not but I have still not given up. Bob installed the Ford charging system parts just to have something for his display at a national car event. Reproduction early Cobra specific parts are available but unrestored original parts are more desirable. The odd colors of paint on harmonic balancer and cylinder heads are their original paint. The hand lettered XHP-260-4 on each rocker arm cover is the original lettering from 1962. (The log book and engineering files numbers along with the serial number were hand stamped on the block consistent the other XHP-260 engines we know about.)





XHP-260 engines were made with mostly handmade experimental small parts and most experimental parts were marked with a serial number. Even carburetor base gaskets were custom and marked with engineering information. The only ‘production’ parts in the entire cylinder head assemblies and valve train drive were a modified cam gear (to change timing), cam gear fixing hardware, and a stock timing chain. None of the special parts unique to the engine ever made it to Ford production.

HP260 engines were in Ford Motor Company’s words “semi-production” engines. Not much was shared from the previous XHP-260 model.


There were several types of cast iron blocks and heads 260 c.i.d. Ford Fairlane engines:
Ford Fairlane 260 2V announced as an available option February 17, 1962.
Experimental High Performance 260 4V 1962
High Performance 260 4V 1962
Ford Industrial 260 2V
Ford Industrial 260 2V (Sunbeam Tiger)
Ford Marine 260

All these "iron" engines in long block form would look very much alike if all were painted the same color. All these assembly versions were different and quite a few companies bought and used them new here and in Europe. Cobras did not get sent out with aluminum engines. (SAAC has published that an INDY 255 was installed for one race in one Shelby team Cobra but it quickly failed and no further trials were attempted with aluminum engines in Cobras.)

I would like to see the pictures you mention. Could you be talking about an ultra rare 255 c.i.d. V8 pushrod "INDY" Ford with aluminum block and heads? I have read that only ten were made and that only three are known in running condition this century.


http://www.wrljet.com/fordv8/indy.html

[1795]

Does Craig still have the engine? I may text him and ask. Sounds interesting. There are a lot of things that never get far beyond the testing phase.

Jim

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by 1795

Does Craig still have the engine? I may text him and ask. Sounds interesting. There are a lot of things that never get far beyond the testing phase.

Jim

I have not checked in a while. I still hope to confirm the Cobra it came out of.

[1795]

Dan,

Just heard back from Craig, yes he still has it and it is still attached to that engine stand.

Jim