XHP 260 and aluminum blocks

[Buzz]

Over the years I've grown quite accustomed to Brits and Aussies using "alloy" as a nickname for aluminum, particularly in the automotive press. I don't think it's based in ignorance or a lack of education in metallurgy, it's simply a term - probably morphed from a marriage of "ally" and "aluminium alloy" - that slowly worked its way into mainstream use in their automotive culture. No more deserving of judgmental criticism than others who call all custom wheels "mags" in total disregard of the fact that they don't contain a single atom of magnesium.

[alexopm]

Hi Guido. I believe the engine you purchased from Chapman was not a Ford 289. I believe that was the one and only V8 casted and built by De Tomaso for the Can Am project with Chapman. Pete Coltrin documented the project very well for Road & Track. The block design was very close to the 289 (on which it was based), but it was a full De Tomaso design (I have some blue prints of it). Do you know where the engine is now?

[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

[MAStuart]

Dan what's the deal on the 2 restamped to 4? What's the possibility the engine is the same one that alexopm said was fitted to the De Tomaso? He said it was shipped here and then removed in the same time frame as the one installed in the Ferrari. What I have been reading makes me wonder about it. Where do the XhP 260 numbers that were installed in cobra come from?

[Harpoon PV2]

Well, there is no question where XPH-260-1 went! It is still in CSX2000. Here it is at Dean Moon's shop, on that legendary night. The gentleman with the white hat is Roy Gammell, not sure who the other man is?

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by Harpoon PV2

Well, there is no question where XPH-260-1 went! It is still in CSX2000. ...

CSX2000’s original engine was a 1962 model Ford Fairlane 221 2V one. After A.C. Cars removed it prior to the car being sent to California, it dropped out any memory or record I have been able to locate on either side of the ocean.


Dean Moon’s shop installed an engine identified as XHP-260-1 on its rocker arm covers.


Shelby American employee John Morton reported in his book that the engine installed to complete the car in California got into poor condition and was replaced.


That is perhaps the explanation of the engine with a rocker arm cover marked XHP-260-5 being used in CSX2000 published by Hot Rod Magazine.


Before Jim Cowles passed away, he tried to get the current owners of the car to positively identify the engine or at least the cylinder block in CSX2000 this century. All he got back was a poor quality cell phone picture of the stamping. What is in the car today still has to wait on somebody getting a clear view of the stamping.

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by MAStuart

Dan what's the deal on the 2 restamped to 4? What's the possibility the engine is the same one that alexopm said was fitted to the De Tomaso? He said it was shipped here and then removed in the same time frame as the one installed in the Ferrari. What I have been reading makes me wonder about it. Where do the XhP 260 numbers that were installed in cobra come from?

Your speculation is a good as anybody else's. Never mind how one engine could be installed and running in two different countries at the same time, how likely was it that a new car dealership and the Cobra owner removed the engine, crated it up well, took care of customs paper work and or any tariffs, loaned it to be used a long way off, get it returned, and then passed it on to a Ferrari owner? Why bother, Ford and Shelby had new engines in shipping crates and people to deal with shipping anywhere.

I would still like to see pictures of the engine in question. I found multiple references to the De Tomaso P70 car receiving a 289 size engine and a picture car before painting with the rear body work open with a engine with 4-2V Weber carburetors. Craig’s engine had and has been using just an prototype 260 4V iron intake since 1962 as far as the people that have known the Ferrari for decades. The prototype iron 4V 260 Ford iron intake manifold on Craig’s engine is casting “SK 12569” and intake assembly “SK 14036 $2A” (or serial number 2 of that version).

What are the low hanging fruit possibilities for Ford Fairlane engines with a “4” serial number.

Ford Numbered Engines

Experimental High Performance 260 (15 each made)

High Performance 260 (185 each made)

Experimental High Performance 289 five bolt bell housing (We have no idea how many were built in 1962 but #11 was logged as going into a racing Cobra.)

Production High Performance 289 five bolt bell housing (Less than ten and least three went into Cobras before March 2, 1963. The serial number of one has been published. Otherwise at least four of the first nine went into new Cobras.)

Experimental High Performance 289 six bolt bell housing. We have no idea how many were made or where they all went but Bob Mannel owned the near complete XHP-289-1 six bolt engine for several years.

Numbered by somebody else

Shelby American race shop assigned numbers to race engines.

Ford Advanced Vehicles had their own number system I have been told but I do not know for sure.

Holman-Moody had their own numbering system.

Lots of chances for a “4” engine in the 1962-63 time frame.

We have seen another block stamped XHP-260-2-something. In both cases, a little effort was used to deface the 2. Craig's engine also has cylinder block assembly number "C2OE6010J ASSY 4A" hand stamped into it. Another researcher, yes more than myself are still hunting technical details that can be documented, reported that engine XHP-260-2-14 went into a new Cobra. There is published picture showing an engine with a rocker arm cover marked XHP-260-14.

In the last week someone tried to get pictures of the stamping on CSX2008's cylinder block for me while Tom Cotter does his story on CSX3001 and CSX2008. Another set of dark cell phone pictures. I can just read enough to tell the block is from an XHP-260 engine. There is a chance that another researcher will get to examine the engines in both cars before they go back into storage. I was invited to do so, but it wouldn’t work out for me.

Where do the numbers come from, factory or magazine pictures from the time, a little factory documentation, and information hand stamped into cylinder blocks.

[Harpoon PV2]

Originally Posted by Dan Case

CSX2000’s original engine was a 1962 model Ford Fairlane 221 2V one. After A.C. Cars removed it prior to the car being sent to California, it dropped out any memory or record I have been able to locate on either side of the ocean.

The 221 myth wont die! When Barrie Bird of Scotland, was looking for a small block Ford for his repatriated CSX2003, he approached AC to buy the prototype engine. When he got it back to his shop and took the heads off, they were amazed how good it was, then they measured the bores. It came out to 4.2 liters, or 260ci. Ford didn't bother to tell either Shelby or AC! Not the last time they would do that, they didn't tell either, that the big block chassis were suppose to be longer, thus ruining all that great computer designed rear end suspension! Cheers, Dennis

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by Harpoon PV2

The 221 myth wont die! When Barrie Bird of Scotland, was looking for a small block Ford for his repatriated CSX2003, he approached AC to buy the prototype engine. When he got it back to his shop and took the heads off, they were amazed how good it was, then they measured the bores. It came out to 4.2 liters, or 260ci. Ford didn't bother to tell either Shelby or AC! Not the last time they would do that, they didn't tell either, that the big block chassis were suppose to be longer, thus ruining all that great computer designed rear end suspension! Cheers, Dennis

Barrie sent me pictures of the intake manifold from his engine and it is a 1963 model year 260 4V intake manifold design. It does not have a SK or XE engineering casting number on it visible in the over head view picture. Barrie’s intake does not have the key design detail of the 1962 design Ford Fairlane iron intake manifolds. It looks like a 4V version of the 221/260 2V intake manifold introduced in the summer of 1962 for the 1963 model year. No, that does not hint at when it was made and intakes were not date stamped when they were machined.


The big issue for us to understand is the timing of cylinder block manufacture. Engines and their subsequent history begin there. Barrie never sent me the casting number, the block casting date, or the engine assembly date (if it has not been milled off) from the block he has. The prototype 260 engine cylinder blocks dates we know of were cast in late March 1962. XHP-260-4’s cylinder block was cast March 27, 1962. It was not announced that the Ford 260 2V engine was available for dealers to start ordering in new cars until February 17, 1962.


SAAC reports that CSX2000 was a running car in February 1962 and one of the books in my Cobra related library reports CSX2000 without engine or transmission was sent by air to Shelby February 16, 1962.


If Barrie were to provide the casting engineering number, casting date, and assembly date (if it has not been milled off) from his engine this might be understood better.



See also:

Dave Friedman’s “SHELBY AMERICAN UP CLOSE AND BEHIND THE SCENES 1962-1965: THE VENICE YEARS” pages 12-14 that covers the 221 c.i.d. engine subject and has pictures of CSX2000 under construction in England with the engine Mr. Shelby sent to them in the chassis. From a direct Don Frye [Ford Motor Company] quote, “…Dave [edit - Dave Evans of Ford Motor Company] had sent a couple of our old 221-cubic-inch engines to Carroll [edit- summer 1961] and by the time I met Carroll, Shelby had shipped one of the engines to AC Cars in England to work out the installation in what was to become the first Cobra.” The engine in the car has a Ford 2100 2V carburetor.

[Harpoon PV2]

Hay Dan, if Barrie ever sends you the casting numbers, could you either post them here, or PM me? I like to know which engine it was for sure! Cheers, Dennis

[Harpoon PV2]

You will get a kick out of this Dan, this is CSX2005 engine as it looks today, I doubt the -5 on the valve covers? I know engines were haphazard in their allocation. I am pretty sure none of the Hugus cars got the XPH engines, and I think neither did Tasca. Hugus said he supplied only complete cars to Tasca? That would screw up all the matching numbers! Cheers, Dennis

[MAStuart]

Thanks Dan. I like a good mystery. Why is the cobra that XHP 260 - 4 came out of unknown? I hope it is not just because someone said it was. Now days everyone selling 289 parts or engines thinks they are HiPo's or the stuff came from a cobra or shelby. The chevy guys are the same way. Its like every small block chevy came from a Corvette.

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by MAStuart

Thanks Dan. I like a good mystery. Why is the cobra that XHP 260 - 4 came out of unknown? I hope it is not just because someone said it was. Now days everyone selling 289 parts or engines thinks they are HiPo's or the stuff came from a cobra or shelby. The chevy guys are the same way. Its like every small block chevy came from a Corvette.

I feel compelled to say unknown because zero new car documentation has turned up. No documentation like a mid-1960s bill of sale for the engine has turned up. People have hunted. Having a real good idea about anything about any subject does not mean it can be substantiated in any way. Think about current my quest to learn what the engine core in CSX2008 is today. Somebody just days ago looked for me and took some pictures but the pictures did not positively identify what I was interested in. I can just read enough to know it started off as a prototype something. Even if we determine what the car has today, that does not prove it was using the same engine in 1962.

[Harpoon PV2]

I think I found the smoking gun on the AC prototype 260 rather then the 221! It was hiding in plain sight in Trever Legate's book, Cobra The First Forty Years. First, indulge me with a little pat on the back! I stated that Carrol was on top of Pikes Peak for the 1961 Hill Climb, when he asked GM executives to use the Buick aluminum small block engine. What did happen, at about the same time Derek Hurlock, sent a letter to GM asking for the same engine, of course we know how this ended, a big fat no! Buick was making a deal where Rover would get all the tooling and even the chief engineer, Joe Turlay, so no dice. Of course, Shelby probably wasn't on top of the peak when he asked, he probably was down in Manitou Springs at one of the rented garages, or at the Broadmoor Hotel, or the Antlers Hotel, in Colorado Springs, where a lot of the Big Three executives stayed during the race. But, he was there! While it was a big set back for Carrol, fate was about to smile on him in a big way!

I will let Trevor take up the story on page 43 of his book: "but by chance he had recently met Dave Evans of Ford at the Pikes Peak hillclimb, in Colorado during July. He had been told that Ford were in the process of embarking on a whole new marketing strategy called 'Total Performance' aimed at a huge push into all forms of motor sport and was developing a new range of lightweight V8 engines as a result. Shelby decided it would do no harm to drop a letter to Evans at Dearborn to outline his plan. Evans, to his eternal credit, was not just a senior executive at a major automobile manufacturer, but that rare creature, a car enthusiast who happened to also work in the automotive industry. He phoned Shelby as soon as he received his letter, a meeting was planned and the salesman in Shelby sweet-talked two 221cu.in Fairlane engines on credit and $25,000 to 'blow the doors off the Corvette'. With the authority of Dave Evans, the engines were sent to Dean Moon's hotrod shop in Santa Fe to see what Shelby could do with them." I know what you are thinking, there the proof other prototype 221 engine, well, as Paul Harvey would always say, "and now for the rest of the story". "To Shelby's surprise, Evans was not yet finished for he received another call from him to say , that he was sending two further, brand new, high performance he versions of the Fairlane motor, now increased to 260cu.in".

This was sometime after The Forth of July1961. Shelby's first letter arrived at AC on September 8, 1961. The prototype engine arrived at AC at the beginning of November. So the XHP engines were preproduction engines, which makes sense. There were apparently one hundred produced, and they were doled out to racing teems around the world. Rallye racing was a big recipient of these engines, and the UK were big on that form of racing. So it would not have been much of a problem, to divert one to AC. So when that mysteries Japanese engine showed up from FoMoCo, they may have thought it was a 221, or the crate was miss labeled, hence, the Ace 3.6! Keep in mind, Shelby hadn't even been to AC yet. With the XHP-260 engine, why would they send over a 221?

I have never heard of a 221 being sold by Shelby, so did they ever get two? We know AC sold a 260 to Barrie Bird, which was said to be the prototype, what other reason would AC need with a stray engine? All the other engines they got, went into cars. It appears there never were any 221 engines in the Cobra program! Cheers, Dennis

[Harpoon PV2]

I fixed it! Just needed more space between paragraphs! Cheers, Dennis