Raymond Mays Heads

[bce257]

Anyone got any good Raymond Mays head yarns? I wonder where they all went.

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[Ray Bell]

There's one on the Eclipse Zephyr, it does a good job...

And there's a Consul version on a sports car which used to run in South Australia.

I have some photos somewhere, on and off the car IIRC.

[Oldfart]

I know someone in Kerikeri who has more than one.

[bce257]

From what I have heard they weren't the best castings so I guess a lot of them were scrapped as unusable. I have seen one which had been planed so much that the spark plug threads came into the face.

Pretty serious reclamation work going on here.
42377

Last year I got one of the reproduction heads from UK and it always brings out a yarn or two about the legends of the time who raced with one or had triple carbs etc. I really enjoy these stories.

[Grant Sprague]

From what I have heard they weren't the best castings so I guess a lot of them were scrapped as unusable. I have seen one which had been planed so much that the spark plug threads came into the face.

Pretty serious reclamation work going on here.
42377

Last year I got one of the reproduction heads from UK and it always brings out a yarn or two about the legends of the time who raced with one or had triple carbs etc. I really enjoy these stories.

BCE , I can easily remember the big wooden crate that Ernies Raymon Mays Cyl head arrived in , it hung around his work shop for years , it was well made , had little packing compartments etc also holes drilled in the wood that housed the light weight push rods etc .

[khyndart in CA]

I found some interesting Raymond Mays information at this site.

http://www.thehodgkinsons.org.uk/ERA-RaymondMaysConversions.htm

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[Steve Holmes]

From what I have heard they weren't the best castings so I guess a lot of them were scrapped as unusable. I have seen one which had been planed so much that the spark plug threads came into the face.

Pretty serious reclamation work going on here.
42377

Last year I got one of the reproduction heads from UK and it always brings out a yarn or two about the legends of the time who raced with one or had triple carbs etc. I really enjoy these stories.

Cool thread! What are you fitting your reproduction head on?

[Rod Grimwood]

Remember playing with Mk11 had Mays head, triple carbs, Bedford pistons (machined little) balanced rods, oil pump upgrade (stronger spring) etc. it was a quick bit of gear, and of coarse the impala straight shift (forward and back)
got photo somewhere of one of the more famous NZ Mk11s will find it.

[BMCBOY]

This example was advertised on TradeMe a few years ago - it sold for very good money I believe.

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[Ray Bell]

The one on the Eclipse Zephyr, I now recall, was bought by Repco...

They purchased it when they (Phil Irving?) were planning the Repco Hi-Power head for the grey Holden engines. They had done their bit with it and Keith Rilstone was starting me the Eclipse Zephyr fly. He got them to upgrade the brakes (through the PBR) subsidiary and then they gave him the head.

[bce257]

Cool thread! What are you fitting your reproduction head on?

Thanks Steve. I've had it on the Mk2 wagon for about six months now, initially with two H6 carbs,
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now with lots more

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[bce257]

This example was advertised on TradeMe a few years ago - it sold for very good money I believe.

Looks like it had a well earned life. Those inlet flanges are modified to take something unoriginal, understandable as the stock bolt pattern is virtually impossible to mount anything other than the log type manifold because the bolts are painfully close to the runners. The plug threads aren't quite breaking through into the head face but they are darn close.

There's a guy out west Auckland who was wanting 20k for one on TM a year or two back. The repro ones are half that even with freight from UK and they have made a number of subtle improvements so they are (seem) very reliable.

[bce257]

BCE , I can easily remember the big wooden crate that Ernies Raymon Mays Cyl head arrived in , it hung around his work shop for years , it was well made , had little packing compartments etc also holes drilled in the wood that housed the light weight push rods etc .

Thanks Grant. Your dad's name comes up sometimes in conversation, quite often as that guy who had a Mk3 from where was it now... Timaru?

[bce257]

Thanks guys, enjoying the thread.

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[Rod Grimwood]

This one haunted the North Shore way back, was a very quick car and the local cop loved it, mainly because he could hear it coming from Milford and he was at top of Forrest Hill.
PS it was very quick because it was red.

[Ray Bell]

A nice pair of Zodiacs...

https://s26.postimg.org/d37eqywc9/0317frzodiacvert.jpg

Both have an American option between the engine and the final drive, the sedan has a DG while the auto has the other type of Borg-Warner componentry offered on the Z-cars:

https://s26.postimg.org/qmsuaezp5/0317frzodiacoverdrive.jpg

The sedan has these headers in place of the usual log...

https://s26.postimg.org/qvltmln3t/0317frzodiacheaders.jpg

...while the convertible has this:

https://s26.postimg.org/6zpu7262h/0317frzodiacbadge.jpg

And it's now got this:

https://s26.postimg.org/6qwuuvint/0317frzodiacmayshead.jpg

Which should go very will with that 0.7:1 overdrive.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Steve. I've had it on the Mk2 wagon for about six months now, initially with two H6 carbs,
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now with lots more

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Wow thats awesome! Can we see pics of the car?

[bce257]

Rod, that fuel system looks like a fire hazard! SU fuel pump over by the steering column feeding all the way round the firewall to some manifold thing on the other side. Those mufflers are something else altogether. Great pics.

Ray, the pics didn't come through on my screen.

Steve, some pics here https://www.flickr.com/gp/57330657@N05/i98RH4

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[Ray Bell]

Try opening them this way:

https://s26.postimg.org/d37eqywc9/0317frzodiacvert.jpg

https://s26.postimg.org/qmsuaezp5/0317frzodiacoverdrive.jpg

https://s26.postimg.org/qvltmln3t/0317frzodiacheaders.jpg

https://s26.postimg.org/6zpu7262h/0317frzodiacbadge.jpg

https://s26.postimg.org/6qwuuvint/0317frzodiacmayshead.jpg

If necessary, copy and paste to a window.

[Grant Sprague]

BCE , if you click on to "sprague family photos" go to page 11 you will see Ernie tuning carbs on his Mark 3 replica racing zepher with the Raymond Mays Cyl head

[Grant Sprague]

42433 Ernies Mk 3 using his Raymond Mays Cyl head at Levin

[Rod Grimwood]

BCE, was a couple years back, thought this was tidy, can not see number 8 wire lol

[bce257]

RM head with six straight induction pipes.


https://youtu.be/P5K9FBcBjwU

[Paul B]

I had a Mk 3 Zodiac with a Raymond Mays 12 port head and a R Mays 78deg overlap cam, it had twin SU carbs.
from memory it had Bedford pistons, some people used Valiant AP5 pistons.
It had a floor shift with a Ford transit gearbox casing with Mk 3 gears fitted (nice short shift)
It was a great car and at the time, I thought it was quick, until I came up against a BDA escort.

I remember when I put my foot hard into it you could see the gas gauge moving!

[Andrew Metford]

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Are these SU DU carbs?

[bce257]

Are these SU DU carbs?

Kind of. I always wanted the look of triple carbs but not Webers and preferably not carbs. The original DU6s are impossible to find now and weren't a good carb anyway so I copied the basic look from online pics and reproduced them with modern bits inside.

Apparently SU (Burlen Fuel Systems) is reproducing the originals but it has all gone quiet now after showing some rapid prototyped units at Goodwood a few years ago. I wonder if they found that after all these years, they are still not a good carb. They are also amping up for a release of their fuel injected SU carb this year with all the modern bits hidden inside. Pity they didn't combine those two concepts from the outset, would have saved me a lot of mucking about.

[bce257]

After 1600miles of punishment on some pretty nasty roads over the last few weeks, the RM head has been the best upgrade ever. It really transforms a lazy underpowered donk into something that can make the speedo needle disappear inside the dash without too much trouble while being docile enough to tow trailer loads of rubbish around the farm. And it makes a fantastic noise.

Oops.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4203/34076985104_2a7196bc5c_b.jpg

[GD66]

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Nice ! :cool:

[Kevin Hirst]

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Nice ! :cool:

Loved making similar manifold's " back in the day" & fly cutting the top of MK2 block's to fit bigger valve's

[Greg Mackie]

In the late '50s, when I was an apprentice panel-beater, a bloke brought in the prototype of a car he wanted to make. It was a nice looking coupe, and he wanted it trimmed.

Under the bonnet there was a Zephyr engine, with a Raymond Mays head...and 3 SUs attached. When it came time to pick up the car, one of my mates asked the owner to give us a 'demo'. He laid 2 strips of rubber up the road, which were a talking point for ages!

Oh, the bloke's name was Bill Buckle...

[Greg Mackie]

Just found out Bill Buckle will be 93 soon...and the Buckle will be 60 !

[bce257]

Just found out Bill Buckle will be 93 soon...and the Buckle will be 60 !

Greg, you might know of the guy who runs the bucklecoupe website, I got my manifolds off him a while ago so quite possible they came off a Buckle at some time.

He has some great racing pics
http://www.bucklecoupe.com.au/gallery201.htm

[Greg Mackie]

Yes bce, I do know Bob...he's the one who informed me of 'the birthdays'.

His photo collection is awesome. He sent me some beaut shots of my VW Beetle at Catalina Park, 1963.