In order to put a classic, extremely rare Duesenberg Model J into

Photos courtesy of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, Auburn, Ind., unless otherwise noted
Put It in Reverse
In order to put a classic, extremely rare Duesenberg Model J into gear,
metalcasting engineers had to go in reverse.
J
Shea Gibbs, Assistant Editor
im Schneck wanted
manifold and front timing
in. He had the car—a
chain case. This time, he
supercharged 1934
wanted to recreate the rare
Duesenberg Model
Duesenberg’s cylinder
J worth more than
head, an expansive proj$500,000—but he wanted
ect that would eventually
the respect of those in the inproduce a 180-lb. (81.6ner circle of Duesenberg colkg) machined casting.
lecting. Metalcasting turned
“This is one of the most
out to be his passkey.
difficult things that I’ve
Schneck had worked
ever done,” said Schneck.
previously with a group
“But there was a need for
of metalcasters on several
it, and I wanted to receive
restorative projects. So, he
the calls from the Jay Lenos
thought he could count on
of the world. It doesn’t
them to help him through
have to do with money; it
a restoration that would
has to do with supplying a
put him in an elite class
need that’s been there for
80 years.”
of collectors, including automotive historian Randy The Duesenberg is prized by automotive enthusiasts both because it is rare
Back It Up
Ema and renowned car and each model has a slightly different chassis and coach.
The original engine
buff Jay Leno.
low grade “pot” metal. He also had
block and cylinder head of the DueIn the past, Schneck had worked
done considerable work on the Auburn
senberg Model J was designed by one
with metalcasters to recreate small parts
supercharged car, recasting the intake
of a speed-loving pair of brothers.
and pieces that were originally cast in
MODERN CASTING / November 2006
33
34
1930s, largely for its lack
of ability to keep up
with other car makers,
Schneck said.
Today, the existence
of 368 of those original
481 has been confirmed.
Around 70 of the automobiles are known to
have been destroyed,
and 40 have seemingly
disappeared from the known record.
Some of the remaining 368 have and/or
need replica parts
to return to working order. And,
coming up with replicas can be a chore,
especially for complex pieces like the
cylinder head.
368
By the Numbers:
The number of remaining
Duesenberg Model Js.
Of the 481 originals, 73
are known to have been
destroyed, and 40 have
been lost to history.
Jasoncannon2 | Dreamstime
Drivers first and businessmen second,
the brothers—Fred and August Duesenberg—started a company in the early
1920s to make cars that would win
races. They launched their line of cars
by putting out hotrods like the Model
A and X. The now famous Model J
made it to the drawing board shortly
thereafter, but “Auggie,” as he is known
among car enthusiasts, was no longer
involved in design.
“Part of their racing history made
them understand that horsepower was
developed in the head,” Schneck said.
“The idea was new to America. [The
Model J] was one of the first production cars with a double overhead cam
design. A couple other manufacturers
copied it after that.”
This revolutionary idea made for
some complex castings. It also put a
strain on the Duesenbergs’ pocketbooks. Before the Model J went to
production, the brothers sold their
company to E.L. Cord, who had the cash
and the means to put together a 180-lb.
cylinder head, not to mention the rest of
the car’s well-crafted components. Cord,
who hired Fred Duesenberg as his chief
engineer, simply sent the head’s design
over to Lycoming Engines, a one-stop
engine manufacturer that he owned,
so that it could be poured in the onsite
metalcasting plant. From there, green
sand molds were developed, and iron
was poured.
“I can’t believe they were able to
do this back then,” said John Humont,
Foundry Consultants Inc., Toledo,
Ohio, who would work on recasting
the head 77 years later. “It absolutely
flabbergasted me. They had a horrible
time trying to make the thing.”
But they did make the thing—nearly
500 times. Between 1928 and 1935, 481
engines were produced. At the end of
that stretch, the company had sent all
of the Duesenbergs that would ever be
produced to the road. The company
was driven out of business in the late
Photo courtesy of JIm Flanigan
The completed wood and plastic tooling was developed
using reverse engineering. Because the cosmetics of
the restored head had to match the original exactly, the
pattern design was determined primarily by measuring the
existing casting by hand.
MODERN CASTING / November 2006
The Duesenberg Model J was one of the first production cars to feature a double overhead cam design, owing to chief engineer Fred Duesenberg’s knowledge that horsepower is generated in the head.
MODERN CASTING / November 2006
35
Time Tested, Failed
Like the Duesenberg brothers’ hold
on their car company, the metal castings
that composed the 481 engines Cord
produced were not destined to stand
the test of time. At least 10% of the
remaining 368 cars need new cylinder
heads, according to Schneck.
“Every head that I’ve seen had repair
work done to it,” Humont said.
Schneck’s own Duesenberg, luckily,
contained a properly working cylinder head
when he decided to begin the project.
The group Schneck organized,
which included himself, Humont,
Jim Flanigan of Foundry Consultants,
Dave Smith of Cunningham Pattern
and Engineering, Columbus, Ind., and
Scott Wichlacz of Manitowoc Motor Machine, Manitowoc, Wis., were fortunate
enough not to have to reverse engineer
the head entirely. Along with the working cylinder head and an inoperable
head, they were able to obtain blueprints from the original head. However,
the exacting standards of Duesenberg
collectors made it necessary to copy
the outer appearance of the working
head exactly, making the job largely a
reverse engineering project.
To engineer the tooling from the
existing heads, the prints first had to be
consulted to assure that no significant
changes had been made to the design
By the Numbers:
$400,000
A low-end selling price for a Duesenberg
Model J. The original production run of all 481
cylinder heads cost about the same.
36
MODERN CASTING / November 2006
Based on consumer demand so far, the metalcasters estimate that about 10% of the remaining 368 Duesenberg Model Js are in need of a
restored cylinder head. They plan to start with a production run of eight to 15 and then reassess the market.
MODERN CASTING / November 2006
37
The reproduced head had to look
exactly like the original, or the
restoration would have
devalued the classic automobile.
when they were poured.
A coordinate measuring machine (CMM) was used on
both the sectioned casting and the intact head to show, with
extremely tight tolerances, that the heads were similar enough
to the prints to serve as a template to work from. The job
of rebuilding the original pattern then went to patternmaker
Flanigan. He received the full and sectioned castings in November 2004 and had a wood and plastic pattern built by
May of the next year.
Revisionist Historians
Duesenberg collectors are a demanding bunch. The reproduced head had to look exactly like the original, or the
restoration would have devalued the classic automobile. So,
it was important to work backwards from Schneck’s head,
rather than simply design the pattern and core boxes from
the blueprints. Unlike the outer appearances, though, the
patternmakers were able to take some liberties with the inner workings of the machine.
“We were able to beef up some of the walls,” Flanigan
said. “We built the areas up around the spots that broke down
on the originals. It took three comparisons back and forth
to continually look at the head; it was an intense effort to
return the head to as close as possible to the original.”
The resulting patterns indeed would produce cosmetics
that matched the castings poured at Lycoming, right down
to the parting lines. Along with the cope and drag tooling,
Flanigan and one other patternmaker put together 37 different core boxes to make the necessary 45 cores. All of this
was done in wood and plastic with careful measuring by
hand. In May, it was time to send the tooling on to Smith
at Cunningham Pattern.
No Bake, No Breaks
Smith says that some of the tooling had to be modified
slightly to make the patterns and core boxes agreeable
to metalcasting. But in early 2005, Smith was able to put
the tooling to work, after Flanigan and his team had reworked the pattern twice, and Smith and his colleagues
performed one rework.
Cunningham Pattern molded the large cope and drag
in nobake sand—“it looks like a sarcophagus,” said Schneck—and constructed the cores primarily with coldbox
tooling, though some were also done in nobake.
It was the cores that offered the most difficulty. Before
Smith ever received the tooling, Flanigan and his fellow patternmaker went through the pains of understanding how all
the cores would fit together to recreate the inner workings
of the Duesenberg head.
“The greatest obstacle was having the cores pass over one
another,” Flanigan said. “It took a long time to figure out which
cores went into the others. When you’re assembling 45 cores,
you have to carefully consider the air and water passages.”
As it turned out, the design of those air passages was one of
38
MODERN CASTING / November 2006
Smith’s main concerns, the main reason
why the tooling needed some rework to
be “casting friendly.”
“Anytime you pour, gas is your biggest issue,” he said. “If you don’t vent
properly, all you have is a gassy casting.” But after four pours, Cunningham
found the right equation. “We took
our time, put it together, and drilled
the cores. Eventually, it made a nice
looking head.”
With all of this core manipulation,
Smith said nobake sand made the job
quite a bit easier than it would have
been when it was originally performed
in green sand.
“Nobake is more user friendly,” he
said. “It’s harder than green sand. The
cores that you have to take in and out—
you can’t do that with green sand.”
And more mold breakage is apt
to happen with the long draws associated with cylinder head castings,
which Smith calls one of the most
difficult pours in the business.
Feels Good, Duesen’t It?
The completed casting weighs 220
lbs. (99.8 kg) prior to machining, is 48
in. (121.9 cm) long and represents a
significant improvement in metal quality
over the original Duesenberg heads. After stress relieving and impregnating the
metalwork, Wichlacz machined it down
to a still-substantial 180 lbs. (81.6 kg).
The first machined casting was fitted
into an ailing Duesey in late August. It
made its public debut at the Auburn
Cord Duesenberg Festival in early
September. The group plans to operate
the engine sometime in the months to
follow. That will be the final test of the
recasting’s success, said Schneck.
At first, Schneck anticipates a limited
production run of eight to 15 heads.
But eventually, he expects the demand,
based on response from other collectors, to reach about 50 heads. According to Humont, as time passes, more
and more interested Duesenberg owners come forward looking to upgrade
their engines. And some of them are
interesting Duesenberg owners.
“Jay Leno called,” Schneck said soberly.
“He’s interested in this project.” MC
For More Information
“3-D Laser Digitizing for Reverse Engineering, Moldmaking, QA and Rapid Prototyping,”
G. Hilgers, 1994 AFS Transactions (94-77).
“New Horizon in Nobake Binder Technology,” E.
Ireland, K. Chang, J. Kroker, 2002 AFS Transactions (02-025).
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