Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines 206 Performance Enhancements

Does anyone one this forum have any experience improving the performance and longevity of the 1929-1932 194 cid or 1933-1936 206 cid Chevrolet engines other than replacing them with more modern powerplants?

Hi Bald Eagle . . .

If you were to hop-up a 206 it would be the rarest beast at the show!

I have been researching early chevies for some time. Speed parts and hop-up specifications for the pre-'37 appear to be almost non-existent.

In Bill Fisher's book he describes the "first fast Chevy in Southern California". It was a Bantam bodied roadster built around a '33 206. The manifold was hand made and based on the pics appears to sport 2 deuces (Strombergs). The article describes a hand made dual-point/dual-coil distributor.

I have seen very few references to speed parts for the 206. I saw a set of 7:1 Jahns pistons on ebay a few months back. And I have seen references to a Mallory dual-point distributor for the 194/206 - in fact there is one on eBay right now: Mallory Dizzy for 206 Chevy - but I have no idea where one would get replacement parts (cap/rotor/points) to service it.

My latest research angle is to look for information on Midget Racing and Crackerbox Boat Racing (pre and post war). So far I have found alot flat-head Ford history. Somebody has to have run inline Chevies - its just a matter of finding them. The search continues.

regards,
stock49

Thank you stock49,

I've read stories from old racers running 216s to 6500, kind of hard to imagine. I remeber watching an awesome chevy six laying on its side in one of the hydo classes in the early fifties, could have been a crackerbox. That had to have had full pressure. I have seen nothing about 194s or 206s.

I agree. 6500 revs on a 216 seems highly unlikely, and I am not sure what it would be worth. Bill Fisher's dyno tests with the wildest cams and triple carbs moved the peak power point from 3400 to just above 4100, with power curves showing little benefit to reving beyond 5000. This was with splash oiling!

The other day I came across a neat site that is dedicated to really early racing:
Race Cars of the 1920\'s and 30\'s
it inlcudes links to the some great old engines:
Miller-Offenhouser Junior Special
Vintage Auto Racing Engines
how about racing with half of a Hispano Suiza flat eight from WWI era fighter? The result is 359 cubic inch inline 4 with a five inch stroke!