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Classified: Denzel Engine for sale

All images are of the engine to be sold unless otherwise stated.

About This Denzel Engine

• This engine will be provided fully assembled and test run. Or, for the same price, if you prefer, it can be delivered unassembled.
• Assembly of the crankcase will not occur until a buyer has identified what crankcase they desire the engine to be built into. This permits the engine serial number and other detail to be precisely to the new owner's wishes.
• This Denzel engine will be assembled with the same exacting standards used on the Land Speed Record engine.

For those who would like more basic information about Denzel, please see this web page:

https://ghiacoachworks.com/share/engines_denzel.html

Contents:

• Background on This Engine
• Choices the Buyer May Make
• Spare Parts we offer - at very reasonable prices!

Background on This Engine

Richard began collecting vintage speed equipment for the 36hp engine type in 1986 and over the years, Denzel equipment would appear every so often. In 2009, Britt Grannis approached Richard regarding the addition of a Karmann Ghia class to the 36HP Land Speed Challenge that had been taking place at Bonneville for some five years or so. Britts assertion was that the new class was virtually tailor made for Richard because of his interest in both Karmann Ghias and high-performance 36hp engines.

Richard accepted the challenge, dusted off the boxes of bits that had been sitting, waiting, for years - decades - and spent a lot of time reading all the rules. Since Porsche was ruled out, the Denzel seemed the logical choice, and because he had three of them, Richard chose the worst pair of heads for the 36HP Challenge because if anything went seriously wrong, there'd still be two pair to work with. This was really key because if it weren't for the fact there was more than one engine worth of parts, Denzel would not have been chosen.

To get a Denzel engine running is no small feat; a great many parts are distinctively different from other era engine types, like the Porsche or Okrasa. And many of these bits get lost during fourty-some-odd years of being shuffled around a garage. In fact, the engine got going for the Land Speed effort was only the fourth known running Denzel engine in the world at the time it was first started. And there's no parts store available to sell you replacement parts, only other enthusiats, and because most enthusiasts are trying to assemble their own engine(s), good luck getting them to sell youanything! ...The story of getting the Land Speed Record Denzel engine running can be found on the other end of this link. Importantly, the reason the Land Speed Record effort pertains to the story of this engine is that without the LSR effort, a lot of the work to develop the necessary parts simply would not have yet occured. It also got the parts up out of boxes and into the light of day. And, the fact that the Denzel set a record and got itself into The One Club on its first outing, even while poorly tuned and improperly geared, raised the level of interest and excitement. And thus, the interest in possibly selling this particular engine.

All three engines had come to Richard from the Pacific Northwest. A complete engine was purchased from Jim Anderson - affectionately known as Split-Window Jim at the VW shows along the West Coast of the USA - who in the early 1990s was scrounging Washington, Oregon, and northern California for interesting bits like these engines. This particular engine was largely complete but was not assembled. Two engines were obtained, as very incomplete sets of parts, from Chris Luray. Even among all three, there were some parts of which there were no examples. So, some borrowing and collaboration was helpful in obtaining the necessary bits. A bit of a community has developed among those with Denzel engines trying to help each other, so eventually solutions to all the problems and challenges were found. Along the way, much of the information regarding just which pieces came with which others has been largely lost to history. However, there were two 1300s and one 1500. None of the pistons and cylinders were serviceable, there was only one engine's worth of valves, etc.

Choices

Specifications

We always provide a build-sheet for our engines. The following is the basic information for this engine:

• Valve train parts:
  • Valve sets, complete with springs, retainers, keepers, etc.
  • Rockers, complete with shafts, springs and keepers
  • Cam followers
  • Pushrods
• Crankshafts (call)
• Camshafts (several grinds to choose from, including Iskendarian 2J)
• Cam followers
• Pushrods
• Cylinder tin
• Cylinder Head mounting spacers
• Exhaust flanges:
• Original cast version
• Flat plate version
• Pistons and Cylinders
  • Modern forged pistons - Pin height and bore made to order to get the exact bore and compression ratio you want without shimming.
  • Iron cylinders
  • Aluminum cylinders: Old stock chrome, modern nickacil, or biral. Note: These are made in very small batches - call for availability.
• Connecting rods (aluminum!)
• Oil system:
  • Full-flow filter
  • Full-flow pump
  • Interconnection hoses:
    • Pump to filter
    • Filter to case
  • Fittings at case
• Intake Manifolds:
  • Solex 32
  • Solex 40 PII
  • Weber
• Carburetor Linkages:
  • Solex 32
  • Solex 40 PII and Weber

We can usually provide you with nearly all of the above as used parts, but also, notably, on occasion, cylinder heads, too.

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