V6 Aurelia Mania

Later on some more grinding was made on these three stud bolt as well as at the opposing light alloy side of the most
only needed few attention. Also notice
disturbed left canal achieving better air flow. The middle canals‟ stud still has
the flowed 3C adapted canals by Francosporto looking quite different compared to
the original. (see also “Why not 3C ”)
to be modified, while the right one
The 1953 Lancia upgrade to 2.5 liter V6 single (1C) Weber DCZ40 carbureted setup was only possible by rearranging the
obstructing adjacent valve stems by rotating the combustion chambers. At the time BMW‟s also struggled with this
problem designing a shorter block and called it “gekreuzte ventielen” crossed valves. So as a result the Tuscany Hills like
swirling intake and exhaust ducts got a little straightened, but Lancia left the position of all studs as they were. Why
steeper valves in lower combustion chambers were not considered will always be unclear. Only with the redesigned
Aurelia engines for the Flaminia‟s the Pesenti-Lancia factory realized such thermally more efficient valve setting
resulting into more or less roof shaped combustion chambers.
March 2009
Last week I got surprised by Geoffrey Goldberg‟s (GG) email asking “What about your 3C setup, please translate because
my Dutch is nonexistent ” (........ at the time this site was only in Dutch) So I explained the site being about my
experimental 3C setup only to check its advantages compared to the original as well as to the extraordinary expensive
Nardi setup. By exploring this twin Weber DCZ40 after sales upgrade kit at Martin‟s Living Museum, I realized that still
quite some tricks (discussed in “Why not 3C”) could be done on the original single carburetor job boosting the cylinders
inhalation. During his many years of Aurelia tuning GG experienced the intake valves being the most restrictive, because
them getting more rpm inhibiting mass at larger diameters. Agreeing I would add of course Lancia‟s choice for pushrod
distribution being the cause of frivolous curved ducts
and worse on top of all the Vittorio Jano styled
(discussed in “AR 8C Mania”) vestibule like passages
between the valve seat and the valve guide boss,
resulting in two disturbances for the fast moving gas
stream.
So one quite sharp angle exists at the rather swirly
intake manifold flowing into a bowl shaped chamber
around the valve stem, followed by a second opposite
deviation passing the valve seat into the even more angled
cylinder. Obviously designers seem not to have been fully
aware of the total resistance they were creating with
multiple changing gas flow direction. The exhaust side being similar except for an additional passing around a disturbing
stud bolt, resulting in the so called D-shape porting ………
Such gas flow process is heavily influenced by valve angles and basically the Aurelia‟s 1930‟s porting more or less got
dealt with in Lancia‟s D Series engines of course without the pushrods, but still with too many stud bolts in
disadvantageous positions. In the early fifties Lancia‟s “Reparto Corse” clearly did realize some of those restrictions
considering setups of FdV‟s B-54 as well as Ettore Zaccone Mina‟s (EZM) B-110 “prova” designs both already tested from
1952 onwards. So frankly spoken Lancia would have made more sense and certainly immortal history by installing their
sporty B-54 dry sump SOHC engine into all B-20 Aurelia‟s from early 1953 onwards and sell them as the next stage
upgrade GT Super Sports cars. It would have been a testimony of marketing skill using Lancia‟s advanced technical
knowhow profitable.