I live in Texas. That means I’m supposed to be a barbeque snob. It also means that when invited to a chargrill in one of the lesser 49 States I’m supposed to attend, be polite, act as if I like the grub and then immediately report my findings to the motherland.
It was therefore my responsibility as a citizen of the great State of Texas to accept the invitation from my good friend Pat Swanson to the Sunday evening “Inliners Barbecue” at the local KOA during the 2008 Bonneville Speed Week. At the time I was a bit vague on the whole “Inliner” thing and I was also not expecting much from Wendover (Utah) barbeque.
Prepared to be nonplussed, I arrived at the BBQ to an absolute mob-scene of “Inliner” devotees. I would estimate that there were more than 500 people in attendance, all looking rather hungry. Quickly I learned that this crowd was entirely welcoming as several strangers raced over to introduce themselves and personally greet me, as well as all other newcomers. And over the next three hours I began to appreciate the comaraderie of this informal group and began to understand what it was to be an “Inliner.”
The whole Inline thing can be traced back to 1929 when the General Motors Company introduced its all-new Chevrolet inline-6 cylinder engine boasting overhead valves. The first generation inline-6 Chevy engines were produced from 1929 to 1936 in displacements of 194, 181 and 207-cubic-inches. The second generation inline-6 Chevy was built from 1937 to 1963 in displacements of 216, 235, and 261-cubic-inches. The 216 and early 235 engines had a 15-bolt head and babbitt bearings. Chevrolet introduced its upgraded 235 inline-6 engine in 1953, and in 1954 added the 261 engine. These engines benefited from an 18-bolt head, an enhanced rocker arm arrangement, insert bearings replacing babbitt bearings, and an improved oiling system and cylinder head configuration. A third generation Chevy inline-6 was introduced in 1962, but this engine is peripheral to the present story.
General Motors’ GMC division introduced its own inline-6 228, 236 and 248-cubic-inch OHV low-deck engines in 1939. The following year GMC offered a 256-cubic-inch OHV raised-deck inline-6 that was only available for two years. In 1941, GMC built the 270-cubic-inch OHV inline-6 and this raised-deck engine remained in production up through 1961. Three less common OHV inline-6 engines were also offered by GMC: the 302 raised-deck available from 1952 to 1960, the 426 COE and large truck engine available in the ’40s and ’50s, and the 503 engine of the 1950s.
Immediately following WWII, salvaged Chevrolet and GMC inline-6 engines were abundant and readily available to racers and hot rodders. Speed-lovers eagerly procured these engines, but soon recognized that they were limited by their cylinder head design. Specifically, all Chevy and GMC inline-6 engines had heads designed with Siamese ports. With just three intake ports and four exhaust ports the engines’ ability to breathe was severely restricted.
Enter the ingenuity of those wanting to go fast.
Wayne Horning was a land speed racer and a mechanical engineer working at Lockheed Aircraft. In late 1945, after a tour in the Navy, Horning and business partner (and machinist) Jim Borger launched Western Mechanical Development Company (WMD) with the goal of manufacturing and selling Chevy 12-port heads for inline-6 engines. In epidemiological terms, this makes Horning Patient Zero of the impending Inliner outbreak. WMD’s products would later be known as Wayne Heads (after Horning’s first name) which were available for the 15-bolt 216 and 235 engines. The original blueprint for the first 12-port Chevy Wayne Head was dated May 25, 1946. The first Chevy Wayne Head went to the foundry in late 1946, was finished in 1947 and sometime thereafter was installed in the ’34 Roadster of his friend Harry Warner. The most obvious thing that made Horning’s Chevrolet Wayne Head special was that it was designed with six intake and six exhaust ports. The head also had a unique combustion chamber design that improved power output.
The second Chevy Wayne Head (#1002) was sold to Ollie Prather in late 1947 for $250. Prather used the head in his racing boat and bumped the Class-E record from 64 to over 90 mph in a single day. To the best knowledge available, it wasn’t until April of 1948 that a Chevy Wayne Head was fit to a racecar. The car was Don Nicholson’s ’27 T Roadster that reached a speed of more than 128 mph at El Mirage. Two months later the Hartman/Spalding ’27 T Roadster debuted at El Mirage and went over 125 mph with a Chevy Wayne Head. This car garnered a great deal of attention and was featured in the July 1948 SCTA Program, as well as the February 1948 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. Another early Chevy 12-port LSR car that received significant press coverage was the City of Pasadena belly tank. Powered by a Chevy Wayne inline-6, this tank was featured in the 1949 Bonneville Program and made a record qualifying one-way pass of 160.42 mph.
By 1947, Borger had lost interest in WMD and went to work for Frank Kurtis. At that point Horning invited Warner to join him in the business which was renamed Wayne Manufacturing. Inline historian and collector Pat Swanson said, “In April of 1950 Horning and Warner decided to end their business partnership with Warner buying out Horning’s stake in the company. In 2003 I asked Horning about the breakup and he responded by saying that he and Harry just disagreed. No one was lying, cheating or stealing, but when money got tight they began to squabble over the smallest of things.” Swanson continued, “Ultimately, there were three different series of Chevy Wayne Heads manufactured. There was the original 15-bolt 1000 series closed-chamber head, the 15-bolt 1100 series open-chamber head, and the 18-bolt 1200 series head. In total, the best estimate is that approximately 125 cast iron Chevy Wayne Heads were manufactured in period. As a side note, the18-bolt heads were manufactured later by Bob Toros and to the best of my knowledge only a dozen of these were ever produced.”
As a result of the split between Horning and Warner, Warner ended up with the Wayne Manufacturing name, as well as the patterns to the Wayne 12-port Chevrolet head. The Wayne Manufacturing enterprise moved to Warner’s home garage and production of the original Chevy 12-port head continued.
In June of 1950, Horning ran an advertisement in Hot Rod Magazine for his all-new Horning GMC 12-port head. Hot Rod dyno-tested a 270 Horning GMC engine in the April 1951 issue and recorded a maximum of 285 horsepower at 5000 rpm. Swanson said, “For the past 65 years there’s been a general state of confusion within the hobby regarding the Wayne and Horning GMC 12-port heads. It’s important to understand that the first GMC 12-port head was not produced by Wayne Horning or Harry Warner, but rather by Al Gonzales as the Algon Head. The original blueprint for the first Algon GMC Head was dated August 1, 1949. It’s generally believed that only one cast iron Algon GMC Head was produced in period. It’s my understanding that Wayne Horning sold 10 to 12 cast iron Horning GMC Heads before selling the patterns to Bill Fisher.
Fisher produced another 30 heads before selling the patterns to Hoy Stevens who produced three heads. It’s generally held that approximately 45 Horning/ Fisher/Stevens GMC heads were produced. It wasn’t until December of 1951 that an advertisement appeared for the Harry Warner-designed and manufactured Wayne GMC Head. The first 10 to 12 of these were also produced in cast iron, with perhaps 40 more being manufactured from aluminum. The GMC engine had some significant advantages over the Chevy in that it had a larger displacement, a stronger bottom end and the bolt pattern of the popular 270 and 302 raised-deck engines were identical.”
To complicate the story further, there were several other GMC 12-port heads manufactured in period. Howard Johansen first manufactured his Howard GMC 12-port head in April of ’52 and offered them with either a SOHC or pushrod design. To the best knowledge available, only five or six of the original Howard GMC Heads were built in period, and only in the pushrod configuration. Tom Skinner built three examples of his Skinner Head, both in cast iron and aluminum, for the GMC inline-6 in the late 1960s. As many as 13 more copies have been manufactured in aluminum since.
Swanson has spent a great deal of time piecing together the histories and chain of custodianship of the patterns for the various Chevy and GMC inline-6 heads. “The trail of custodianship on the Wayne Chevy patterns begins with Horning, who had possession of them from 1946 to 1950,” Swanson said. “Warner bought Horning out of the business in 1950 and had possession of the patterns until 1957 when he sold them to Bob Toros. Toros sold the patterns to Paul Vona in 1993 who sold them to Nick Zallion in 2002. In 2012 Zallion gifted the patterns to Lynn and Dan Helms.
The trail on the Howard GMC head patterns is as follows. Johansen stored the patterns at the original foundry that was damaged in a fire in 1970. Following that, the original patterns were incorrectly thought to have been destroyed until Nick Arias located them in 1984. With permission from Johansen, Arias started reproducing the Howard GMC Head in 1987. Arias sold the patterns to Zallion in 2002. Zallion sold the patterns to Donald Ferguson in 2012. The trail of the Algon GMC Head pattern starts with Al Gonzales from 1949 to 1990. From there the patterns passed to Bruce Johnston who modified them slightly and cast half-a-dozen in aluminum. Johnston sold the patterns to Ferguson in 1997.
The trail on the Horning GMC patterns was Wayne Horning (1950-1952), Bill Fisher (1952-1959), Hoy Stevens (1959-1980), Charlie Baker (1980-1996) and Ferguson (1996 to present). The trail of custodianship on the Wayne GMC Head patterns is: Harry Warner (1951-1962), Bill Goldman (1962-1970), Jim Fuller (1970-1976), and Ferguson (1976 to present). The ownership of the Skinner GMC patterns was transitioned to Charlie Santilli after the death of Tom Skinner in the early 2000s. Charlie was a close friend of Tom’s.”
Swanson’s intrigue with inline-6 wizardry can be traced to a senior year high school present from his father. Swanson said, “My dad gave me a ’51 Chevy Fleetline with a good running 6-cylinder engine. It was truly a gutless wonder. I had saved a few dollars and approached my dad about putting a small block Chevy V8 in the car and he would not allow it. At that point I started hitting the local wrecking yards to buy 6-cylinder go-fast parts. In no time I had accumulated a fairly good-sized collection of speed parts for the stock engine. In the mid-1970s, Pat Ganahl wrote an article on hopping up the early inline-6s for Street Rodder magazine. In that article he briefly discussed the 12-port heads and how they transformed the common mundane Chevy and GMC engines into truly competitive race engines.
“Fast forward to 1991 and I’m on the salt at Bonneville when Hank Lawshe rolls out his Wayne Chevy 12-port-powered Vintage Fuel Comp Coupe. As a huge crowd gathered around the car Hank fired it up. I will never forget the unique sound of the engine and the smiles on the faces in the crowd. Within a year, I had tracked down and purchased my first Chevy Wayne Head and since then I’ve spent over 20 satisfying years collecting 12-port heads and parts.”
Inliners International is a club founded in 1981 by four people who shared a love of inline engines. According to the institutional charter, “The club is devoted to high performance inline engines and cars.” Today the club has over 1,000 members.
And it turns out they serve surprisingly good barbeque!
