Hot Rods, Harleys, & Full-Race Flatties - H&H Automotive Engines has seen them all

No sound on earth is as glorious as a built-up banger or full-race flattie screaming down the salt at speed, and any so-called hot rod enthusiast who says differently deserves to have his license revoked for blasphemy. While the sweet tunes of lifters clattering and Stromberg carburetors whistling were common half a century ago, decked-out early Ford engines are becoming almost as rare as the men who know how to properly build them. Since valve-in-block engines became "obsolete" in the mid-'50s, machine shops familiar with the strange idiosyncrasies Ford's first mass-produced engines are known for have began to shrink, and now all that is left of this fading breed of diehard engine builders are a few grizzled old graybeards working out of small specialty shops scattered around the country. The exception to this statement is a blue-and-white building in La Crescenta, California, where the Herman brothers build and engineer every kind of early Ford powerplant imaginable, from bone-stock Model A four-bangers to Ardun-equipped land-speed flatheads. These guys are young, they're knowledgeable, and they're Young Guns.

It comes as no surprise that Max Jr., 27, and Mike, 25, got into the engine-building business. Their father, Max Sr., started H&H back in 1972 when the motor in his '29 Ford Tudor sedan needed a rebuild, but parts were scarce and machinists who were willing to do the work were even scarcer. For the next 30 years Max and his sons began the slow and arduous process of fine tuning the Ford four-banger, developing new parts for improved performance and reliability along the way. Max Jr. began building bangers alongside his father in 1992 and actually took over that part of the business a few years ago. The Hermans can now lay claim to being the biggest Ford banger shop in the country, cranking out more than 100 engines a year that go all over the world, including Norway, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Peru.

With the four-cylinder part of the business running full steam ahead, Max Sr. and Mike decided to take a long hard look at the growing nostalgia craze in hot rodding and what they could do to help things along. They quickly realized that there was a serious lack of knowledgeable flathead engine builders around, and that many of the techniques they had developed for putting together reliable bangers could be applied to flatties as well. Soon after, H&H Flatheads was formed, with Mike doing the bulk of the specialty machine work and assembly. In fact, we worked with Mike on our "Full-Bore Flattie" project motor back in the beginning of the year and were more than impressed with his stoic work ethic and vast knowledge of engines that were built before his parents were even born.

So what makes H&H different than your average, run-of-the-mill machine shop, you ask? Besides the extra time, effort, and knowledge that goes into every engine, these guys also have the proper equipment to do the job. Kwik Way boring and honing machines, Sunnen Rod Machines, Storm Vulcan Stone Surfacers, and other hard-core early-style machining tools were the best in the business back when hot rodding was born, and they have proven to be much more reliable when working with early block castings than more modern computer-controlled machines. H&H has also developed several specialty parts lines for their engines, including working with Scat on stroker cranks and with Manley Performance on an exclusive line of valves and valvetrain components. They also make other parts, including finned aluminum front covers and side covers, counterweighted cranks, and billet cam and crank gears. Max and Mike also pressure-seal every engine they build and re-pipe the oiling systems for increased flow and longevity under today's high-speed driving conditions (compared with the rutted low-speed roads that existed when these engines were new).

When asked if they had anything to say to fellow Young Guns, both men credited their father with teaching them everything they know about the engine business. Max Jr. also demanded that young guys should "stop playing video games and start building hot rods, but not banger motors. Leave that to us." We've got no problem with that, Max, as long as you give us a shout next time you're going to fire up one of those wicked little engines; it's like music to our ears.