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As far as I know, the term 'F' head is a purely American one. Overhead inlet, side exhaust engines were very common in the early uears of motoring, where this layout (and T or L side valve) allowed easy access to valves in an engine with non-detachable heads.
The Rover setup, however, is so different from this early setup that it is not certain that it really an appropriate use of the term. Rover used a variation of that introduced about 1930 by Bentley, and the inclined top to the block with the combustion chamber entirely in the block and piston enables a very nearly hemispherical combustion chamber, with a large intake valve on the flat surface not having the size limited by the small bore dictated by the UK horsepower and tax rules.
Compare for example the Willys effort, which, unlike Rover, was a simple conversion of a side valve engine to IOE, by providing a new head with overhead inlet valves. This enabled a higher compression ratio by making the combustion chamber smaller, and larger intake and exhaust valves, but still with a not very attractive combustion chamber shape.
John
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We have now established that only 6 were sent on Feb 28 1958 and these are the Chassis Nos
Ship - - - - - - Chassis No -- Engine No
Geelong Star 143800006 - 141800066
Geelong Star 143800001 – 141800070
Geelong Star 143800004 – 141800164 Feb 28
Geelong Star 143800005 - 141800167
Geelong Star 143800002 – 141800169
Geelong Star 143800003 - 141800170
another 12 were sent on the Mar 14 1958
Westmeath- 143800007 – 141800654
Westmeath- 143800008 - 141800652
Westmeath- 143800009 – 141800665
Westmeath- 143800010 – 141800557 Mar 14
Westmeath- 143800011 – 141800662
Westmeath- 143800012 – 141800653
Westmeath- 143800013- 141800370
Westmeath-- 143800014 – 141800371
Westmeath- 143800015 – 141800556
Westmeath- 143800016 – 141800496 Mar 14 ?
Westmeath-- 143800017 - 141800366
Westmeath- 143800018 - 141800375
So if any one comes across any of these numbers they will be worth restoring because they will have very early unit numbers
Cheers Richard