http://bangshift.com/blog/neato-video-running-a-flathead-v8-without-a-cylinder-head.html

Flat out crazy.

Loved it Thanx

neat! so it was just essentially running on it's right bank?

That's exactly what it was doing.

This came to me in an e-mail chain from the vintage racing crowd and was accompanied by similar stories from those who passed it along.

My favorite of those was a story from one of those guys about a time when he was dating the daughter of a fellow gearhead. It seems he arrived to pick her up with a low front tire, and asked the father if he had a compressor. The father then wheeled a large cart out of the garage with an old VW engine mounted on it. He explained that he'd needed a high-capacity air source for the work he was doing a while back and didn't have a compresor that could handle it. What he did have was this old VW engine laying around, so he converted one bank to pump air, and powered it with the other bank!

No video of that, but oh so cool!