John Mummert mentions Navarro in regards to the recent Loadomatic distributor tuning discussion. As an aside, correct me if I'm wrong, Navarro who was not a Doctor, or involved in the medical field, I believe invented the first working Heart Machine. It's on display I believe at a major Hospital in Calif....

Paul

Barney developed a heart-lung machine used at Kaiser Hospital in Hollywood for 13 or so years. His concrete cutting tools are the best in the world. I wrote a paper about him in college.

55Birdman  Hickory NC

Only Barney Navarro I have heard is a Flathead guru . Don't know about those medical and concrete stuff...

 Seppo from Järvenpää, Finland
www.hollowheads.net (just click the hole in the head to proceed)

The Barney Navarro I think of is the one who is noted for Flathead V8 performance and development of high performance parts for the Flattie.  Truly a Jack of all trades as he was also an excellent tech writer and was indeed the designer of a heart pump used in hospitals.  He passed away in 2007 at the age of 88.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

  Barney was considered a true genius in the Hot rod field. Both Bruce crower and Ed Iskenderian mentioned him as teaching them cam science. John (Mummert) thinks pretty highly of Crower, so do I. If Navarro could act as HIS teacher, well..... Earl, that's interesting did not know this, do you still have a copy of the thesis?  

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

There is a pretty good article on Barney Navarro here; http://www.hotrod.com/newsstand/hrdp_0805_hot_rod_legend_barney_navarro/index.html

BOB

Frank, I have a copy of it someplace in my archives . My professor said it was  quite odd that I write a paper on a "Car Guy". I didnt know anything about him other than his automobile exploits until I started researching him and found out about the heart machine and other inventions. My cousin had a drag car with "pop-up" pistons . That was when I first heard his name. Barney loved those pistons. The funny thing was he tried to qualify a car at indy a couple times . He used a Rambler engine with twin turbos . He had quite a life. I wish I had known him. 

55Birdman  Hickory NC

Although Navarro was well known as a builder of high performance Flathead parts such as heads and intakes he didn't seem to make the jump to the Y-Block's although he was still a Ford guy and wrote positive articles about the Y's.

I can't remember intakes for the Y-Block.

http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico