Up until the last few decades, overhead-camshaft (OHC) engines were generally reserved for luxury or high-performance vehicles; pushrods or side valves would have to do for the hoi polloi. Yet it appears that at one point in the Thirties, Henry Ford decided it would not only be possible to mass-produce an OHC engine, but also make it simple to service and affordable to the general public.

Ford had the resources to patent just about every idea that came his way, and he used them as smokescreens for his competition and diversions for his critics, all of whom watched his every step.

Ford filed an OHC internal combustion engine patent in November 1932, featuring a design claimed to differ from others in that it "may readily be assembled in perfect precision by inexperienced labor" - of which he had plenty at his disposal - and in its novel gear train that "adds to the simplicity and reliability of the engine." According to Ford, he designed the engine so that the entire head - camshaft and all - could be removed as a unit from the engine and that, should one have to remove the camshaft from the head, it could only go back together in one way, thereby eliminating the need to re-time the engine. In addition, Ford eliminated the oil pump by integrating it into the flywheel.

So why didn't Ford end up building its first production automotive OHC engine for another few decades? Could be that Henry Ford found his 1932 design still too complicated and costly, especially with those multiple bevel gears. Could be that it didn't stack up in terms of performance versus cost to the popular V-8. Or it could have been another Henry Ford smokescreen after all.