Hot Rods edit

Put in a 60's or 70's Lincoln with the long hood.

 

Could you really drive with that powerplant on the street? That would be the shit IMO. "Oh, you have ANOTHER 350 chevy? Well, look under my hood. BOOOYAHHHH!!"

 

We spent about four hours just walking around the Gar Wood shop at Tahoe.
The things are absolutely gorgeous.

 

There are a few Merlin powered street cars around. Leno has a Merlin powered pre-war Rolls I've seen running down the road. Talk about a torque monster!

Kurt O.

 

I wonder if thats the same stash that my neighbor has now...
First saw them when "andrew" tore through South FL in 92.
70-80 stacked to the ceiling in there original wood shipping
crates. Since then he's moved up here and I think has gotten
rid of a few. I asked him what he was gonna do with all those
engines,to which he replied."They were putting them in tractors
and boats... They're AIRCRAFT engines GD it." Iirc,most were
P-38 spec. BTW,awesome collection of aircraft and engines
open to the public. www.fantasyofflight.com

 

I think you should look for someone doing a warbird restoration and sell it to them. The wheel barrel full of cash could be used to pin stripe everything you own, including your kids Fisher Price toys. These engines are getting very spendy. My $.02
Bob

 

Congratulations.
its an great feeling driving a car with that type of Engine.

I had one similar myself Rover meteor 27 litre 650 hp, it's the Tank version of the Rolls Royce Merlin.



Some moving pics from my firdt test run.
http://www.brandow.eu/V12/Upd4/Prov.wmv

Some noice from my first enginestart.
http://w1.132.telia.com/~u13203489/ItsAlive3.MPG

 

And Leno's V-12 out of a tank....
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/cars/tankcar_shell.shtml

 

Saw one of those monsters in a 64 / 65 stretched Chevelle, San Bernadino,late 69 or early 70. STREET DRIVEN!! Believe it was assembled by a father / son team. Ste up with a tilt body like a funny car. Old Army Air Corps Maint. Manual shows pictures of exhaust flames for tuneing information.

 

I'm on the fence about this one as I like both warbirds and LSR/drag cars. If you are interested in selling it to a warbird guy, PM Django. I know he knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy...

 

Until just a few years ago I was getting christmas cards every year starting around 1976 From Art Arfons and his family.I am in no way "UP" on these engines but it is my understanding from talking with Art and a few of the other big name tractor pullers that Allissons came in several different versions and were used in aircraft,tanks and some PT boats.The tank and boat engines were built heavier than the aircraft mills.Back in the early 80s Art had more than 3 dozen crated engines in one of his warehouses offered to sell me one for $1500 ready to run but back then it might as well have been 15 million at least by my funds.I'd build a copy of the early Green Monster.

 

I was at the national championship tractor pulls at BowlingGreen Ohio about 10 years ago,and there was a modified tractor with 3 of those big bastards on it.It definately took some barnyard engineering to get them coupled up.looked like a fairly low buck operation,pretty much homebuilt.

 

Hopefully these will help a bit, scans of the Feb/March Air & Space article on the V12's.
I have some good current knowledge of these from a business standpoint. I know near zero about them mechanically. If you want some points in directions, or aid with sources hit me up over PM.
As for people throwing out dollar value's from $10,000-$250k.... You have a core until proven otherwise, so go with $10k, or in my experience lately even lower. Then you'll need to get it inspected and generally checked out. Add $10k there just to "check out" add another $25-50k to get it brought to running status and "Cert'ed" for air duty by an FAA approved mechanic for this engine type. The whole problem is there are only 3 guys in the U.S. that are Certed by the FAA to do that. They are in business, they know what these things are worth, they have quite the racket.
If you do all that you can expect $75-120k depending on a whole slew of things. But from experience, if you get the motor for $10k, and you sink $50-60k into getting it certed, and shipped about the country to get all this done, then time to market it you can usually make $5k. Lot of work huh? Like I said if thats the route you want to go I may or may not be able to help ya.

Now to keep it on the ground talk to Jim Lytle, plain and simple. The man is a guru on these motors. PM me if you need his contact info, the stuff I've got is still current, talked to him maybe 5 months ago.

You're lucky you got the Allison if you go the ground route. Yes, its a less valueable motor than say the merlin. But you also have a 6th of the parts.




















One of Jim Lytle's cars, yes 4 Allisons. 12,000Hp, 10,000 ft/lbs of torque, 4 wheel drive, 8 tires, duel 6 disk clutches. He modified 2 engines for left and 2 for right hand rotation. Or search for Big Al I, II, or III his exhibition truck.

 

There's a 57 Chev downunder that's been 'massaged' around one of these engines. Very hi-tech and definitley not HAMB material, but street legal for a specially nominated driver.

The best HAMB one I ever saw was as a young bloke in the 60's. It was (I think) an old Buick or Hudson sedan with one mounted inside the passenger compartment. The driver sat in a tiny seat jammed against the drivers side front door and the engine was actually mostly behind him. It ran to a truck diff via a V drive, and the straight exhausts exited the body through 2 huge holes cut in the rear quarter panels. It sat outside a suburban Sydney house for ages, and I never saw it fired up or being used, but it was a real monster.

Cheers, Glen.

 

In the late 70's-early 80's, I lived to watch the multiple Allison powered, modified tractors pull at Louisville Ky.

Up to 4, screaming vintage engines, all unleashing their fury in an enclosed space.

I have yet to hear anything, in any sport, as sweet as those engines at full tilt pulling an enormous tractive load.

I would spend the day cruising the pit area just to be near those engines. Many still had the original military paint and signage on them. I remember looking at the spec tag on one, and the rpm limit was stamped as being "unlimited".

Amazing pieces of machinery.

Hud

 

I vote for stuffing it into an early 60's VW bus... cut fenderwells, 16x11" Halibrands with M&H Racemasters, spindle mounts on a straight axle up front... a real street freak!

Sam.

 

Like the one fellow says its a core, till it's determined its okay.
It looks pretty crusty and dirty. If there is any corrosion on stressed parts they are junk as far as aircraft parts go. So it could be considered as scrap to an aircraft guy. You just don't know till its looked at. I'm looking for one, that is in okay shape and would pay what its worth, I don't want to spend many thousands of dollars to end up with $300 worth of scrap metal though. Something worth some big bucks can be ruined real quick by someone that does not know how to care for it. If you are a hammer and screwdriver mechanic and try to take it apart and ruin parts doing so then again its just a junker of pretty much no value. So be very careful how you handle it. And if your gona sell it you need someone that knows them to check it out. So you don't rip someone off over pricing it.
Even the new NOS ones that have been mentioned are considered cores, till they are overhauled. Because after sitting for 50 plus years and not properly cared for corrosion could be present on internal parts, the outside may have lots of anticorrosion treatment but the inside was just a preservative that would last a few years, since it was at the time thought it was goind to be put to service soon after the manufacturing there of.

 

Here's some of Kermits stash,but there's lots more still in their
crates

.

 

Not that I'm one to shy away from a huger motor (yes, I said huger) in any dragster / hot rod, but the Warbird idea is the right one I think. There aren't enough power plants to go around to keep them all flying. We have several links on our site to some great Warbird projects. Stormking is right, you could fund all the hot rod projects you'd want to build for a long time.

 

And when 12 just won't do they tried driving 24 into one propshaft.


Lower right,sorry I took pic through the window...

 

Yeah but the B models with Allisons were pigs compared to the Merlin powered ones that came in with the D model. The Allison is for sure a cool item these though.

 

go to -fatdad- thread to see one of the allison green monsters as it exists today.

 

Think sidewinder in a drag bike!

 

Better pic of the "W"(twin allison) powerplant. Iirc seeing Maytag on some
of the transmission castings tying the two crankshafts to the propshaft...

 

My new HERO!!!

 

If a guy can build this 55 Chevy with a Merlin in it, then you can stuff that Alison into a car for sure!

 

That car is very impressively built.

 

The 55 is built buy Rod Hadfield, one of the true aussie hot rod pioneers. he has also built some awesome more traditionally styled rods, one with a v12 lincoln flatty

 

The value all depends on the numbers on the nomenclature tags. Take very good care of those tags.

 

When I first read about that '55 Chev, I thought what a friggin' waste, now that I see it..............that thing is Bitchn'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!