Features Anyone Keep Obsolete Engines To Fire Up Occasionally?

Thats an occasional pattern breaker....Me likey...post a video of the hit and miss , and of course the baby H...

 

Kind of two opposite extremes there.

 

I have the motor from my grandfather’s first car, a 1914 Saxon. He pulled it out of the car and rebuilt it when a student training to be an Automotive Mechanic in 1920.
The engine never made it back into the car and sat without the oil pan on it in the back corner of his dirt floor garage from 1935 until he passed in 1992. I was curious to see if I could get it running. I was shocked when I flipped it over and found that the crankcase was rust free and with a little persuasion got it to spin over! I cleaned it up, built a stand for it, installed a VW distributor and Model T carb as these were missing. I teach high school auto and fire it up for students on occasion

 

I have a Saxon dash board I think...some where, its yours if you want it.

 

I’ve always wanted a V8 60 on a stand to fire up for fun.

 

It's fun. In the summer of 1961, I friend of mine and I bought one from a junkyard, cleaned it up and painted it. After replacing the carburetor and just about all of the ignition parts we got it going. We had it mounted on the front half of a Model "A" frame, and had fun fooling with it. We had just about every removable part chrome plated, and the engine looked great. That fall, we went off to college (me to the U of Minnesota and him to Dartmouth) after storing it in his dad's garage.. When we got back the next spring, it was gone. His dad had given it away to someone he knew and we were never able to track it down.

About 20 years ago, I considered, building a duplicate. I quick dip into the V8-60 market showed rebuildable cores needing everything were from $800-$1000. That nipped that project in the bud.

Anyway, I already had a hopped up 8BA, an early hemi, and a hopped up Olds Rocket to play with. And any extra cash I had was already earmarked for the 320 Buick RoadMaster or 356 9 main bearing Packard straight eights I had always lusted after.

 

show the pic!

 

Must confess in my 20's when life held many possibilities, before I succombed to my illness.
I Would dream of a 283 on a stand, in the garage, and straight stacks through the roof.
Each Sunday morn I'd run it, open throttle, about 30 minutes.

 

That Damn Rooster is back at it again.

 

On a small small scale, I've kept a few single-cylinder engines around (Lauson, Jacobson, Tecumseh, Clinton). I like their simplicity and quaintness.

 

I like this.

Whether I finish my Plymouth coupe or not, I'm gonna at least have the 440 and 4spd finished and detailed and on a nice stand to run and have ready to go into the car.

 

When I was a kid, the neighbor boy, older than me, bought the front half of some Buick v8 from the local junk yard just to play with it. They dropped it on some cement blocks, just frame and motor and he played with it most days. Went on to mechanic school, and worked a Chevrolet garage all his life.

 

Back in the day, late 1960s- late1990s we collected hit & miss flywheel engines and Maytag type engines.
Was a fun hobby, went to Thresher meets etc.
Had over 100 of various makes at the time. Some restored/running some original.
Ended up selling them at auction in the late 1990s.
Still have one 1 3/4HP Little Jumbo made by Nelson Bros. and a 1 Cyl Maytag on a cart, that has the original flex pipe exhaust, that we use regularly for ridding Moles and Chipmunks from the yard by gassing them out.
Someday, I will get the Little Jumbo running. Have to put it on a cart though!
The older you get, the heavier those flywheel engines get to move around and they aint light!

Bill

 

I have a single cylinder Maytag 92 that until 2 years ago had never left the family farm that my dad grew up on since the mid '40s. It now powers a Myers reciprocating water pump. I take it to tractor shows with my 1950 Ford 8N with 8BA. This photo is of the original 1928 Maytag 92 I had before I got the one from my dad.

 

When I was a young'un, every year my dad would clean up the shed and farm and take anything that didn't burn down to the dump. While he was unloading, we would have a snoop around, and usually find a one-lung stationary engine, the type with a cast water tank on the head, and they would run a flat leather belt to run shearing equipment, etc. We would wrangle them back onto the truck, then my brother and I would fiddle with them and get most of them going. They would just sit outside and every now and then get started up with the handle on the flywheel, and a de-compression fitting on the head. (which used to scare the wits out of me, when they fired and tried breaking your arm!) They all ended up back at the dump when it was clean-up time again.

 

I have a GMC 702 on a stand but have not run it since it was in the truck.

 

Wow! Is that a V12?

 

^^^^^

 

I have an old Roto Tiller sitting in my Wife’s flower garden for art . It is powered by Clinton also . Not many safety guards on that old dude . Wrap the starter rope around the crank and yank your ass off . Don’t dare get near it when running . 1st example of a meat grinder I ever seen .

 

Have had a few Cummins on the stand running that were for sale . You nail one of those on an engine stand , it will remind you that it’s a torque monster at hand .

 

I’d love to have a Twin 6 on a stand to start up every now and then.

 

I've got an old Maytag Washing machine motor out in the shed that a guy gave me more years than I can count ago and there is an old Maytag wringer washer at my moms house that originally had a gas engine.
I don't have any car engines on stands right now but have a Babbitt beater Chevy six that might end up living that life.

There is a club in this area dedicated to old hit and miss engines and they have a big display at the state fair here every year. It's one of the more interesting things at the fair for me.

 

I have a few obsolete engines I fire up around here, of course they power my cars.

 

I’ve got a few hanging around ready to run….
‘55 Olds 324 that I got when my buddy cleaned up his shop. Bone stock, runs good.


‘61 283 +.030 that was in my roadster when I got it. About 500 miles on the rebuild.


‘59 Pontiac stroker that I haven’t fired up yet. Came out of the sister truck to my Pontiac powered ‘52 Stude pickup.


‘67 Camaro 350 that came out of my Austin and was going to replace the 283 in my roadster but I went with an Olds instead. I just love the way it looks….


‘65 Buick 425 runner bolted to my ‘33 pickup. I’ve got all of the dress up stuff for it.

I’ve also got a 392 Hemi from my old flatbottom and a fresh ‘67 400 Pontiac that was supposed to go into my stillborn ‘62 Tempest project. They are all complete and runnable. They just sort of accumulated over the years. IDK…..

 

@bchctybob wins

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DN4xOAOZV1o
video of a Maytag 72 I just sold to an old timer - wait I’m an old timer, sold to an older timer made his day. I was originally going to make an ice cream maker with it. Got tired of moving around shop. It was fun
Dan

 

Yeah, I had a maytag twin and the washing machine with the proper base for the gas engine.
After about 20 years of moving it around, I let it go at my auction. Sadly, the motor sold but only the scrap man wanted the washing machine. Imagine how happy a girl would be to have gas powered washing machine!

 

A quick question for all the ''Hit and miss engine" enthusiasts, out of interest what would a hit and miss engine be worth to sell ?
I'm in New Zealand and have one (original and complete, same as the one "Lou Wells" has in his original post)
I'm having a clean up and thinking about selling it, but wouldn't have any idea of what the average price would be?
As I said, I'm situated in New Zealand, and if I had an average $$ value, I can do a conversion to our dollar..

 

I saw this thread and thought I would post a clip of my mate @lonestar395 and I firing up one of his Hemi engines. I saw this Hemi stored up in the mezzanine of his workshop and hassled him to fire it up one day. He imported the engine many years ago that originally powered an irrigation pump (I believe) that came from Merced CA.

He prepared the engine and mounted it to an 'Aussie engine test stand' ready for start up.

Whilst posting this I was surprised that was 12 years ago now