I'm workin' on a '32 Chevy coupe build w/a friend & while the powerplant debate was raging I couldn't stop thinking of how sick it would be to shoehorn a 1710 in there... 12 97's on a kustom manifold, finned valve covers... Whaddya' think? Any suggestions on this retarded undertaking?
8 foot long,about 1000 pounds stripped down for non aircraft use.And the engineering to make it suitable for vehicle use. And another huge drawback,cost,they are WW2 warbird engines and in demand by aircraft restorers and maybe still wanted by the tractor pulling guys.
I know it's pretty unrealistic, but it would look hot & make enough power to pull it's own weight... It's out there, but one of my favorite engines of all time.
Right? There's use for these big *******s on the road... Merlin makes more power, but I dig the Allisons, especially in a GM...
The unlimited hydroplanes ate most of them up in the 50's and 60's when they could buy them pretty cheap. They went to turbine engines because they had used up most of the supply of V12 engines. as previously stated By Trucked up, the Warbird guys have run the price on the remaining engines up beyond the budget for most car builders. Beyond that I think those engines lend them selves more towards the rat rod or "look at me" cars rather than something that can be made practical to drive even short distances.
I'm not into the rat rod thing. But I know a fella' that has a line on a 1710 that's ***s up & I've been itchin' to make a go at it for some time...
Go on the vintage aircraft sites and start pricing the parts and then figure out the cost of having an adapter built to hook it to some sort of transmission that will handle the torque. One might look right in a big long nosed roadster that had a pre war grand prix car flavor.
There's a guy here in town who rebuilds Allisons. They were used in the gas fields as pump engines before diesels got really popular. To answer your original question...DON'T.
Seems to be that there used to be a fella that put them in MOPAR wagons and got paid to make p***es on the strip with them. Don't recall his name but maybe someone has some pics or the name of the fella. I don't think that I would do that with one I wanted to drive but ti would amke for a wold rinde down the strip in a light bodied vehicle, that is if you could get past tech.
Back in the '70s C.L. Werner had one in a Peterbilt and actually haul loads with it ... he sold it to someone and no one is quite sure what ever happened to it ???
Back in the late 40's there was a couple guys that stuffed an allison into a Sterling road truck and ran it on butane.
My dad flew P-38's in the Pacific during WWII and he would tell stories about those engines. He said you could wind both of those engines up to the limit while in flight and the plane would just begin to shudder! Just curious but how much would a stripped down one cost?
E.J. Potter, aka "Michigan Madman" used to run a Dart wagon with an Allison in the '60's. Appropriate name I would think. Wasn't real fast but sounded great. Sorry just noticed ScottV covered Potter.
Back in the 50's the used these engines in Laternal ( spelling ? ) s****ers on dirt jobs. My first wife's dad was a s****er operator and had run them. He said that at night the manifolds would be cherry red. Lee
EJ was not far from me after he got a little jaded on the ****** Mary Chevy powered cycles He started messing with Allisons. Tractor pullers used them quite a bit. I believe the first car he put one in was a 57 Plymouth. Think he got some Ideas from Arfons. As I remember he had a clutch out of a tugboat behind it. Think EJ also built pulling tractors for a while. He was a showman!
Thats a piss poor example of an Airpaine Engined car. Even the PPC magazine ( tank version of a airplane engine ) rover 3500 looks better. And so do all of these...
It's the frame for that Chevy in the video posted above. I wasn't planning on something like this, too high$$ for me...
Well, it's not "period correct" if that's what you mean... But that's never been a motivating factor for me, as long as it doesn't look too kooky...
wrist pin....Just for you, there just happens to be for sale on a airplane site I go frequent, (Sort of the new Sears catalog site for me,) there's a Allison V-1710 111 for sale for only $88,000. Fresh overhaul with only 4 hours break-in time You want me to P.M. you his phone number? Let us know when you buy it, and be sure to post pictures of your project when you get it installed. HellRaiser
I just couldn't remember. I always thought it was cool, never got to see it run but lots of pictures of it. There used to be a trike that showed up at the Car and Bike show in Portland Oregon with an Allison for power every year. They always had a sign on it that said if anyone would climb up on it and ride it they could have it. I talked them into letting me climb up on it one year and they fired it off, but they said I was too young to try and ride it. Damn the luck, what a way to go out and think of all the missery I would have missed.
I had a lead on a reasonably complete but none running V1710 for only 8500 bucks.A set of bearings and rings will set you back 1000's of bucks.How about a distributor cap and 24 spark plugs?Did you ever look at a tech manual to see how to dis***emble these engines? For instance;the cylinder liners are pressed into the aluminum cylinder block.The a large nut is screwed onto the bottom of each liner to secure it.Big nut because the bore is 5-1/2 iches..And the nut is torqued to 2200 ft lbs..now that's a big ****ing torque wrench.
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