Okay, so I'm talking with a former co-worker yesterday and we end up talking about my old cars. He starts telling me about a relative of his (uncle I believe) who built a V8 out of parts from a Model T. He sent me the article and picture below. I did find one reference to it on a Model T site with pretty much the same article. Anybody know more about this? The Model T V-8 engine was designed and built by Mr. J. Dale Gentry and Mr. Martin S. Lewis. Mr. Gentry was a Ford Dealer in the Los Angeles area in the early teens and twenties. Mr. Lewis, who was a self-taught engineer, was Sales Manager for the Gentry Ford Agency. It was at this time that Mr. Gentry had a visit from Mr. B. L. Graves, the Los Angeles District Manager for the Ford Motor Company. Mr. Graves frowned on the V-8 engine and suggested that the time and money spent on the project should be spent on the promotion of the Model T Ford. Mr. Gentry figured his dealership was paying a good return and did not want to lose his valuable franchise; the V-8 was abandoned. Note the V-8 used the stock transmission and oil pan bolted to the special castings. The engine would fit into a stock T Chassis without modifications. [It probably would not fit the RHD chassis without some type of modification as there was a special slot for the LHD steering column to fit past the left cylinder head.] In the case of the Gentry Ford Agency of California, they had produced a really nice V-8 engine that obviously looked like a Ford but which was never offered by the Ford Motor Company. So a Ford Agency or Dealer could and sometimes did offer items that Ford Motor Company did not produce.
From what I read and was told by someone way older and wiser than myself henry toyed with the idea of a V-8 engine for quite some time. he had two things going against it, one was that it was going to be cost prohibitive and the other was that the general public was that any engine in a V configuration would wear out the bottom side of the pistons and cylinders. That is not to say that someone in a dealership didn't make one or someone in his home shop, but it is highly doubtful that the dealer was doing R&D for the ford motor company they were in the business of selling and maintaining cars.
I'm having lunch with my buddy on Wednesday, he said he has another bit of information on this engine that I hope he can find. He's 70 and I think most of his family that would have or know anything about it is gone.
I searched for anything on here and that didn't come up. Pretty cool and a better picture than I posted. I'm still going to see if my friend has any more info on this thing. I guess they made 25 or 30 of them.
If I looked hard enough I could find the old magazine with a story and pictures of a running T 6 cylinder. Home made by welding two blocks, cutting and welding two cams and cranks along with the head. It was in R&C about 55 or so years ago.
The Jalopy Journal
