Great thread. My favorite is the FI slant. I'm partial to straights though. It looks beautiful just sitting there. For my money, the other winner is the Smith cycle engine thing-a-majig. I love cycles and their hp/weight ratios. When people plant them in cars, it's the coolest. How about a 1000cc cycle engine over each rear tire? You'd have to weight the front end.
Last night I saw a strait 6 265 HEMI. A guy name brian is running it in a rpu with a green hornet on the side. Ive seen his ride on hear it has the parachute deal on the back. This engine rumbles and sounds more like a v8. Its a mopar product imported from a far off land. Best engine idea ive seen in a while. Chaco
Not an inline, but a horizontally opposed Citroën 2CV6 powerplant. 602cc of pavement rippin' power right here!! Almost 30 horsepower, which IS 10 more than a Model 'T'... Anyway, this is it sittin' on my bench, missing most of the shrouding, so you can see the utter French-ness . That radiator-lookin' thingy is the oil cooler. Might not be all that odd in Europe, but in the States, its ODD. Cosmo
We need to get Mr. Burrell and Kevin @ Cyclone together. Kevin had mentioned he may be interested in producing the caddy intake if he can get enough interest and the $'s are there. He has foundry access. I've also had my nose to the ground for a 2x2's intake for the cad flatty. If someone would make them I'd definately be buying 1 if not two. I know Aaron Von Minden (Savage) would be in for another 1 if not two. Looks like Jab for one. They start adding up.
I don't really know any specifics about this engine, just that it's a flathead V-12 lincoln, unlike the later V-12's in the lincolns, this one has the exhaust out of the top of the block like the flathead Caddy instead of like the later V-12 with exhaust out the side of the block like the flathead V-8 ford. this one is in a '35 Lincoln model K.
That's why I rejected one of these engines - useable RPM ends about 3500. Although in a light car you could probably fry tires off it all day with all the torque that comes out of them. There's a few internet sites and you can always look at a vintage Motors or Chiltons Truck Repair Manual for some details. I think the only intake they come with is a single 2-barrel. If you're going to use one, why not see if you can find the V-12 version? Think two blocks stuck together, and you'll have it - they even use 2 pair of heads on them. May need a front spring from a truck to hold it up though. Some oddball choices: Packard 352 V8. Not hard to find, heavy, needs some oiling system help, but very distictive. Loads of torque. Made '55-'56. Only down side is it's tough to find manual trans stuff (it does exist though). Trans itself was similar to '55-'56 Fords. AMC 327 V8. Also a smaller version, used in Nash, Rambler and AMC cars 1956-1966. I don't think anyone's ever used this engine in a rod - the later AMC V8 is a different animal. Only sticking point may be converting the matching trans to open drive or adapting another trans. Common as dirt, too. '55-'58 Pontiac 287/316/347/370: The first four years of the Pontiac V8, they look similar to later engines but in smaller displacement. Journals are smaller on the crank; some '56 stuff is the same as the Pontiac 303 intended for Trans-Am competition in the early '70's. A stock '57 Pontiac is capable of 140 MPH, so they're not bad engines. Mercury/Lincoln 383/430 - late 50's, early 60's. Also used in Edsels. Ever see one in a rod? I can't think of one. If I remember right back in the day the Sites (sp?) 707 stock car used a Lincoln engine with a homemade injection setup and won a lot of races - Pretty much any flathead 6 would be oddball, and I see a Buick straight 8 car now and again but the Olds, Pontiac, Hudson, and Nash straight 8's you don't hear much about. I'm surprised you don't see more Hudson big six's in rods, though, complete with twin-H power. Kaiser had a flathead six with factory supercharger that would make a real oddball setup, too. My buddy wants to put one of the Hudson engines into his vintage stock car -
The Tempest 195 was essentially a 389 with only one bank of cylinders. It was only made for three model years from '61 -'63, it was unique to the 'transaxle' Tempest cars. By the time the '64 Tempest came about the 4-banger was gone and the base engine was now a 215-inch straight 6 (good ol' Chevy with PONTIAC cast on the block). The strange transaxle and swing-axle rear (mostly a mix-n-match from the Corvair parts bin) was dumped in favor of a conventional 4-link solid rear axle and a 'normal' drivetrain (same chassis shared with all the 'new for 1964' GM A-body cars). One-barrel versions carried HP ratings ranging between 110 and 140 depending on compression ratio (8.4 up to 10.25), 4-barrels between 155 and 166. A 184 HP 11:1 compression 'over the counter' Super-Duty version was offered with an aluminum 4-barrel intake in '62, complete with a SD head (casting 540306 & 544127). One inherent problem was engine balance, these engines shook so badly due to their design that a special heavy-duty link style timing chain was specially produced for them to prevent premature stretching and eventual breakage. Many Pontiac V8 racers used these super-strong chains until the supply dried up. Accessory brackets were made extra heavy on these little shakers to prevent cracking, but many of them cracked anyway. As mentioned Mickey Thompson set quite a few records with these little bangers, he even sawed one in half and set records with it. A blown 2-cylinder. 4 blown 389 V8s (stroked to 440+ cubes) in the Challenger II. Mickey was THE MAN.
Here's my flathead 239 pontiac in my 41 Pontiac coupe......the other photo is a 1960, 389 Pontiac to replace it if I ever get around to it...
I haven't noticed it lately but there usta be a Fad T went to the LA Roadsters show with a 6 cylinder transverse Kawasaki engine turned 90º so it was inline and I don't know what trans, maybe one old enough tobe from when they were seperatly mounted to the frame. Anyway if that's too new (or too rice) for some of you, an inline Indian four would be a different, but expensive possibility in a very light car.
Believe me, I do have "Ol School"foundry access It has been in business since 1923, makes some killer castings & will be glad to cast up the Caddy 2x2 intake if I can obtain a pattern, if not they have an onsite pattern shlop & I just may bite the very expensive bullet & step up & have one made from scratch the Ol Cyclone Way! Right now we're in line for the Caddy head pour,only doing 20 of them so that's like a small fortune, I'm taking orders now,so pm me if you want to get in line. I'm thinking mid August for them to be back from the pour, so hurry! Thanx, Wyatt, I recognize the water outlets on your engine, It's now sitting on my dining room table with your sensors & heater pipe. Lets get them orders in ok? Thanx, Kevin
back in high school, I knew a guy who's dad had a V-12 Caddy from a 30's sedan. I believe they were flatheads? Anyhow, I would have loved to had that motor, I probably could have gotten it cheap. He blew the carb up though, feeding it nitrous through a hose from a stolen tank. I wonder if it's still around...
I was just a a friends house the other day and he had one of those Lincolns And he also has a 56 Lincoln, check out those factory aluminum valve covers and the air cleaner wing nut......
I've got a couple of buddies who are sports car nuts - several years ago, at the vintage cup races in Watkins Glen, they spotted a Maseratti inline six engine under the hood of an early '50's Chevy pickup. Somewhere, there is a mechanic with a sense of humour. I'd have to find the pictures, and then go buy a scanner to show this one, but for several years I used to run into this guy at the S E Nats in Knoxville, driving a stretched T-bucket with a Lamborgini V-12 engine. He lived in central North Carolina, and was a dealer mechanic for some of this high dollar Italian stuff. Not really traditional, but cool anyway.
WWII MOPAR tank engine...five six-cylinder engines around a accessory gear drive driving a common flywheel...
I've heard of those! A 610 CI V-12 dump truck engine built like two 305 6's stuck together! If anyone has a line on one of these, I want it. It would take a lot of tranny to stand up to that monster! Does anyone know if the 305 V6 GMC engine has a standard Chevy bellhousing pattern? I'll try to search on some of the truck sites to find out.
I have one of these 215 inline 6's that say Pontiac on them but are identical to the Chevy motors from a '64 Tempest if anyone wants one. They even have a dual bellhousing bolt pattern, so you can put the Chevy or BOP tranny on them.
here is a couple pics of a caddy flathead that i got off this site one time..... gotta love those pipes! how about some oddball foreign stuff like a overhead cam V8 out of a Triumph Stag? Saab Sonnet V4? lol i once read about a old straight 4 banger boat engine (mercruiser??) that accepted a single big block 460 style Ford cylinder head. Guys in NHRA Comp racing had even adapted a Boss 429 cylindr head. i never saw one, or even a picture.
How about an American-LaFrance V12? There must be a bunch of old fire engines lying around. Its been decades, I dont even remember what that engine looked like.
lol go figure , goober that "homemade v-16" is one of two made by them, that one thats in the tbucket used to be in a 40 ford coupe but it just looked like a mirrored firewall so they put it in that bucket. the other one has never ben run in anyhting, just on the dino and of course speedy bill owens it tim
Here's a pic of a flathead Studebaker "Champ" six that I had in a '47 pickup. I split the manifold myself using two cast iron 45 degree elbows that I got from the hardware store. Sounded pretty darn good. Sorry bout the pic quality. It was taken bd (before digital). Later Count
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