Info needed on early Ford 4 cyl engines

[russ jensen]

Had my memory jogged last night. A fellow was here a few years back who said his buddy had prints or had   setup to put 5 main cranks in these eng's.  he was running #834 B/BGCC [shorty's] and one of his friends was running #3691 D/FR. I thing they were both from San Diego area. One of these guys should be able to supply helpful info.

[russ jensen]

Got to thinking of idea had years ago[have been told us guys up N have to much time on our hands in winter and spend it wearing our brains smooth]  I had an A block all ready to weld 4 ex stacks on cyls below water jacket and cut in ports. next was to get cam to use all valves as intake[at time could find no one to do cam] thus a gmc type 2 stroke model A. Don't know how this would fit into rules on salt but could remain flat head but would ruquire a huffer to run.Side note.. these eng had good torque, old mans spray plane had one in & swung a 76" banks& maxwell prop, Locals cast finned al heads without water, and got by just running water in block, they upped C/R &cracked a few pistons though..russ

[JackD]

I built one of those positive displacement 2 strokes from a Crosly in HS. I had a supercharger from an MG and another crank case bolted on up side down like a barrel for an OFFY. I made my own cam and we ran it in a Cracker Box boat but it was too peaky and wanted to cavitate the prop or sink the boat. The early top ends were furnace brazed together and you could do anything you wanted to them.
It sure made a lot of power and was very loud.

[russ jensen]

: Cool couldn't you cam it to tame it down and spread power range? we always figured the noise would be the best part, figured that if we dumped in enough fuel starter{dirt track] would be standing there with smooking stick.

[JackD]

Hey, I was in HS.
 Noise and power were the objective.
 I just barely got the boat guys to try it and they had so  much fall down fun they didn't care about no mellow usability.
When I first got it started after school in Auto shop the office called the Fire Dept.
 When they got there they had me start it again to be sure that is what it was.
 I kinda gotta believe they enjoyed it as much as I did. It helps to know the fire captain.
I only ran it 1 more time at school with permission at lunch break the next day. Did I mention I did a valve job for the Vice Principal ?
One of my few "A" grades was in that class but they made me promise a lota stuff first. The negotiation started with jail time and went up from there.

[Rex Schimmer]

Jack, your engine really sounds like a great project, I just didn't realize that there were actually gasoline powered engines when you were in high school, I thought it was still steam! Just kidding that reallys sounds like a great project.

I read an article in the Smithsonian airplane mag a couple of years ago about some of the big recip engines that were being developed at the end of WWII and it seems that Rolls Royce developed a big, several thousand cubic inches, blown two stroke and it was LOUD!! They but the dyno into a special built concrete brick building and the thing knocked the building down!!

Rex

[russ jensen]

What coidence, I was in HS when the 2 strk A seemed like a good idea , sounds like it was lucky for me local school had no shop,and I didn't have stuff to carry out idea, would you happen to rember what you used for ign tmg? and how you arrived at it? russ  Side note; steam isn't that funny, at one time we were going to bld a steam puller tractor but instead of steam use compressed air bottles, bolt wheels right to crankshaft.

[JackD]

The reason I used the early Crosly was the head and barrels were furness brazed from steel parts that were less likely to crack like the later ones and and A motor.
As for the timing I turned the distributor until it ran the best and called it good. I sorta advanced it until the flame out the pipe was down and I figured that meant most of it was happening inside.
This was not a Science project but more of a bravado deal to get me out of the coaches hair and gym with the ROTC bunch because I was not on a team. If we didn't have a hot project going at the time we would catch a ROTC wimp and push him into the wrestling room with those animals.

[Kato Engineering]

JacK,

...as someone else said,


..I did not know that the  invention of gasoline had yet occured,


...back  when you were in school.





I too had a crosley when young,

I still have it somewhere...


my father said that they used to call them a "mini-miller"......back in the day...

[JackD]

Multi row spiral radial aircraft engines were pretty cool. The exhaust was silenced in large part by the wind from the prop but the exhaust system was no more than a deal to get the bad air out of the plane.
A 2 stroke sounds like the obvious answer to a question that everybody was afraid to ask. Well almost everybody anyway.
When Nissan Electromotive was building race stuff they had a dyno for everything. As you suspect they made a lot of noise. Permits were a big deal and not every city was the same. They built their industrial park in the city of Vista with the Dyno and the exhaust was across the line in San Marcos. Just like any other rules, they read them first and then went and did it.

[sirstude]

Hitz,

Toyota bought the tooling for the early Chevy 6 cyl to make the Land Cruiser engine, that is why it looks so much like one.  That is also why it was so easy to bolt a chevy small block into one.  The key was "bolt in", everything matched.  My dad was a Toyota dealer in the mid 60's.

Doug

[wolcottjl]

Since I cant find my rulebook at work today - Can you use a Donovan -D block and run under the V4F class?

[RichFox]

As always I am not speaking for the SCTA, but the answer is   NO. No replica blocks allowed in V4.

[dwarner]

As usual, Rich in not speaking official SCTA talk is correct. V4 & V4F blocks have to be OEM.

DW

[RichFox]

Maybe you should look into a Plymouth block? Or Dodge if you want 5 mains.