I bought this engine yesterday merely for a song. It seemed kind of interesting with the Fairbanks/Morse magneto and ohc/vertical cam shaft drive. Does that engine have any potential. Speed equipment available?
Back in the early '50s, a guy named Nick Braje made speed equipment for Crosley engines, and I've seen some repops of his intakes and valve cover at swap meets.
No specific info, but I recall those engines were used in certain classes of hydroplane racing back in the day. I think there was a lot of goodies available for them, not sure about nowadays.
Lou Fageol, a unlimited Hydroplane driver, bought the tooling for that engine and used it for his own Fageol Outboard engine. That became the Homelite outboard and then the Fisher-Pierce Bearcat 55 built into the late 60's. 35 years later most all outboards are 4 stroke. Crosley car guys like the outboard engine because it was 55 hp, 15 over the stock car motor. http://www.crosleycars.com/braje.htm I recently read where Nick Brajevich's son still owns the tooling and runs parts now and then. I think he's here in so cal, the soouth bay?
Crosley engines were also used in race cars in the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) small bore classes, somewhere around the H Production for Crosley Hot Shots or in a similar Modified class(es). Really pretty potent with the appropriate power to weight ratio. Cool find. Ray
Absolutely no potential what soever. Let me sing to ya so you can get your investment back. If I had it it would get a bank of SUs and I'd be looking for the pieces to assemble me a '50s style sport car clone. Neat old motor.
Looks like a military/industrial engine application..Governor too, also has cog for belt drive mag... Browse here...http://crosleyautoclub.com/ and here.. .http://crosleyautoclub.com/EngineTree/Crosley_Eng_Tree.html
Thanks guys for the quick respone on that one. I'll have the engine here in the shop next month and come back with some more details. Foul, here is the close up of the magneto
Used those engines for everything from airplanes to generators. To orchard fans to prevent fros of the trees. Buddy has a dozen of them that we hav earmarked for some retro bikes. Cool engines with the Mags.
The engines were in production up into the 70s but the plant where they were manufactured burned. Retooling was not realistically doable so the Crosley CIBA (Cast Iron Block Assembly) engine, then marketed as Bearcat outboard, became history. The engines were used by the rairoads, trucking industry, and US military as welders, generators, cooling unit powerplants and many other purposes wherever a small cool running engine would do the job.
They were ran in midget racers...turned high RPMs...cyl head and block are one piece kind of like the Offys were...neat little engines..seen a few still trying for new records at Bonneville
They were used in 3/4 midgets in the early sixties. The speed equipment was made, have fun trying to find it.
The crosley cars were very advanced in some ways. The "Hot Shot" the sports car won its clas at Lemans & there were Crosley race cars of all sorts including stock cars that ran indor races in the winter in the Cincinatti Garden arena. I bet Josh knows something about them & maybe can comment.
What you have is an early Aerojet industrial motor that either used up the existing Crosley block supply or the the block was later replaced with a Crosley block when the Aerojet motor had problems. Aerojet was a subsiiary of the General Tire and Rubber Company and took up using and producing the motors after Crosley quit making cars in 1952. How many bolts holding the flywheel on? 3 or 6... Any thing else you want to know just ask. Dodge
Thanks again for sticking to the theme guys. Dodge I'll check back when it comes to any action with the motor. The fly wheel is a 6 bolt.
We had a couple of them powering T/Q (three-quarter) midgets in our vintage race club. They are definitely NOT midgets in the usual sense of the term, and were quite a bit slower. One interesting thing is that one family (a father and two sons) all had T/Q's in the club. All of these guys were big (6'6" and 280 or there about) and drove the smallest cars. One of the sons had a Moto Guzzi motorcycle. He took the engine out of the motorcycle and put it in his T/Q. He then put the Crosley engine in the Moto Guzzi. As I remember, it was a real clean installation and worked quite well.
Dido on the generator set up. I had a 52 crosley, sure wish I had that laying around at the time. That motor has a lot od goodie's. Aint sure whats on the back of the head. They are a very high rpm little motors. It would look good in a car with that big mag sticking up. Very cool piece
I had a bunch of crosley pieces, the crank was from a solid billiet, counter weights on each side of each rod throw, allowed for perfect balance, no teter=toter forces in the crank. the guy said it would really rev
Before I EBAY-it, I thought I'd see if there are any H.A.M.B. members interested in my 1960's Fageol 44 I/O engine. It is complete with lower drive unit, shaft and prop. It turns over freely and the plugs are clean. Reportedly when I bought it 10 years ago it was running but I have never unboxed it until today for pix. I intended to convert it for an HMOD project but that got sold off first. Asking $750.00 and you can probably get $200+ for the lower drive unit if you plan to use it in a car. This is th etwin carb version and makes 36 hp. If interested you can email me at [email protected]
The Italians did a lot with these engines for the small sports cars Siata etc, Nardi and Bandini and I think Abarth made some super parts. Top pic is Bandini two cam block, mid pic is bandini in Siata car and bottom pic is Fageol boat engine factory supercharged I think rated 45hp at 5000rpm, some where around 1957.