Met a gentleman the other day chasing parts who has a 1000 inch ford motor on a shelf. I noticed a gigantic alloy v something and some extremely trick looking heads and I said what's that? He said it was a short run aircraft ford engine that is a 1000 c.i. gas engine. How bitchin is that? He also showed me some rods he made himself for his stutz bearcat hot rod motor. Heck I even got to finger bang a deusenburg dizzy while I was there. It was like a car guy bat cave with car elevator and everything. Great day and I think I may even be allowed to take some pics if you guys are interested.
Actually that was probably the Ford GAA tank engine. There was a thread recently that got so much attention that it brought the HAMB to its knees. In a nutshell, built in 1942, DOHC, 4 valves per cyl. 1050 some odd ft/lbs torque. Quite advanced for its age. I saw another thread just this week about it.
He said airplane engine, but the utube cylinder heads look somewhat similar. I'll post a pic for hahas, if he doesn't care. I presume they aren't cheap?
I prefer the "Five Bank Chrysler" for oddity, myself. 5 Chrysler six cylinders mounted together and stuck into the Sherman Tank.
Did you hear The mathmatical formula for estimating if your Ford engine is adequate for the task? Take what Cu. In. other makers of like horsepower engines are building and double that,thus producing the same horsepower and delivering less mileage at the same time ......PLUS your parts will cost 4 times what the others do. THEN and only then are you a true Ford guy!
I had a couple of those things for a while. 1100 inches i understand. I have always heard they were ment to be a V12 aircraft engine and were pushed into service as a V8 by war needs. 4 bolt mains. Pretty cool motor I thought. Still have the manual and some rods and pistons. They didn't come with three twos or zoomies from the factory.
Really nice machine work throughout. Crank machined on all surfaces, same for rods and cam. I ground quite a few cams for them in the 50's.
That is a test firing of a V12 Merlin in a Swedish hot rod built by Mr 42 (I think) over on the old Ford barn several years ago.
That Merlin sounds like it needs a mellower cam for a street-use hot rod over here. The FDA would probably ban it. Has a nice lope to it though. 8^) Jack E/NJ
The tank version is called the Meteor. It doesn't have the supercharger, uses cast pistons instead of forged, among other things. Designed to run on low octane gasoline rather than 100/130 avgas.