Projects Need unusual motor suggestions

Lawnboy.

 

I have a Hal overhead valve 4 banger that puts out good power.
Just hit me up if you want it.

 

I personally have always wondered how a twin ignition 6 or 8 out of an early nash could go with a little love?

 

If you really want a straight-8, try building one out of two fours.

If you use a type with a belt-driven ohc (or two) you can use one belt to drive the cams for all eight cylinders. Be aware that some later dohc engines have belt drive to one cam and a gear train at the back end of that driving the other cam: you'd rather want something straight-forward like a Fiat twin-cam. The main thing is all the couplings and things that you'd have to devise.

The easy way is simply to have the front crank driving the rear crank. Much better, especially if you'd like to see any appreciable rpm, would be to design the abovementioned coupling between the cranks around a gear drive to a jackshaft that drives an offset flywheel/clutch/etc. Lots of fabrication/machining there; perhaps more than tweaking a pre-war flathead straight-8.

Either way, couple the cranks 90° apart. If you want a V8 sound, collect the middle four exhaust ports into one pipe, and the two end pairs into another.

Then there is the U8 engine: two fours side by side with their cranks geared together (Google "Matra-Simca U8"). Bugatti built a few U16s for railway locomotives.

If you really want unusual, how about a double-decker, 8-cylinder Subaru, with one crank above the other? Brough built a motorcycle using half of this arrangement just before WWII, the Golden Dream:


But, as you say that your budget does not stretch even to judiciously breathing upon a Pontiac 268 or such, how about a single Subaru EJ25, without extra cranks and cylinders? Unusual for sure; and if you want it traditionalish, a Ford CVH distributor is easily adapted to bolt onto the back of the RH cylinder head, and a manifold to take some carbs can be fabricated. All you'd need then is a cast aluminium cam-belt cover in place of the ugly plastic one. And the width of the engine will work, if that's a worry: the exhaust ports would be safely between the rails, and the heads would barely oversail the outside faces of the rails.

 

Double Decker Subaru?
Has that been done yet ?

 

Rover V8! All aluminum construction and plentiful in junkyards, best of all, it's based on Buick's 215 so it's more or less trad build friendly

 

2.3 ford. Lots of speed parts for it and if you go with an older one you can still carb it and keep it looking kinda older. If you really want weird, go with a custom Griffin 6 stroke single. Not a lot of power there, though.

 

Not to my knowledge! It'd be like a horizontally-opposed elaboration of an Ariel Square Four.

 

Weird costs money. How strange can you afford to be?

If you're already stressing about having big power at low cost, just go with a crate motor and get on with your build. However, one word wakes the old iron - turbos. Do you have the fabrication and tuning ability to build a turbo system from scratch?

If you want something interesting, different and challenging to power your build, there are infinite choices as suggested in the posts above. Begin by ruling out the lunatic fringe which are far too large and heavy or far too small and weak for an A-bone coupe and those which have never existed and would require an automotive engineer and a machine shop five years to make happen.

Next, precisely define your goals. Do you want an old school build? Do you want high tech bells and whistles? Do you want a light, agile handler? Do you want a relaxed long-distance reacher?

Once the outline is in place, choose each component to be complementary to the vision. Then, can you build it yourself? Finding someone who will put together a reliable straight-eight Nash or Packard always costs more than a crate motor.

Finally, forget about making a budget for your build. It always takes ten times as long and costs five times as much as you ever dreamed it would, so never keep track and never discuss it with the significant other. That way lies dissention, discord and divorce. Seen it happen all too often.

Your build, your money, your decision, but you did ask for advice from the voice of experience.

jack vines

 

I saw a sweet 33/34 Ford coupe yesterday with a Y block in it that had some of the best sounding and distinctive sounding pipes I have heard in a long time. You won't find many engines that sound better than a Y block Ford running glass packs and full length tail pipes. They aren't too spendy to get your hands on either and the T bird finned valve covers are some of the best looking valve covers ever made.

Different? I'd go with the suggested Studebaker V8. You should be able to pick up a good runner for a reasonable price and later ones ran pretty good stock. There are some hot rod pieces floating around for them too.

 

Unusual engines I want to build and then find cars to go with:
270/318 Poly Mopar
345/392 IH
226/254 Flathead Ford 6
Flathead Cad V8

Not unusual but still want to build:
322-401 Nailhead
303-324 Olds
331-390 Cadillac
292-312 Ford Y block

 

You might want to check out the 2.3 Ford.. Either turbo or N/A, they are cheap ,plentiful, can use the T5 trans,can be made to produce some decent HP....
Here's my roadster with a TurboCoupe powertrain...Originally had 165 Hp, now has around 200/225... Turbo/EFI/T5.. 23+MPG in my 2122# car... Not Traditional,by any means, but the combo works great

Besides,in your case , a 4cyl engine would sorta be "Banger-ish"... ( is that a word?)

 

An unusual engine should be easy to come up with. Just make a list of all the engines that come to mind. It's not one of them. Get something else. GMC V6. But keep in mind the limits of a Model A frame

 

Olds quad 4 will put out more power than most sugestions here and fit better.

 

Turbo26, nice to see another old fart doing some dynomite clean work.
Love your T.

 

No one has input for the jeep 4.0 I6 - 173 - 195 hp stock depending on the year - cheap to buy and lots of cheap performance parts - long life motor - lots of trany options - just a thought - jaxx

 

Here's an idea how about a 392 from an old international ... came in my truck with a Holley 4BBL .Headers, cams and other hop up items are available too.

 

not super unusual but still uncommon-- how about a baby hemi?

 

Okay, a Duramax diesel. Might be a bit big for the model A, perhaps a Cummins BT6. Plenty of power available, and unique.

 

How about a SBC that isn't what it seems to be? SO-CAL sells these 1949-51 Faux Oldsmobile Rocket V8 valve covers that fit a 350 SBC head with center bolts. Combine them with a mallory dual point dizzy, block oil fill spout, and three 2 bbls, and onlookers will be scratching their heads.

 

I worked on one of those.. still in the Vanden plas! It was an awesome and smooth runnig engine. Not a rocket, but the VDP was seriously heavy. Used SBC piston rings too

Untill last week i had a very cool 4cyl in the shop, out of an old Sunbeam Alpine, Aluminum valve cover, dual downdrafts and header. Would have looked killer iun an open hood coupe or roadster. It ended up in... a Sunbeam

 

Can't go wrong with a Buick nailhead. I'm putting a 401 nailhead in the 64 gmc truck I'm building. Had to make my own mounts, but that wasn't too difficult.

 

A really unusual motor? How about a turbo rotary. Just don't spin it up too high, or it will get dizzy!!

 

If I hit the lottery I might try one of these motors:

 

If we're talking about modern motors there's lots of options, the late Buick 3.8 V6s made 2.5-3x the power of the originals and were a lot smoother doing it. Ford's got the 3.8/4.2 90-degree V6s (avoid the early ones, though) and the 4.0 Ranger/Explorer motors - the SOHC 4.0 would be an interesting choice.

A 2.3-liter Saab B234T or 2.1-liter Audi AAN 5-cyl are much better engines than the Ford 2.3 or Olds Quad-4, find a '96-up Saab and it's got the Ecotec bellhousing, the Saabs are common and cheap and ~350HP from a stock longblock is not too hard if you feel like running EFI.

And, of course, piles of decent Japanese engines if one is so inclined...

 

http://www.chrfab.com/Engines.htm

These are pretty cool and look good in a hot rod. "Vintage Exotic"look with all the right stuff.

There's always the flathead covers for a SBC too.

 

For a Model A, a V8 looks best. How about a later model V8 like the OHC 4.6 from Ford Crown Vic and Lincoln Town Car? Or the Cadillac Northstar? Both have been around for more than 10 years and can be bought cheap in junkyards, or just buy a cheap used car and strip all the usable parts.

Second choice an OHC 4 cylinder.

I like 6 cylinder engines. They don't look right in an open wheel open engine hot rod.

 

I'd like to see a pic of an A with a Corvair engine. Do you know of any pics around? You could consider a V-6 also. They're getting sometimes 200 HP out of them.

 

I posted one , couple years ago but I can't find it

 

Amc 327 with a od 3spd