Old twin engine how to.

I wandered across this on the web and had to share.

 

When I lived in Texas a friend made irrigation power units using two 413's (and later 440's) using a truck u-joint to connect the engines.

worked quite well for them, much less expensive than the 800 cid 6 cylinder industrial engines.

 

So the only thing transfering the power from the front engine to the rear is a .50 cent crank keyway? Yikes!

It is pretty cool tho, and I'll bet it's got a wicked exhaust note.

 

huh, he used anglia front end and bolted falcon drums and backing plates to em!

 

the wheels and gears in my head are turning. I need to find myself another bbc

 

after a 3 foot wheelie one is off on a head snapping leisure cruise down the street...

this is a pretty cool article thanks

 

I wonder how the balance of the No. 2 engine is maintained? with no balancer, it must be out of whack. you think he had both rotating assemblies balanced together as one unit?

 

Those old Chain Couplers got around back in teh day,,lol They are still made too

 

Wasnt there a few cars that ran two engines side by side and ran two differentials butted together?

 

I've always wondered about this myself. Here's a better way if you can afford it.

 

how the balance of the No. 2 engine is maintained

The 265 is internally balanced, and the "balancer"... isn't. It's a harmonic damper, and doesn't affect balance at all. Only externally-balanced engines (SBC 400, SBF 289, Chrysler 360) have balance weight on the damper (and sometimes also on the flywheel or converter)
However, the No. 2 engine doesn't have a damper - which isn't a great idea either.

What I didn't see in the article is what they decided for phasing the engines. Obvious choices:
1. exactly the same (#1 cylinder on compression for both)
2. rotated 360° (#1 cylinder on compression on front, #6 on rear)
3. rotated 45° (#1 cylinder TDC on front, #1 cylinder 45° ATDC on rear)

For many prior double attempts, it turned out that increasing the frequency of power strokes from every 90° to every 45° (3.) sounds like a good idea, but the coupler didn't like it - the torque reversals beat up on the splines, teeth, etc. Doubling the amount of power (1.) actually was more durable.

 

I wouldn't worry about the lack of a damper too much, there are plenty of other potential problems! besides the 3" stroke SBC crank is relatively short and stout.

wonder how many street miles this car drove?

 

anyone have photo's of Tom McMullins twin chev powered driver.