I remember seeing something about those motors in those small hotrod magazines,I should have it and can find what I done with them I will look it up.
They used to run the earlier version from the 9N, a flathead, in midgets. It won't have enough torque to make you happy on the street. Tractors get their torque from gearing.
It'll have some pretty serious limits, true. It depends on what you put it in and what you do to it. It could be fun, but it won't be fast. Keep it really light.
I worked for a place that had one of those powering a big conveyer belt...it was my job to keep it maintained. Always started and ran good and had the early bellhousing with a '39-style tranny attached to it for 3 speeds of the belt.
These are tough little engines. Hop up parts are available but hard to find. Check out some of the "tractor Pulling " sites. I helped a feller with one he had in a hot rod tractor used in pulling competitions. Cam, mill the head for a little more compression, fab up a pair of manifolds for two Harley-Davidson carbs, and make more power than you would likely get out of a Model A or B banger for less money. A light weight T track roadster should make a good home for it too.
Light or not, at the lights getting taken out by the old ladies in their Hyundais and Kias would get old
that's a pretty big 4. inline 4s have significant "secondary vibration." Did the previous installations hard mount the low rpm engine?
The small mag...I think this was Car Craft at the time these were release, roughly 1953-4. They did a series on the rodding potential of the new Ford engines, including this four.
I have a strange fascination with 4 banger stuff the past year. I decided to use a Model A engine in my Model A. Crazy, I know. Fast is cool too but, it's nice to see something different every now and again.
t5 swap made my chevy feel much faster, as big and underpowered as a 235 was with the 3 speed. faster shifts, higher speed, more mileage. Sometimes you can have cheap, fast and good.
Been messing with the Iron Duke Pontiac lately, pulls a T just fine, but that little motor is pretty neat as well, hadn't thought of it, but the cubes are virtually the same. Plus, it oughta confuse some people, lots of folks think mine is a model A motor.
The Car Craft covering this is June 1954...found it! Considerable coverage, some practical, some theoretical. (PS...look at other issues near this, as it was part of a series on new Fords and the 6-cyl article might be useful too)
The Jalopy Journal
