I thought I'd post here to see if anyone knows of any floating around. The 4 cylinder jobs with their overhead valve heads from the late 1920s. If anyone knows of one, or has one they're willing to part with, please let me know. the closer to PA the better. I had missed two locally, went cheap, $100 bucks each and they turned over. thanks in advance!
When did Chevy go into production on their own motors ? I know they started out making speed parts for Model t motors, under the name Frontenac.
jason theres a guy whos a member of the chester county club that MAY have one.. I need to call him anyhow.. I'll pm you with any info..
Pretty sure my buddy has several of them. One is on some kind of stand, used for a generator or something I think. Nice shape. PM if you want his info.
The brothers Chevrolet, Louis and Arthur, designed and sold the Frontenac head (and many other speed parts) for the Model T. Louis Chevrolet was a race car driver. His name was lent to W.C. Durant to make the car that carried his name, but Louis was only a consulting engineer. He never was an officer in the company, and as far as I know was never even an employee of Chevrolet. Durant founded the company in 1911, and during 1913 Louis was so displeased with the product that he resigned as a consultant and sold all his stock in the company. Louis' engineering was not incorporated into the car, and he realized Durant was just profiting on Louis' name. The Chevrolet brothers were Ford fans.
CoalTownKid, I've got a complete '27 engine, but I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to use it or sell it.
Actually, Louis ended up broke and went to work on the assembly line at Chevy. Coaltown, what are your plans for the little thumper?
As I understand it, when Louis ended up broke in 1934, Durant started sending Louis "paychecks". He did so until 1938. This was because Durant had duped Chevrolet in 1912/13, and Durant felt like he owed him something (at least that is what is said to have been the reason). As far as I am aware, there isn't any evidence that Louis Chevrolet actually worked for the company during this time.
Just buy a complete '28 motor it will have a 2-port. Buy a '27 or earlier motor you will get a 1-port head & it will most likely be cracked in the exhaust port, which means you will need the '28 head anyway. Cheers Jimmy
For the best combination of parts, I think that you'd want a '28 head on an early block (circa '24?) and a Model B crankshaft. I read on here in an old article that somebody (JimmyB?) posted, that a V8 60 flywheel, clutch, and tranny can be used with the Chevy four.
Yes, I've heard of the ford crankshaft in a chevy block before,....dont know about the early block with a late head,....what would be the reason for that? Block thickness better in the earlier days?? Where did you hear or read this...just curious,....I would like to know, that's all.
Yeah, I'd always heard the he worked at the plant when he died, that was even something that my dad told me, but have never found that to be true. I think it's one of those old wives tales kinda thing. In '34 Chevrolet suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and in '41 had surgery on his leg. That went badly and they ended up removing the leg altogether. He died of complications from the leg amputation.
That is a tidbit that I picked up from one of JimmyB's posts. He said, " '25 is the newest block to have the solid centre main webbing. If I was to build a Chev 4 for the Salt I would use the '24 block as it has a big arse engine mount on the back of the block where I have seen a number of later blocks let go."
The Jalopy Journal
