Technical Automotive parts in industrial applications

Old Federal logging contraption with an Olds powered crane:

 

The spelling on that sign would be enough to scare me off! Any banjo music?

 

Found a grey motor the other day in of all things a Qantas tug (pulls baggage carts and planes around) at Perth Airport. Still running well.
Dad put one in an old grey Ferguson tractor to replace the Vauxhall petrol motor it came from the factory with.
Used to see a lot of grey motors driving the back of cement mixers years ago.

Harvs (from Perth)

 

Lol I reckon I'd hear that from WA.

 

Worked at a place that had a big block Chevy converted to propane that ran a backup generator. We used to service it every now and again, but I don't think it was ever used during my time there.

 

Not too much industrial, but a lot of agricultural, and almost out of era for this board.
The slant 6 Mopar was used in Hagie hi-wheel sprayers, some combines, and a handful of fruit and nut tree shakers. I have also witnessed a factory install in an airport tug, and a White-branded forklift. Also used in some boats back in the day, and have heard of them being used in irrigation pumps and ground power units, but have never seen any evidence of such. (Oops, almost forgot the Cortez motor home that was built with a slant and unique front wheel drive manual trans.)

Roger

 

When I worked in the oil fields from 62-67 almost all the vacuum trucks used Chevrolet 6’s for vacuum pumps. They were run off the pto and had a way different head on them.

 

I had a model A powered airport tug years ago, sold it to a guy in chicago that had a whole collection of that sort of stuff

 

AND, in my youth, the kiddy train at the excelsior amusement park was model A powered too

 

An old Ginge 6x6 FireTruck sitting and rotting away. 413 Chrysler powered waterpump and Rolls Royce straight 8 petrol drive engine!

 

I have a 331 Chrysler industrial short bell motor that was used
at the New Orleans airport to power planes sitting on the tarmac.
It has a unique oil system that controls the engine speed governor.
Totally mechanical with no electrics involved and adjusted by
1/4 inch oil lines and thumb wheel valves. The genset has been
adapted to 6 cylinder diesel and has powered several neighborhood homes and
businesses during one of our frequent power outages. After it sat
for several years I bought it, oiled up the cylinders cleaned up the
points and plugs changed the carb and fired that thing up sitting
on its original cradle, less the the gen. I still have it sitting in my
shop.

 

During Vietnam the Marines had an anti-tank vehicle called an ONTOS. Supposedly they had 413 mopars in them. If the 413 isn't impressive enough they also had six 106mm recoilless rifles mounted on them

 

The Ford 300 inline six has some impressive industrial credentials. Among them:

AIRPORT TUGS
WOOD CHIPPERS
BOATS
MARINE LIFTS
SIDEWALK SNOW PLOWS
SNOW CRAWLERS
STATIONARY GENERATORS
WELDERS
IRRIGATION PUMPS
AIRCRAFT
COMBINE HARVESTER
IRRIGATION PUMPS
BOATS
RAIL CAR MOVERS
CRANES
BOAT HOISTS
HARROWS
CHERRY HARVESTERS
SEWER CLEANER PUMPS
LOG SKIDDERS
RAIL SPEEDERS
DIRT PACKERS

Here's a couple I've seen - a tracked snow plow and a CONCRETE PUMP:

 

Where I grew up in Florida,the local flood control distric`s main pump house had six 6-71 Jimmy Diesels hooked to 6 48" ID screw type pumps.Talk about moving some water in a hurry.Those would do it.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

It went the other way also! There were industrial use engines with larger displacement that found their way into hotrods also! Back when Mopar had their flathead 6 banger, the industrial version was a bigger 244 c.i. engine. Old hotrodders soon found out the bigger engines fit right in their Plymouth and Doge cars, and began buying them up.

 

One rigging and machinery moving company I worked for had a couple of 30,000# fork trucks. They both had International 345 gas V8's in them.

 

I’ve an old forklift that from my understanding, was common to make them from the airport tugs Mine had a 218 Dodge engine.
My old big Henry lathe came out of a industrial shop somewhere, it has the 3 drums on it to change speeds via a flat belt. It is fitted with a 1725 rpm motor that was apparently to fast , so whoever had this after shop use fitted a 3 speed transmission on it to gear it down. Crude, but effective!

 

Also, my neighbor has many Hemi engines and parts he’s collected from air compressors, generators, etc. He won’t sell/ trade a darn thing.

 

During the summers off from school, I would visit my grandparents near Port Townsend, Wa.
I recall seeing a model B engine and trans hooked to a large reel of cable all mounted on a platform of logs lashed together. They were used to bring logs across rough terrain to the landing for loading on trucks. Gramps told me these units were called "donkeys" and replaced the steam powered units which were very unsafe and prone to blowing up. I only watched the donkey being used once in the early 60's. It was one hell of a wild ride for the operator when the logs would become jammed.

 

Was the Qantas tug still in service at the airport? That would be impressive.

Qantas strikes me as fairly up to date with their kit, but it would be pretty cool if they were still running a grey. I have a mental picture of an old, grizzled ground support fitter carefully maintaining the 70-year old grey motor.

Cheers,
Harv

 

Around 1990 I bought a Ford flathead V8 powered snow blower for the engine...The engine was badly cracked and unusable...

 

This old wood frame wind machine sat in front of a local wind machine manufacture for years until they changed hands. Many of the wind machines around here have big block engines running on propane driving a rather complicated drive system to work the 12 ft prop now or have a big electric motor to run it.

 

Yep still in service also found an older red motor in a Menzies aviation tug.

 

I can vision a young fella looking at it and shakeing his head because he wouldn't know what it was let alone how to maintain it.

 

Back in the day most of the wind machines in Inland SoCal had flatheads. Some were electric but from what I remember most were flatheads. Still some in active service but not near as many as when orange was king. A buddy got a 59ab with a 4 speed truck trans out of a wind machine. The trans was locked in 4th gear and then coupled to the propeller assembly. He put the motor in his '30 Model A. Used the same clutch since it was like brand new. I got the trans for a '40 1 1/2 ton flat bed I had. Trans was in perfect shape.

 

Company I worked for in the 80s had a tow-behind compressor/generator that had a flathead 8. One bank was set up to be the compressor, the other side was the engine. generator head ran off the back where a trans would go.
Flathead 4-bangers were common in forklifts and such at one time (usually running on propane)

 

Damn that's cool. Perth is not a huge airport, but big enough that I would not have guessed that it still had greys and reds in the fleet.

Lol. Wonder if they are running it into the ground, or maintaining as per factory. An airside tug doesn't do many miles, but over 70 years there would be a fair few oil changes, dizzy greasing, points changing etc.

Cheers,
Harv

 

That Grey motor in my avatar originally came from a timber mill saw bench powering a 6 foot blade. When I dissasembled it there was little wear in the bores because it would be switched on in the morning, run all day under load and switched off in the arvo and allowed to cool gradually.

 

I worked at an airport (for TAA) and drove a heap of tugs, mobile stairs, mobile conveyors, fork lifts, etc.
The small aircraft tug we had was powered by a Dodge flathead 6, with a pre-select auto box. When the young new ground equipment mechanic was hired, he did just that- scratched his head and said "What the hell is this motor?"
I used to drive a Chrysler Royal in those days, so I would lend him my manual and he would photocopy all the engine sections he needed. The baggage tugs were powered by Ford 177 or 200 CI 6's, with a BW35 trans and engine speed governor (Which we would disconnect and have drag races on night shift), same with the mobile stairs and conveyors.
Forklift had a Holden red 202. The local Christmas Pageant here uses a fleet of small tugs, most powered by '50's and '60's British side and OHV 4 cylinders.

 

Slant sixes were used in John Deere swathers in the 70s. 292 Chevies were used in MF 410 combines, as well as John Deere 4400 combines. 4 bolt 327s were used in early MF 510 combines, replaced by 350s in later 510s.

Chrysler flathead sixes (251, I believe), Dodge truck 5 speeds and rearends were used in Coop #3 tractors.

Massey Harris 101 tractors used 201 and later 217 Chrysler sixes