A little OT but pretty neat. This wasn't a barn find but a under a porch find. Last week a contractor was tearing down an old porch attached to a house in Salem Massachusetts. Underneath the porch covered with tarps was this engine. The engine had been sitting next to the house and the porch got built above and around the engine. The porch was at least 50 years old so the best estimate is that the engine was placed next to the house sometime in the 1940s. One of the motor mounts is stitch welded so the guess is it came out of a wreck. Well, the contractor finds this engine in the way of his project and calls the local junkyard to come and get it. While the engine was sitting in the junkyard, a local mechanic walked past it and thought it was neat. He brought it back to his shop and did some research to figure out what it was. This engine is a time capsule for restorers and because of all the tricky little parts that are still there it probably should go back into an Auburn. However, I was thinking it might look really cool powering a hot rod. It has 95% of it's original parts (including the carb & dist). The motor spins freely as does the blower. The pistons, head, valves look like the engine had very little miles. We are hopefull that with a bit of effort it will fire up. I don't know how well the 35-36 Auburns are known but they were pretty cool cars. The supercharged ones (at least the speedsters) were pre-tested at 100mph before delivery. The came with 4 external exhaust pipes coming out of the hood as well as a 2 speed rear end (makes highway driving a breeze) that can be switched at any time by a lever on the steering wheel. I have a couple more pictures and info on my web site: http://home.townisp.com/~alsancle/SuperChargedAuburnEngine.html
Man, that is just too cool. Engine and trans together. Make a hell of a neat installation in a track roadster.
SHIT! My dad has a '35 Auburn Phaeton that 100% complete except for the missing original engine & trans. That's CRAZY!!!
Wow! All I ever find under porches are spiders and bottlecaps!! That would make a very very cool 40's hot rod powerplant!!
The 35 & 36 engines are slightly different in the water jacket covers I think. Let me know if your dad wants to sell . You can see where the exhaust pipes were cut off on both sides of the supercharger. This is what the pipes look like coming out of the sides of the hood.
I noticed that the engine is mounted to part of what appears to be the original frame. Could this be a motor from a "stolen" then parted out and hidden Auburn from way back in the days of the depression? Young, poor hot-rodder with less than desirable morales see's a rich kid in a new speedster and grabs it, when the spoiled basterd is sucking on a malt with sally golddigger? Takes it to his buddy garage, they divide up the car into piece's and wait for the smoke to clear. Then, maybe they got drafted into WWII, but never made it back to claim there stolen treasure. Fast forward to present day, there it sit's in all her glory. I'm just guessing here.
We thought it was the original frame too but on the right side there is a piece with casting numbers that is not Auburn so probably not. I'm going to see if I can do some research and find out who owned the house back in the 40s & 50s and see if there can be any info discovered how the engine got there.
was it a front or rear engined porsch...err porch ....possibly for use as a generator for use during the wars... the porch would have been for rockin..
That is what I said until my dad pointed out they cut the clutch pedal off. You would think the pedals would have been left alone to take it in and out of gear.
Many years ago the Packard engine from Ralph De Palma's Indy or LSR car was found under a porch in Chicago.
There's a guy in Wellington, Kansas named Stan Gilliland who restores Auburns and Cords. He does great motor work, too. He also restored many of the Tuckers on the road. He might be able to help you out! (620) 326-7751
My uncle was a "car nut" and had a lot of really great cars, one was a new supercharged Auburn (which had fresh flowers installed in the bud vases every day). He eloped to another state with my aunt when she was only 15, so her mother called the cops to stop them, but there was no way they could catch them in that thing, he simply outran them all. After the war he tried to sell it to my dad for $150, but my dad turned it down (I still hear that story of regret every time we discuss cars). He finally did sell it and the guy rolled it over, the last time my dad saw it in action, the car was gone but the motor was powering a dirt track car at a small local track. I've always wondered what happened to it, maybe it found its way to a porch in Massachusetts.
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