"The Other 440!"- the late, great '54 to '75 Reo 'Gold Comet' V8!!! Hmm?? 'Just for grins' D), I wonder if anyone's ever tried hopping-up one of these ol' heavy-duty ol' beasts, and t stuffing it between the frame rails of a rod??? Mart3406 ===========================
The short answer will, of course, be NO! Perhaps you missed the part where it says it weighs 1211 pounds... .
-------------------------------- Did you notice the ''grins' D)? They implied humor.. I saw one if these engines years ago and have seen reference made to them here on the HAMB before, but have never seen any pics of one or any actual specs or technical info on them. When I found these pics elsewhere on the net this morning, I posted them here, merely for general interest. Mart3406 ======================
About 40 years ago had a dumptruck with one that was tired;replaced it with a IHC 549,that was a hunk of iron that hauled ass,truck eventually got a Detroit diesel
Alot of work went into that design,very heavy duty.Cool place for oil cooler/heater in winter.Has cyl sleaves like a diesel with the water circulates around sleave.Thanks for the pic,I like the exhaust manifold,s also,almost cast headers.................YG
Years back when these engines first came out I think it was Hot Rod Mag.,did an article on souping one of these up.Weight was a big factor though and they said how much weight you could save by just lossing the cast exaust and intake manifolds.
Man, 1200 pounds is definitely diesel engine territory. I bet it'd last longer too with such low compression... of course, it'd get half a mile per gallon.
-------------------- I'm not trying to say that the engine is any sort of a light weight (it's not) or that it would be easy, cheap or practical to use one because it wouldn't be. But that quoted 1215 lb weight is fully dressed with all accessories. You could probably lose a 100 lbs. of that by getting rid of the air compressor. Then dump the huge big truck-style iron-bodied generator and replace it with a normal late model automotive alternator . Ditto for the starter and the 60 or 70 llb. cast iron 'big truc'k flywheel clutch assembly. Then replace the bolted-on cast iron SAE-type flywheel housing with an aluminum adapter plate and a normal automotive-type bell and you probably dump another 150 iibs. Knock another 40 or 50 lbs off by getting rid of the huge cast iron intake manifold and adapting or fabricating an aluminum one Next fabricate an aluminum front cover to replace the stock cast iron piece and add an aluminum water pump and you'd be starting to get somewhere! It'd still be a big , heavy lump of iron for sure, bit certainly no worse - and probably somewhat better than a Packard straight-8 which weighed in at around a 1000 lbs or so and were (and are) occasionally used in rods!. I'll bet with a some work, money and fabrication skills, someone could get one of these bad-boy Reo V8s down to about 750 ils (or a fair bit less even) which would be about the same weight as a stock early hemi and a just bit more than a stock iron big-block Ford or Chevy V8. I don't know how well the heads flow, (the intake manifold runners look pretty big) but the bottom end would be probably nearly indestructible and a good candidate for turbo-charging maybe. (Hmm?? How 'bout a turbo-charged 440 Reo, on alky maybe with a bit of nitro in the tank too, running in a 'liner at Bonneville, where engine weight is not such a big deal??<grin>) Those replaceable wet sleeves could a nice touch at rebuild or at overhaul time in the pits too! </grin></grin>
I remember the (I think) R&C artical about the REO. That is allmost exactally what they were proposing. When I was a MoPool mechanic we had a number of Reo and Studebaker 2 1/2 ton trucks with the REO 331 OHV 6 cylinder engine. It was a lot bigger that the GMC 302 which was in the other 2 1/2 ton trucks but very cool with the drop in sleeves and all. And the six came in sizes over 400 inches in the same block. Maybe a very cool XX engine for Bonneville.
What a stump pulling behemoth! How cool would it be to have a REO powered Rod? Kick the compression or add a roots style huffer and look out! (How ironic my 440th post would be about a 440 REO!)
If you want to step up from there look to the Roline 805 V8 engine used in the ten ton trucks at the tume. Pretty soon you start getting into 1100 inch Ford tank motors. Big but aluminum. The guy who put one in the Mustang was building a freak. But AA/GL class at the salt is for 500 inch plus single engine open wheel cars on gas. So a rear engine digger looking car with an 1100 inch twin cam four valve V8 shouldn't be all bad. At least that was my thought when I dragged this thing home. Guess we will never know.
Slap a 6-71 or a 8-71 blower on that baby. Take advantage of all that beef and the low compression. I'd keep the revs low, because like some other truck engines, the rev potential might be limited by the ability of the oiling system to keep up. Piper106
------------------------------ I'd love to see that R&C magazine article! (someone on another post in this thread thinks the article *may* have been in Hot Rod magazine as well) Does anyone know what issue to look for - or even better, have a copy of thie article they could scan and post here!!??? One thing I noticed when I posted the pics of the cutaway drawings, was the cylinder heads The port layout and particularly the angle they run at relative to the valves look pretty good. (at least in the somewhat limited view shown in cutaway drawings!) When designing a V8 engine for a passenger car, the engineers usually have to compromise quite a bit on the port angles - particularly on the exhaust side, in order order to have manifolds that can clear the frame, fenderwells, steering box and other obstructions in the limited space available under the hood and between the frame rails of a passenger car. Since the Reo V8 was designed right from the start as heavy-duty class 8 truck engine, the engineers didn't face these usual restrictions and in the drawings anyway, the exhaust ports seem to come out at a very good angle relative to the valve and actually appear to curve up slightly, in line with the natural direction of flow, rather than having to curve. twist and convulate downward in opposition to the direction of natural of flow, as would be the case in a normal passenger car engine. Without actually seeing an actual head up close, (or better yet, putting one on a flow bench!) it's hard to say how well the heads actually flow, or could be made to flow, but it looks like there is some definite power making potential there. For a Bonneville or similar 'land speed' type racer where the weight of the engine wouldn't be a great handicap - and particularly if run i in one of the 'vintage' or 'obsolete engine' classes, a 440 Reo might actually pretty competitive! And as far a being "cool" and outrageously "dare to be different", there'd be no "maybe" about it!!! Mart3406 =============================
-------------------------- I don't know this for fact, but being a heavy-duty, class 8 truck engine, intended to run for hundreds of thousands of miles between overhauls, (and with most of those miles running at near WOT and under maximum load for hours at a time, I suspect the stock or nearly stock) oiling system might actually be well suited and even have some slight, built-in 'overkill' for a blown or turbo'd and/or alky or nitro burning Bonneville racer! Regarding the general bottom end strength too - I remember reading in one of the trucking magazines around that time that just as Reo was closing their doors in 1975, their engineers were actually working on a 320-plus hp turbo version of the engine. for use in military vehicles and as an in-house, lower-cost 'diesel-alternative' for civilian class 8 Reo trucks too . If true, that really says something about the engine's inherent toughness and particularly the integrity of the bottom end and oiling system! 320 hp, particularly from a turbocharged 440-inch V8 doesn't sound like anything at all , but getting that from a gasoline burning engine that also had to live, work and hold together in a class 8 trucking environment was (and is!) an unheard of accomplishment. Mart3406 =======================
I was thinking about a 440 reo engine I saw near home here in oz at a show so I googled it up and bugger me I,m back on the HAMB looking at the same engine I saw posted by a guy in canada,the power of the internet........
----------------------- Some Reo '440 gas engine' powered trucks were imported to OZ?? Wow! Cool! Ya' learn something new every day! Mart3406 =============================
I recently saw one of these in an old Onan generator that had been retired not too long ago, thought it was an IHC, but the valve covers look exactly like this. Motor had about 400 hours on it and the guy said it still ran like a top. What a brute!
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