What's this worth?

Is this engine something that would be a candidate for a jalopy engine? This flathead military surplus engine has been in use as a generator for about 50 years. It came out of a chicken house last week, where it had been in place since the 60's. It was run once a week for 20-30 minutes, and serviced twice a year. The engine is in good shape, it was only replaced because the generator needed some work, and they got a good deal on a used replacement power unit which is a little newer (slant 6 ). Anyway, my boss was going to scrap it. Not sure how much the engine weighs, but I think it might be more valuable than scrap price. What would you give for this engine?

 

Advertise it in the Classifieds and find out.

 

it ran on propane gas, not to good for a car,

 

Continental engines are great industrial engines. Used in tons of fork lifts over the years as well as generators and irrigation pump engines. I don't know how it would work in an automotive application due to camshaft grind. Usually industrial engines are designed to be at torque peak around 2500 rpm and they can run there all day long.

I would figure it to be worth between $250 and $450 as a running unit. If your boss was going to scrap it I would shoot for the $250.

 

Besides aircraft engines, Continental made all sorts of engines for military equipment from little one cylinder jobs, two bangers and little opposed 4 bangers on air compressors. I don't know how easy it would be to find parts though unless you know about some big warehouse full of old surplus somewhere. Hercules also made many small engines for generators and I know those are hard to find stuff for.

 

Continental made engines for a bunch of American auto manufacturers. Check out the lengthy list right here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Motors_Company

 

Find an old truck that needs a heartbeat. Probably have to do some work on it.

 

Having been run on propane that engine will be incredibly clean inside.

Try the military vehicle clubs, some one wants it.

 

If boss man is going to scrap it, then offer to take it off his hands for a 6-pack of his favorite beverage. You can always use it for a project.

 

Converting from propane to gas and vice versa is very easy. Just a bit of carb work (and a fuel pump).

The bigger issue is that industrial engines usually only make power in a very narrow RPM band-if cams are available for it, then that's no big deal. Might make for a decent cruising motor, as it probably makes all of it's power down low-could probably idle along all day down the highway...and get decent mileage doing it.

 

just went through similar issue with yale forklift motor and good luck finding camshaft for higher rpm use. these engines were made for these applications: ones that required low rpm's!

 

Continentals were used in wood boats. For hipo or performance stuff I'd look at some of the more established marinas and marina suppliers. There's stuff out there if someone wanted to find it. Then again, how hard or costly is a re-grind?

 

I think they put those in some of the checker cabs too IIRC.

 

Well, up here I could get $200 a ton for it... assume it weighs between 500-1000 lbs... so $75 or so -

 

Exactly F all.

 

Thanks for the input, everybody.