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Continental engines


Guest Xprefix28truck

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Guest Xprefix28truck

Does anyone have any company info for Continental engines? I have been trying to google them to find out more info on who started the company, but can't find anything. Any help appreciated.

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somewhere in the back of my mind i recall that continental used international harvester blocks, but it could be the other way around. i used to work on greymarine engines when wood boats were around and the name continental used to come up. i guess i am too old to connect all the dots, but i do know that continental was important at one time in the world of engines. capt den

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Guest Dick Whittington
somewhere in the back of my mind i recall that continental used international harvester blocks, but it could be the other way around. i used to work on greymarine engines when wood boats were around and the name continental used to come up. i guess i am too old to connect all the dots, but i do know that continental was important at one time in the world of engines. capt den

IHC used Contential until '49 in the KB 12 and KB 14 trucks. It was a 572 cid engine

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Guest noncompos

Continental was one of the primary early US independent engine builders, and may well've been THE primary builder...Continentals were in literally everything imaginable, altho I don't believe they ever went into the heavy industrial type engines (to me that's 1200 cid up) (I'm open to correction as all my ref material is on truck/tractor/const etc stuff).

There's a pathetic little thumbnail on Wiki; my computers still sick and can't research much.

There's a list of (known) cars and trucks that used Cont'l engines on a Continental engine page on the Hemmings website...I can't comment on the car list but can on the truck list as I added a considerable batch myself maybe 2-3 yrs ago.

I said "known" as Cont provided engines for some builders who passed them off as their "own" engines, like Graham, who I believe added their own cyl heads and water pumps. (again, I'm open to correction). I understand Continental also produced engines to others design, in which case they were just the fabricator.

My Continental engine list is presently gathering dust; I got bogged down trying to connect the PU's to the auto/ind'l versions, among other complexities.

(For awhile they used: "Automotive" F6209 (6 cyl 209 cid) (Auto/Trk installations), "Ind'l" F209 (tractors, ag/const etc eqpmt installations), and PF209 (free standing power units) type designations. They're also rumored to've been very good at giving separate designations to the same engine sold to different car assemblers. (the number-letter years 7c, 16b, ad nauseum)..

There're also little air-cooleds, the more recent R8/10/12 (Renault engines) in Turfcats and such, and, as mentioned , their ongoing aircraft engine business, plus, no doubt, Cont'ls I've never heard of.

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Some info here Continental Motors Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and

Continental Aircraft Engine Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Motors,_Inc.

Continental Motors Company was an American engine and automobile manufacturer. The company produced engines for various independent manufacturers of automobiles, tractors, and stationary equipment (i.e. pumps, generators, machinery drives) from the 1900s through the 1960s. Continental Motors also produced Continental-branded automobiles in 1932/1933. The Continental Aircraft Engine Company was formed in 1929 to develop and produce its aircraft engines, and would become the core business of the Continental Motors Corporation.

..

..

.On December 14, 2010, Continental's parent Teledyne announced that Teledyne Continental Motors, Teledyne Mattituck Services and its general aviation piston engine business would be sold to Technify Motor (USA) Ltd, a subsidiary of AVIC International, for US$186 million in cash. AVIC is owned by the Chinese government. In May 2011, the transaction was reported as complete and the company renamed Continental Motors, Inc.

Edited by 1939_buick (see edit history)
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I have seen a Graham brochure of about 1938 or 1939 that refers to Graham engines made by Continental, as if Continental was making a Graham design for them. I believe the Superchargers were added at the Graham factory, possibly they changed the head on the Supercharged engines.

Frazer seems to have inherited the Continental engine when he bought the remains of Graham's car making operation. At least they used Continental engines in all Frazers and Kaisers. I understand they took over a war surplus Continental plant and made their own engines using Continental designs and tooling, although later on they made their own improvements. Including reintroducing the supercharger only this time they bought them from McCulloch.

It is possible McCulloch supplied superchargers to Graham in the thirties, they were making superchargers for Fords at that time, but have never heard where they got them.

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I remember the old fork lift where I once worked had a 6 cylinder flat head Continental engine in it. It was a large capacity fork lift and it had solid rubber wheels. It had sat for a long time once and it didn't take much to bring it back to life. It ran great.

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Guest Xprefix28truck

I realize that Continental was a very large manufacturer . The reason I am looking for info is the Teetor Hartley connection. I need the names of the originators to do patent searches for engines. The TH I have here has a patent date of November 10th 1910. No patents on engines show up under any Teetor names. So I am fuguring if I can find patents for the Continentals they may line up with the ones on TH engines. My theory is since Continental furnished the castings, they may have had TH put their patent dates on their engines when assembled.

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Neither Teeter nor Hartley are mentioned in the Index of the book I have. I did learn that Continental was incorporated in 1917, but their first engine, a 12 hp 2-cylinder engine made in 1904. In 1910 they made a type R, J and T. in 255.3, 392.7 and 451.9 ci. They showed that the Speedwell Company was the largest user of their J engine, but that's all the info in their engine chart from 1910. In 1912 they switched to the C, E and 6-C engines.The names Arthur Tobin and Ross Judson come up.

Hope that helps.

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Cars and Parts magazine had a two or three part article on Continental engines back in the early 80's (guessing here - if anyone has an index start in '85 and work back and forth).

It had a complete listing of cars using the engines from the early twenties right up on through the early sixties (Checker). I know my uncle's Jewett had one. They were also used in some high priced classics; Stutz Blackhawk series, Ruxton, and Peerless come to mind.

Have you tried the librarian in Detroit, MI (original home of Continental Motors Company)? I know that sounds old fashioned but librarians can sometimes provide a wealth of information not available to the general public through Google (they have other databases). Just a thought.

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I think I would bet on your book as being correct - I have learned in the past that a lot of information on websites, even good ones, has not been vetted to the extent that books are.

Still think a query to a librarian (now Chicago librarian) could pull up a lot of information that can't be found using normal search engines. When my wife was completing her masters there was an incredible amount of information using university, library, and newspaper databases that never shows up on Google.

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Guest Al Brass

There was a Continental connection through to the UK too. Morris and Standard used Continental designs and the Ferguson tractor. I think all these were made in England but to Continental design and specification.

Regards

Al

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Guest noncompos

Barry: Does that book say anything about their weird/wonderful engine designation system(??)

Already in 1917, per a Burd ring catalog, it was a mess:

"A" was a 4cyl 4" bore, but 6A was a 6cyl 31/2 bore...

"B" AND 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B and 7B were all 2cyl's, all with 41/4 bore...

6H, 7H and 8H were all 31/2 bore...6N, 7N and 8N were all 31/2 bore...7W and 8W were 31/4 bore, but 9W was 33/8, whereas, if they'd followed the 6- and 7- above, 9W would've been 31/4...

Not to mention issueing "C", "D" and "N" engines in two bores, and the "O" engine in three...must've been a nightmare for parts people.

Kent: My apologies, I know this doesn't help yopur question.

Reminds me that I haven't checked Ebay etc for that book for awhile now.

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Guest Xprefix28truck

Barry, It doesn't suprise me that TH isn't listed in the book. Anytime you do patent research you have to have the originators name. The TH that I have is a 1917 model "H". The model "H" was made at least from 1917 thru 1920. It has been verified many ways that TH bought their castings from Continental. For how long we do not know. In order to do the research I need to find someone at Continental that might have applied for the patents. I have looked under many Teetors for any patents for engines. Charlie, John, Ralph, Ben, and anyone else I could think of. No luck on any of them. So the patents have to be held under someone at Continental.

Bud, No problem.

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Used to often run across the phrase "red-head" Continental engine, when reading various articles about vintage cars. I believe the red head was a somewhat higher compression engine than the standard offering. Therefore, when I was inspecting a very old Combine out in the sagebrush, it was with a swiftness that I noted it had the famous red painted head.

I have seen these Continental motors also on welders, water pumps, light plants, and later in trucks which were branded Teledyne Continental.

Perry in Idaho

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Used to often run across the phrase "red-head" Continental engine, when reading various articles about vintage cars. I believe the red head was a somewhat higher compression engine than the standard offering. Therefore, when I was inspecting a very old Combine out in the sagebrush, it was with a swiftness that I noted it had the famous red painted head.

I have seen these Continental motors also on welders, water pumps, light plants, and later in trucks which were branded Teledyne Continental.

Perry in Idaho

A bunch of the Chrysler engines had "red head" on them. And Chrysler engines were popular in industrial applications.

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  • 3 weeks later...

1926 The President and Vice President of Continental Motors in Detroit purchased a large block of Peerless stock and were voted on the board of directors of the Peerless Motor Car Co. Peerless started using some Continental engines then. There was a rumor in Cleveland that Peerless and Continental would merge and the Peerless plant would be moved to Detroit.

However Cleveland investors prevented this and were able to maintain control. Peerless kept using some Continental engines along with the Peerless engines until 1930 when all Peerless cars had the Continental eight.

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I have an article in SIA, somewhere, and the writer said that the Red Seal engine was a marketing ploy by, I think, Ned Jordan. Continental began, for reasons unknown, to put a red seal or data tag, I forget which, on their engines. Jordan, ever the salesman, began advertising, "Now, with the all new Red Seal engine." It caught on and Continental began promoting it also. Kind of like when Ford went from the Standard and DeLuxe to the DeLuxe and Super DeLuxe. Same wine, different bottle

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Guest Xprefix28truck

Well I thought that was going to help...But didn't. I looked up the oldest patent on the tag above. 1605040. Came back to an Oscar Kreis assignor for Continental. Did search on his name and came back with some engines, but all too new. He did have a few patents in 1910 but the were for when he worked at Gray Motor Company. Seems Oscar might have been an attorney. He has many patents in his name for different companies. HMMMMM.....

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Guest Xprefix28truck

It can be very time consuming. But you wouldn't believe what you find every now and again...My tag just has the patent date. No numbers.

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  • 2 months later...

Ned Jordan was on the board of directors for continental engines for a span of time. Rumor had it that Jordan and Continental Co-developed the 1st straight eight for Continental. They seem to have been co-mingled. To give you some idea of Continental's size, before the depression hit, Continental was producing over 300,000 engines a year for automotive, agricultural and aviation.

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