Locomobile Sawmill Power Unit

We recently found this cutoff Locomobile that was used to power a sawmill. It has a straight 8 with engine number HD24611. Has wire wheels and dual side mount brackets. Does anyone have engine number records or production numbers that would indicate what year this may be? We believe it to be 1928 or 1929. Please see attached photos. Thanks for your help.

The interesting thing about these photos is that the manifolds are on the left. All the photos of Locomobile engines I can find have the manifolds on the right. See photos.

1926 Junior 8

1928 Model 8-70

I think this is a 1929 Model 8-88. My copy of The Specification Book for American Cars 1920-1929 says it has a Lycoming HDL engine ( 3.25 x 4.5 298 cid 115hp). The 1928 8-70 engine is a Continental (2.875 x 4.75 246 cid).

It would seem from this short article - http://pub24.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=2014460939&frmid=20&msgid=828036&cmd=show - that total Loco production in 1929 was only about 300 cars which included all models. The car here would be quite rare I think.

When looking at the Engine plate you can see "coming but proberly not see the first two letters?This`s a dashboard from a Locomobile 1926 Junior 8 Sedan.

Leif in Sweden.

Leif is right. The plate seems to say Lycoming, with the first two letters cut off, so it would be different than the 28 Continental engine.

Per The Locomobile Society of America http://www.locomobilesociety.com/index.cfm , the production number of cars for that year is unknown (as NZ said above). Definitely a Lycoming Engine as the data plate shows. Neat unit, thanks for posting PC.

Chuck in Kansas

Thank you all for the information. I appreciate your help. Not sure how I missed the Lycoming information on the engine plate. Was this Lycoming engine used in any other autos of this vintage?

Not sure about this particular engine style, but Lycoming was the supplier to Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg in the 20's. Also check out the Durant automobile history, of which the Locomobile was a part. Lycoming became a big airplane engine manufacturer during this time also.

An old reference book I have states that the flathead 8 Lycoming engine was used by Locomobile in the 1927-29 Model 8-80 as well as in the 1929 Model 8-88. Both of these are in the CCCA list of Approved Classics.

Also found reference to that engine being used in both Gardner and Auburns. Kissel also apparently used this engine in modified form. Below is a picture of a Kissel engine and a link to another thread about same.

http://forums.aaca.org/f169/lycoming-engine-8-cyl-parts-342682.html

Dear pcstrat,

While not an expert, your engine appears to be the large Lycoming block engine which is identical to my 1929 Kissel 8-126 engine and Cord L-29 monsters. I am attaching pictures of my Kissel 8-126 engine, which I bought three years ago - it was running a sawmill North of San Francisco, Ca. Kissel bought Lycoming blocks in 1929 and used special Kissel pistons, rods, etc. in their huge cars before Kissel went out of business.

As you see, the Kissel engine is identical to yours, although Kissel used Stromberg S carburetors. This same Lycoming block was used in the much more common Cord L-29 cars. These 1929 Lycomings are reputed to be the longest 8-cylinder engines ever used in American production cars.

(note; the engine next to it is a 1927 Chevrolet 4, which is dwarfed by the Lycoming)

Want to sell your engine?

Correction - I meant to say "Schebler S Carburetors" on the Kissel 8-126 engines.

Ron Hausmann P.E.

I would be surprised if this was the 'longest 8-cylinder engine in an American car', as several others had larger bores, for example the dohc Lycoming in the Duesenberg was 3 3/4 inches. The Packard and Stutz eights were also a big lumps. Maybe this block had everything spread out more?

By the way I think this same H type Lycoming 8 block was also used in the biggest Paige in 1927. Its successor the Graham-Paige 835 (which was bigger again - 3 3/8" bore vs 3 1/4" bore) used a Continental.

You can pick the difference between the larger straight 8 Lycoming and the smaller if photos clearly show detail. The big one has a separate block bolted to the cast iron crankcase, while the smaller has block and crankcase cast in one piece. There was an important change about 1928-9 when they adopted a Rickardo patent combustion chamber, with higher compression ratio, better cam profiles, and a dual throat carb. Some customers, such as Roamer, compared badly in performance because they continued to use the non-Rickardo low compression engines. Maybe this was because they had a stockpile of engines: They would have been smarter had they bought replacement Rickardo heads for an easy bolt-on upgrade.

It is possible that when you loosen the cylinder block hold-down bolts, the crankcase may distort slightly. To be safe, never, ever line-bore main bearings on one of these unless the block is properly tightened down.

I have references to at least 35 manufacturers using Lycoming engines.

Jon.

Pretty sure It’s a 27 Locomobill 8-80. I have one (my understanding 1 of 3 or 4 left in the world) It is sad that someone did that to the car you found, I hope it was crashed first and they bought it from a salvage for the sawmill. Hard to tell the color of yours but I think they might have been similar color's. The one I have is a old restoration that I inherited, It has to be repainted. I don’t know what your plans are but I really need a water pump shaft (or whole assy.) and all of the spark advance hardware/ rods from on top of the steering wheel, thru the column, out of it, and to the distributor.

Do you have the old water pump shaft?

Thank you for your reply. I am not sure, I found a clean water pump, shaft & impeller by the car (the clean shinny one), It is a little different than what I thought was on the car (old rusty one). I will look at it tonight and see if it will work. Any references on how it attaches to the generator? I might be in luck getting the last few parts I need   I will keep you updated.

pics didnt upload.

 Any ideas on how to get a estimate on what the worth the way it is and restored? I saw a 28 8-80 (looks a little diffrent) with wood wheels that sold, I think he was asking $69,000.

 Thanks in advanced.

Here are pictures that show how the genarator are attached if it helps.

Leif in Sweden.

On 9/28/2014 at 5:01 PM, pcstrat said:

We recently found this cutoff Locomobile that was used to power a sawmill. It has a straight 8 with engine number HD24611. Has wire wheels and dual side mount brackets. Does anyone have engine number records or production numbers that would indicate what year this may be? We believe it to be 1928 or 1929. Please see attached photos. Thanks for your help.

 

Do you still have the information of who you sold this to? I still need some parts. I wish I could have bought it from you back when I saw it. I tried to send you a message but the site says I don't have enough content to send messages.

 

On 9/25/2015 at 6:09 AM, Larry Schramm said:

Do you have the old water pump shaft?

7 years later, LOL. I dont see it anywhere. Thank you for asking/ trying to help.

On 9/26/2015 at 1:13 AM, Leif Holmberg said:

Here are pictures that show how the genarator are attached if it helps.

Leif in Sweden.

7 years later, Thank you for the pics!! They are really going to help! Now I am going to push my luck, any chance you can send pics of the dist./ carb. linkages from steering wheel?

Sorry,can`t help you  just becuse I found those pictures on the internet 7 years ago.You have to Google to find mor pictures!