Can anyone identify this engine?

I can't figure out what this engine and transmission goes to, in the picture is also an intake manifold with two carbs.... :confused:

It's hard to tell that it's a 4 cylinder over head valve engine from the photo. A bigger photo from the side would be better. Any markings or a tag of some sort on it?

Those are the only pictures I have; was told is was a 1950's 6 cylinder corvette engine, but not sure about that...Now that I look at it, it looks like there are only four wires on the distributor cap....

We have just had the head off our Ferguson TEA tractor and this looks similar. Without doing research on it, and if it is supposed to be a sports car engine, I think it might be a Triumph TR2,3 or 4 engine.

Twin SU tend to mean British. Or could be a Volvo B4B or B16. Does not look like BMC a or b series.

that distributor cap looks pretty british to me.

The gear box does not look like TR 3 or 4. Possibly late 40's Triumph 2000 roadster? The Lucas parts will be dated and have a several digit I.D. # The date will help and the I.D. # might pin it down. The Distributer I.D. will be the most helpful, they usually stay with the car. Starters are pretty interchangeable and probably will not give a concrete I.D.

Greg in Canada

I agree that the gearbox looks odd, but I am fairly sure it is a Standard engine. did the early Roadster use twin SUs?

Hmm, now that you say it, it does look VERY similar to a 1948 Triumph 2000 Roadster engine (see picture attached)...

It looks to be a English Triumph engine to me, which was a Continental (brand) design, built under licence in England. Morgan used them and Swallow Doretti too.

Al

Hmm, it does look like that too. This is the engine of a 1948 Morgan......

It looks to be a English Triumph engine to me, which was a Continental (brand) design, built under licence in England. Morgan used them and Swallow Doretti too.

Al

Only early Ferguson tractors built by Standard used the Continental Z-120 engine. The engine used in Standard Vanguards and Triumph Renowns was designed by Standard originally for use in Ferguson tractors, replacing the Z-120. The defining feature is the use of wet cylinder liners in the Standard designed engine which the Continental engine did not have.

The transmission pictured may be the three speed unit used in the Vanguard and Renown which were identical mechanically but quite different body wise.

Terry

Oh wow, that's interesting..

Only early Ferguson tractors built by Standard used the Continental Z-120 engine. The engine used in Standard Vanguards and Triumph Renowns was designed by Standard originally for use in Ferguson tractors, replacing the Z-120. The defining feature is the use of wet cylinder liners in the Standard designed engine which the Continental engine did not have. Terry

Hi Terry and guys,

That is not quite as I understand it but Continental did work with Standard on the development of the engine series. The engine shown in the pic above may have also come from a Vanguard Sportsman, which used twin carbs on the 2088 cc Vanguard engine, although there was a reduced bore size model available. TR2's were just under 2 liters and Fergusons 1600cc and later, 1800cc if my memory serves me correctly. The block on the Ferguson series and TR's differed from the Vanguard/Triumph Renown block. I seem to recall that either Morgan or Swallow used the Vanguard block, rather than the TR block. Hmmmm, memories !!

Al

Re the Ferguson engine size; the first (approximately) 100,000 (1947-1951) had 80mm bore and were just under 2 litres and from then on (to mid 1956) they were 85 mm bore giving 2088 cc. As far as I know the engine bore went up to 87 mm for the later (from mid 1956) 35 and 135 petrol versions. The Ferguson block is quite different to the car block because it formed the chassis structure of the tractor. Of course the tractor version only makes 28 bhp (in the TEA) courtesy of small ports and valves.

Regarding the original mystery engine; until it is investigated further and serial and casting numbers found we will never know for certain.

well its not a fergie Tractor engine as it has a lift pump fitted, the tractor was gravity fed, also the gearbox is a 3/4 on a tree type, i.e gear change on the steering column, I therefore suspect its a Standard vanguard,

Wow, I didn't know people knew so much about these engines! It's not mine but it is for sale if anyone's interested. I just saw it on a website and was curious as to what it was because the seller had it listed as something entirely different..

I think now that it's a Cuban boat anchor.

well its not a fergie Tractor engine as it has a lift pump fitted, the tractor was gravity fed, also the gearbox is a 3/4 on a tree type, i.e gear change on the steering column, I therefore suspect its a Standard vanguard,

3 Speed column shift + twin carbs would seem to make it a Vanguard Sportsman then.

Regards

Al

What identifies this gearbox as a column shift? I must be missing something as I cannot see anything that indicates this.

Those are the only pictures I have; was told is was a 1950's 6 cylinder corvette engine, but not sure about that...Now that I look at it, it looks like there are only four wires on the distributor cap....

well the engine pictured is a inline four cylinder, early corvettes were only 235 6 cylinder, transmission pictured is a standard or manual trans, all early 235 6 cylinder corvettes had the chevy two speed powerglide automatic transmission.

Charles L. Coker

1953 Pontiac tech advisor

tech advisor coordinator poci

past employee at a corvette restoration shop.

What identifies this gearbox as a column shift? I must be missing something as I cannot see anything that indicates this.

No shift tower for a floor shift transmission. The linkage that can be seen is side mounted which would make it a column shift. The clutch release pivot can be seen just ahead of it, likely hydraulically operated.

Terry

My guess is that it probably dates from the 1940s, because the gearbox is different from the Standard Vanguards that we had. We had a couple of "utes", including one my father bought new in 1959. ( He had test drives of GM Holden and Ford Falcon as well. He immediately rejected the Holden, and got me do drive the Falcon and the Ford. The Vanguard was far nicer to drive, and better handling. The front suspension of Australian production had been re-worked in collaboration with engineer Harry Firth, I was told. He had driven one in at least one of the Redex Trials, which were partly run over very rough outback roads.

The gearbox casing was basically the same for the three speed as for the later optional four speed with the much nicer floor shift. An electric shift overdrive was optional on the three speed, but I understand that the TR Triumph sports cars had four speed overdrive. My father bought a well-used ute at a government auction as a gift for me because he was so pleased I had a university degree. It had the later 6 cylinder engine and 4 speed box. I managed to get a gearbox overdrive mainshaft from the dealers,(which had to come from England) ; and I fitted an overdrive from a wrecker. The 2 litre engines were OK for what we did, as long as we were not in a hurry with a heavy load. I have a picture of a CO2 Delage with a Mercer 6 engine fitted (to make Delage go faster) on a tandem trailer behind my ute. I towed it home some hundreds of miles.

We had petrol and diesel versions of the Fergusen tractors with that basic engine. Possibly the compression ratio was a little lower than for cars. Their may have been minor differences in the engine block, and the tractors had a cast iron sump. The differences could not have been great, because I saw one man who had fitted a tractor diesel engine to his Vanguard car, and he was pleased with its performance and cheap running cost. The tractors were handy for light work, but were a toy for large acreage.

Thanks for the explanation Terry (dictator 27), however, I still suspect that the lever on the side is the clutch mechanism as it is too far back from the actual gearbox and on the bell housing to be the column shift mechanism. My guess is that it is a Triumph TR2 engine and gearbox.