Ivan Saxton

You cannot know how to fix the problem until you find and assess it. the bad news is that you will have to pull the engine out, and either partly or completely dismantle it. If you are lucky it may only be rusted cup or saucer plugs, and as in a modern engine the replacements will be brass or stainless with 2-pack epoxy mix round the periphery. I had to repair an early 1920s medium- size 6 cylinder Rutenber engine , which had an open channel through #5 cylinder bore from the water jacket, into the oil, of course. Now the early teens 4 cylinder separate pot Rutenbers, in those early Overlands that were plentiful and reliable in the Australian Outback were good stuff. But in the early 1920s a fellow by the name of Gordon In Sydney bought a job lot of maybe several hundred from Rutenber, to make his fame and fortune manufacturing the Australian Six, using American proprietry components that would fit'. First they had to rebore all the new engines to get sealing and fit. A lot of these cars that have probably survived because of the brand name. Well one of my friends was proud to rescue about the earliest survivor, serial # 30, from outback Cunnamulla in south-central Queensland. But it was not an Australian Six, but an Australian Five !!! Under the valve side cover(s) that carry the camshaft tappets, They had to drill a 1/2inch hole between inlet and exhaust valve springs, seal the hole with a Whitworth nut and bolt, and two lead washers, and ran it with no tappets there, and no conrod and piston in that bore so not to disturb the sealing bolt. ( the connecting rod bearings were oiled by splash dippers). I threaded and sealed the hole right through with threaded rod and epoxy, then sleeved and and re-bored the cylinder, so there was absolutely no chance the threaded rod could ever turn. Whatever you find, there is likely at least one way you can fix it. I reckon my way was better repair that the lead washers and bolt from Cunnamulla.

I had two of the Model 80 cars that had originally been taxi fleet cars in Melbourne. When I wrote to Bernie Weis that they used effectively the same gearbox as the overhead valve 6 cylinder Mercers, Otto Klausmeier ( name spelling?) affirmed that by letter to Bernie. In fact, the only items that were manufactured by Pierce Arrow were the engine and the body. And they were most profitable to make. I gave those two project cars to friends, because I was not sufficiently enthusiastic to restore them. People here have found the performance disappointing. They should be good engines. They have a nice 7 bearing crankshaft with a good Lanchester torsional vibration damper. And they used a Rickardo patent combustion chamber design, but with compression ratio probably much lower than Chrysler used at the same time. You might suspect that their concepts that gave good gas flow and performance on the big dual valve T head cars were out-of- whack for an L-head engine. Anyone who has not seen the recollections written for Automobilists of the Upper Hudson Valley by Miles Harold Carpenter can track it via Google by searching SGV and Phianna automobiles. The very young primary school kid, who had a small business re-charging early electric cars for their owners; corrected an ignition fault that stopped one of the first Pierce cars near his home, when the engineer driving it seemed to have no clue. So it seems that kid had the run of the factory for his own education and experiments. The six cylinder , ohv, with equal bore and stroke, that would run to 4000rpm in the Phianna of the early twenties, would have been a brilliant substitute for that L-head six of the model 80. Pierce Arrow and Phianna had similar social range of clientele. A co-production with Carpenter's Phianna engine would have been an antique we would all like to own.

I may be able to clarify a bit on the Continental engine matter. For the approximate year and the piston displacement of just over 300 cubic inches, it is likely to be a 9N Continental. This was used, probably until stock was used up, by Roamer as alternate choice to the 4 cylinder "walking beam" Rochester Duesenberg. The 9N is a side valve 6 wit a fixed head cylinder bock bolted to the aluminium alloy crankcase, with the valves serviced through individual holes sealed by threaded caps with separate ring gaskets. Crankshaft has three main bearings, with all journals of generous size and strength. There is a piston type oil pump driven from a camshaft lobe to send oil (at probably fairly low pressure) to the main bearings, while dippers splash- feed the big end bearings, and probably most else relies on Faith and Hope. The model of Roamer was the 6-54E, said to produce 54-54 horsepower at very moderate rpm. it has long and quite heavy cast iron pistons, and the combustion chamber shape pre-dates Rickardo's patent. I have a 1917 serial number Roamer chassis frame and significant other remains, which was built for the alternative smaller Rutenber6 cyl engine, which was a dog with hopeless die-cast zinc-alloy crankshaft bearings. (luckily my two red Kelpie computer and cattle dogs are having a snooze and did not try to read what I last wrote. Try to find accessible copy on the internet of Red Dog Movie, a fun film about a Kelpie and vertical, short-nose, long claw dogs that he adopted in the Outback iron-ore mining areas of Nth-west Australia). Case used a 6 cylinder detacheable head up-grade of the 9N with the same bore and stroke. My late friend Mike Gausden told us of one that he owned in the 1950s, that he said was a delight to drive and handle. He said that though it had one dud spark plug, it cruised effortlessly on 5 cylinders on a long trip back from Adelaide to Melbourne at 55 mph. I hope this gives you a little perspective. If the Noma remains most valuable to the current owner, though you explain you are neither an outlaw nor a dealer, you could look for something similar .......just in Case.

No front doors could be significant detail. Someone like David Dryden would be the best to pick small detail differences if any between 1910 and 1911. He has been at Ballarat Swap this weekend. Last weekend was important too, because their younger daughter Mandy was married at Noojee, which is the small timber town close to their home. The wedding cars were the red 1904 C Ford (which David restored several years ago), and the 1903 A Ford (which he has only just completed ). He had only the wicker basket storage of one side, and has made the missing parts of the set. He has the 6 cylinder car restored, which was apparently a Ford family special car of about 1906, similar to a model N with two extra pots. He has carefully conserved the early two pedal, two lever T with a three digit serial number, which is returned to the configuration in which it was built. His 1909 T is a flawless restoration also. And he has just started restoring an interim model between the A and C, similar to the A but with a slightly more powerful engine. And he has R and S models awaiting restoration. How fast do early Fords cruise on good roads when they are restored to original condition ? There is no speedometer. On an Australian National 1& 2 cylinder event in Sth Aus, a modern motorist pulled into a service stop where David and Jan were having coffee. He had followed the 1904 Model C at 42mph. That car starts instantly from cold, and does not overheat when stationary. David made his own new spiral fin radiator tubes. Maybe the ignition coils give as efficient combustion as they were meant to give originally. David has a wonderful authentic collection of the earliest Fords.

I did find that I made an extra one of those starter motor brush holder sections that carry the outer end of the armature shaft in a decent bearing race. You will have to post definitive photos, and dimensions to confirm the fit. I have those same model numbers from one of my trade source books. The important bit is that there is very little change in the crankcase between the first 4 valve per cylinder T-head of 1918, and the last engines with the detacheable cylinder head. One of my engines is a " K", which, contradictory to what is in the Club's big book has a detacheable head instead of a fixed head engine. The difference in that crankcase relates to a different generator, which is still on the left side of the engine. I do not have photos of the very late detacheable head engine of the Bearcat which Bill Greer used to own; which, if I recall correctly, Bill said was built with left hand driving position. (They must have designed a very different arrangement to have the change lever and handbrake in the middle). That may have been considered a 1924 car......

These starters were probably the same through all the 16 valve 4 cylinder cars. The diecast end piece which mounted the brush holders and the outer bearing would eventually dis-integrate because of lead and or cadmium impurities in the zinc casting. The one on Bill Greer's car was a mess. As you remember, Bill was instrumental in starting the Stutz Club, and did the newsletter for years. I fabricated a small batch and machined them out of steel, for my engine, for John Ryder, Fred Edwards, and one for Bill, which I sent him by FEDEX. I am not sure if In have any extra, but I possibly have basic drawings. There is a lot of "knife and fork" work to make one of these. They used the same rubbish alloy to make the cam follower bodies; and when those lock up you cannot turn the engine over.

I think you need to re-read Sidney Olsen's (sp ?) book " Young Henry Ford" , which was written as many researchers and archivists were sorting the vast mass of material that Mr and Mrs Ford had collected, and which gradually filled most of the rooms in their final home during their twilight years. It is significant that while most reporters who wanted to interview Mr Ford had great difficulty gleaning and recording much of genuine depth or significance; because they just did not understand how to communicate with him, or to ask him the right sort of questions. And everything that he collected was there because it had significance to him. I suggest to you that the most important skill is to teach how to ask oneself questions that are definitive. And the most clever interviewer and reporter, a very perceptive young person, schoolgirl reporter and photographer Ann Hood, was able to elicit from Mr Ford information and opinion of what was most important to him. And you can bet that punchbowl trophy was more significant to Mr Ford than the car he built to win the race, or the insignificant prize-money, no matter whether people considered it artistic or ugly. The car and the race win brought the public esteem and financial support which assisted him to move towards his ultimate objective; though the actual form of that first production car was probably not clear in his mind. Olsen reported that Mrs Ford did not greatly admire the trophy; and wondered to a friend what possible place or use there might be for it.

I have just laid hand again on my very old and fragile 24 page book, "Hints on Fitting and Adjusting the ZENITH Carburetter. I am asking my son to scan, clean up, and adjust the size so it is easier to use. The publication is 1915, so it should be useful for any instrument also well into the 1920s. Some of the advice is probably also closely applicable to tuning other carburetters on antique automobiles for driving on modern roads with modern fuel. ( In beautiful handwriting on the Title page, is the note that for a Lycoming 4, 135 Compensator jet, 120 Main Jet, 26 Choke, ( which probably means a 26mm venturi ID) , in a # 36 carburetter ( which is probably 36mm flange throat diameter ). When I have made bronze replica Zenith 105DC dual throat updraft Carbs for Stutz, Lancia, or Isotta Fraschini use, I have ground the teeth off a big old flat file, and ground the profile of the venturi throat on the side, with relief under the top cutting edge. ( Almost any antique automobile restoration requires work that can only be done on a lathe: So if you cannot find for yourself a good South Bend Lathe, You will certainly find that an honourable, economical, oriental lathe with Imperial leadscrew will serve you well, and improve the way you deal with problems.)

Lancia Aurelias of the 1950s were made with bronze pistons in aluminium bores. The only problem that I have ever had is unavailability of Metric seal sizes to suit. I have had the bores all sleeved with stainless to available inch standard, for instance, 25 emu size is now one inch. I made new bronze pistons to suit the one inch stainless bores. Diameter of pistons is 3 thou less than the bore size. (The thousandth of an inch is the most useful unit of measurement for fits and tolerances. Metric measurements have specific usefulness for scientific purposes. Essentially, you use units of measurement that bear a sensible relationship to what you are dealing with. In the early 1970s, the most ignorant, despotic lawyer politician in our history made law that Australia should convert from imperial to his hero Napoleon's metric measurement system, without referendum. I derisively refer to millimetres as ethnic measurement units, or emus; emus being large flightless birds who function more on instinct than cognitive ability.)

A number of those little B&S engines that I have seen have no threaded valve clearance adjustment; and the valves recede into their seats until there is not enough compression to run. You can shorten the valve stems slightly to restore tappet clearance by carefully grinding the tips on a bench grinder with suitable care and suitable fine grit wheel if your hand and eye are good and steady enough. You can build up the valve faces with cobalt "Stellite" rods, using an acetylene rich feather on the flame to "wet " the valve face with the filler rod when it starts to "sweat". Then you have to grind the face to the correct angle. Or you can make, fit, and face new valve seat inserts from something like 4140 steel. It depends how much you love your mower. They were built a bit like a cigarette to burn hot for awhile, and then throw away.. Later mowers are bigger and last better.

I understand most Cadillacs through to possibly the updraft carb V16s had Johnson carburettor. These were 2 inch throat size. I have several pages from a contemporary Radco manual scanned into my hard drive so I can readily email them to anyone who needs this. My first car in the early 1960s was a 1927 Cadillac, and I never had problem with running or tuning. The old Cadillac agent here in the 1920s told me that one man bought a new sedan and kept records of fuel used. It consistently averaged 16 miles per gallon over 66,000 miles. You may need to make a new cork float; but there are better coatings that you can use now than shellac. There are essentially only two types of trouble with them: Dirt trouble, and Spanner trouble. Once you set the correct fuel level with respect to the tip of the single jet, it should perform well if everything else is correct. A lot of the control is automatic by bi-metallic strips.

It more likely is one of two or more. There was a right hand drive one in Melbourne in the 60s and 70s at least. I shall make a phone call to a friend who did paid work on it, to see if it is still around. Despite the boat-tail body it did not interest me greatly at the time , because my interest is in cars that are more advanced mechanically. I gave away to friends not one, but two Pierce Arrow 6 cylinder L-head model 80s

Mike has most of it right, but there are other minor things that I personally would do. To get rid of all petrol, I would also dump any fuel filter cartridge. You can empty any fuel back into the tank before you drain it by blowing back with compressed air. Don't throw away your mixed fuel when you drain it. It would run very well without vapour-lock in an antique car like an early Twin Six Packard, where the big carburettor between the cylinder banks works uncomfortably close to a very hot exhaust manifold on each side. If the engine has starting glow plugs, I would take these out. This will allow you to put a small quantity of light oil or upper cylinder lube in each cylinder, so you can re-lubricate the bores a bit by spinning the engine without compression on the starter; ( and also reduce the starter's effort in running clean fuel back through the system and to the injectors.) The amount of petrol actually in the injectors will be fairly insignificant, but you can give them a little squirt of compressed air to blow anything out of the top. Unless your engine stopped with a clang, clatter, and thump, it is unlikely to have suffered much damage in 60 miles. Petrol should burn nicely mixed with diesel in a compression ignition engine. In fact, it may even have given better conversion of the chemical energy of the fuel to useful power. Most normal diesel engines cannot convert the last 18% of energy in the fuel , and they emit semi-combustion residues in what should be a clean exhaust; even though diesels always run with an excess of oxygen above the theoretically correct mixture. This is why a diesel gives significantly more power, better fuel economy, and a clean, not- polluting exhaust when you provide a controlled sniff of either Liquefied Petroleum Gas or ( stored) Compressed Natural Gas in the intake air ( upstream of the turbocharger if there is one). The engine oil also does not blacken, and you can extend the mileage between oil changes. Several year ago I explained this gas-over-diesel to a young local earthmoving contractor. He got a local mechanic who did gas conversions on petrol vehicles to do an installation on his new turbo diesel four wheel drive. On the chassis dynamometer it put 20% more power through the wheels with the gas switched on . Jim could not tell me what the diesel economy was, because he drove to enjoy the performance. But the contents of the smallest LPG tank available, (five gallons) lasted just on 1000 miles. It could be a useful check to do a compression test while you have the glow plugs out. If the engine will not start and run on good fresh diesel, you may need to have injector pump and injectors overhauled. You may have some petrol in the engine oil, but not enough to cause any harm. Oil dilution was widely and safely used to ease cold starting of piston aero engines in WW2. Now motor racing has always been decorated by notable characters. Now many decades ago here, one of those was Jack Day. Once he successfully prepared a car for a fuel economy competition. He diluted the engine oil as much as he dared with petrol, made the inlet valve stems a very loose fit in their guides, and drove with a very light foot and high intake vacuum. I am always disappointed when useful threads vanish from sight because no-one responds after I have made a contribution. I try to be helpful technically and historically correct, and entertaining; but no explanation is impossible to correct, improve, or clarify. Learning is a process that continues all your life unless you allow yourself to become narrow-minded: so I welcome differing opinions.

If the radiator is an original match with the engine, it should be traceable through the records of Rome Turney Radiator Co, which should still exist unless they were trashed by the person in California who purchased the company. If someone can access a comprehensive index to Horseles Carriage Club Gazette, you can learn who obtained all the tooling and records. Previous to that , the then elderly owner who had preserved all that and had been involved for very many decades, seemed to indicate that he could still make any new radiator which they had made, exactly as original.. There are two different items you need to look for, possibly several years apart. The previous HCC Gazette editor John C Meyer III may be the best person to ask. I would like to see photos of the inside of the engine. The design and strength of the internal working parts might indicate to us what rev range it was intended to run. I agree the date is very likely beginning of the 1920s. It appears that the projected planes of the cylinders in a narrow angle like the Lancia Lambda intersect below the crankshaft. There is some clever mathematics needed to get that right. There are several features whereby this engine is better than the Lancia Lambda. The exhaust ports for an exhaust manifold on each side of the head is better than Lancia's two exhaust ports at the rear. The Stromberg RF carburettor is nice, but it would be interesting to know the flange diameter. I have gathered a Stromberg OF carb, which has a bronze body and much more sophisticated tuning adjustments than the standard T Ford carbys, but bolts horizontally to the standard intake manifold. That RF is made for much greater air flow on something like a Roof, Rajo, or Frontenac special head for T model. So I guess that the "F" may indicate intended use for Ford. There are 11 cylinder head studs for this engine, compared to just six head studs on the 2.2litre Lambda engine. Head gasket leakage has often been a problem with the Lancia; so much so that a considerable number of up-graded cylinder blocks and heads have been made in recent times to avoid that problem. The engine most similar in style and era to this one is the Drexell, which is noticed in a separate thread below. I am aware of the Drexell through a brief feature of it in one of Stan Yost's books of automotive curiosity in the 1960s. He may have sourced his information from Detroit Public Library, though the Drexall was made in 1917 in Illinois. If you search "Drexell automobile in Google you will see illustration of the 4 cylinder engine with twin overhead camshafts driven by chain. It is said to be 3 1/2"bore and 5"stroke, which is about 190 cubic inch displacement, and it was stated to rev to 3600rpm, which is believable, but getting up there for 1917. The engine was said to be a Farmer, with which I am unfamiliar. The 1916 Farmac car became the Drexell in 1916. One other odd, that is, rare car which had an engine that reportedly had a normal rev range to 4000 rpm in that era was the Phianna. You can also access this by searching "SGV automobile " in Google. The initials stood for Sternberg, Graham, and Van Tyne. The latter as said to have connections with Lancia. The first cars appear to be a very close copy of the 1911 Lancia Delta Such as the one I have. Later ones were copy of the later 4 cylinder Epsilon or Eta models, but with mirror image engines to better suit left hand driving position. Miles Harold Carpenter became involved, and a wealthy friend purchased it for Carpenter to make excellent expensive cars . The overhead valve 6 cylinder engine which he built to replace the Lancia-derived side valve four cylinder jobs had 4 inch bore and stroke, and were claimed to be very smooth at high rpm. Carpenter's autobiographical account of his career was written by him for the Automobilists of the Upper Hudson Valley, and probably extract of that comes up with that Google search for SGV.

I have an original drive shaft with one 1/16" thick ring on each end beside me on the computer desk. It has been removed from the engine of probably my Model 61 by a previous owner. ( The starter-generator shaft will not turn, but the engine turns over by hand. It is sometimes considered beneficial to maintain oil on the surface of cylinder bores of an engine that has not run in a long while.) That shaft is 12 inches long, and the inside diameter I measured locates the shaft accurately on the matching couplings on the engine at the front, and on the starter/generator at the back.

The original rings of 1/16"steel sheet give exactly the correct flexibility. The shaft and couplings only drive the generator function of the dynamotor, which is not a heavy power load. Thermo-plastic plastics are not a good choice in proximity to those hot exhaust manifolds in the V between the cylinder blocks, and the exhaust from a low compression ratio L-head without Rickardo combustion chamber design has to get rid of more waste heat than from a later engine.

It did not look right to me Matt, I suggest it is a modification by Rube Goldberg, as Jerry Gebby would probably advise you if he was still about. The correct rings are 60 thou thick steel sheet, 2.500 inches outside diameter, and 1.500 inches inside diameter. The two sets of holes are at right angles. They seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to make it wrong. In the mid 1960s, we had a talk at the Vintage Drivers' Club in Melbourne by Phil Irving, who had designed the extraordinary Vincent racing motorcycle engines; and later designed the F1 champion V8 Repco Brabham engines, which were developed out of an aluminium alloy Buick production engine block casting. Someone asked Phil a question about altering engines. His advice was, that you may go to a lot of trouble to change things; and you are likely to find that the designer was right in the first place. If you need to run with those broken Bakelite discs, tighten a screw-thread drive radiator hose clip around the outside. All the best, Ivan

You can clearly read the 20 inch wheel size on the spare tyre, which means that it is definitely not an L Series with a 6 cylinder single overhead cam engine, or the slightly more powerful ( than the Six) eight cylinder side valve Continental engine with Rickardo "turbulence patent" combustion chamber design. Engines which featured that design were so smooth, powerful, fuel efficient, and resistant to Detonation and damaging Pre-ignition that engines of that type were used by some manufacturers even into the 1960s. Where it was beneficial to have a shorter wheelbase chassis frame than the shorter wheelbase BB or M Series chassis frame, ( yes, there were differences between these), the shorter L Series frame was used for the 1929 LeMans 24 hour Racers. It would obviously have been helpful to also use the X-braced L Series frame for special series bodies by Weymann, because the bodies were light and flexible and the L series chassis frame had greater torsional rigidity. Someone might determine whether or not by scale measurements, but I suspect that car could have been constructed on a very short frame that was shorter than the short M series. Only L and early M Series cars had that recessed hexagonal groove in the retaining wheel nuts, like the wheel nuts of the last of the big T-head fours of the early 1920s. Incidentally, Sir Harry Rickardo and the patent authorities were clearly unaware of the "Prior Art" to his patent in Giustino Cattaneo's high efficiency, high compression ratio 1907 eight litre racing T-head, 10 years before the L-head patent from Rickardo's scientific laboratory. The Kaiserpreis formula determined that many cars had bore of greater diameter than their piston stroke, and the crown of the pistonenclosed such a thin lamina of mixture against the chamber roof that it constituted a substantial "squish area". The effectively separated combustion chambers on opposite sides of the engine each had separate spark plugs fired by a Bosch 2-Spark magneto; whereby the spark plugs in each cylinder were fired simultaneously by opposite live ends of the secondary winding of the rotating coil. Minoia won the 1907 Coppa Florio on one of these cars, driving 302 miles on obviously unsealed roads at 69 mph average, and using just 19.8 Imperial gallons of fuel. Ask anyone with a T-head Pierce or Locomobile how close they get to 15 miles per gallon of fuel

Earliest design intention I have seen is A model Duesenberg. My car, serial # 630, which entered Mexico new in June 1922, has 1/8 gas threaded holes to provide for this; but they all have blanking plugs screwed in. I can find no indication of how the oil might have been supplied to the tubing; but there were different systems. On 1927-8 Stutz, it was not necessary to fill a container with a hand pump. By pushing the spring-loaded button on the control valve, hot engine oil was intended to be supplied to all points when the engine was running. Without and before oil filtering, eventual blockages would be a certainty; so you would have to categorise it as a "Faith and Hope" design. Maybe that is why Stutz changed from M & L Series to a container for clean, light oil, with a lever hand pump. I suppose individual grease nipples and a grease gun gave better understanding of whether a point was properly lubricated , or blocked for dry grinding.

In 1960 we saw a Grant Six in Whiteside Rdbetween Officer and Beaconsfield , here in Victoria. It was pretty complete as it had been parked under some pine trees. The owner was not prepared to relinquish it at then-current value. Five years later it was owned by a member of the Vintage Drivers' Club, after the previous had been inspired to improve its value by trashing what had survived of the bodywork, which made authentic restoration pretty much impossible. I used to see Neil Burns at VDC meetings, And I know he had other early cars including a small 8 cyl 8-90 Auburn, a very pretty car which was in good driveable condition; except that it had coughed a connecting rod through the side of the crankcase. ( I surmise that model of Auburn may have had some pre-disposition to the same malady, because I have here a similar damaged engine from rusty remnants; except that this one had created the same excitement twice from different cylinders: But the first exit hole had been most expertly repaired by brazing.) I would say that the engine of the Grant Six was very likely made by Falls; because it was an exposed pushrod OHV , very similar to the design of a Chev four, (plus 50%.) There was a man from Western Australia about the same time, who had basic remains of a much earlier Grant Four. His name was Alex Selley, and he did not disturb the Grant Six because there was no similarity to his project. ( Alex told me of an Hispano Suiza in Alice Springs, which had been "modernised" with a van body and a post-war P 6 Perkins diesel engine and a van body. Stuart Middlehurst used it for some years with a much better Perkins 6-354 engine of more suitable performance and a quite nice new body frame for which Arthur Lang expertly shaped and fitted panels in 30 hours. I understand that this special short chassis Hispano Suiza, which originally was owned by Earl Howe. This would have been similar to the short wheelbase 8 litre Hispano which beat the Stutz Black Hawk speedster in the Match race at Indianapolis. My three Stutz . Geoff Ringrose' engine like my earliest developed a knock on a weekend run in Sydney. It had broken the centre main bearing cap which had a single strengthening rib. My next engine about 5 weeks later casting date had TWO ribs instead of one . My prototype 1928 DV32 engine , # DV30004, ( edited typing error. Actual casting date of engine in usual place high in centre of left side is "6 27 8", which signifies 27th of May, 1928. Also the word "SPECIAL" is cast, upside down, several inches below the casting date.) has all main bearing caps probably 2-3 times stronger than standard.. I do not think the special 8 litre short wheelbase Hispano complied strictly with the original wager agreement expectation between Fred Moscovics and M. Weymann . You need to refer to lines 9 to 14 on page 261 of John Bentley's 1957book "Great American Automobiles", of which there are usually quite a few good affordable copies available on internet second-hand book dealers' listings. Here you have an important bit of history that is a natural divergence form the thread. It means that the first twin OHC 4 valve /cylinder DV32 Stutzes were probably running around Indianapolis as "sleepers" at a .the same time as the first prototype J model Duesenberg . At it is likely that Frank Lockhart was involved with the concept. And the prototype DV32 had reliable alloy steel con-rods which would not fail like Lynite rods did. I apologise if anyone disapproves that I have run off thread topic. But it is a bit of automotive forensic archaeology, and it is important to understand what you see.

Can you please enlighten me as to what an OEM is or was. It does look a bit like desecration of the burial site of an automotive mass massacre.

Could you post photos of the Item you wrote of. I was not aware they made such for any of the flat plane V 8s. I am fairly sure there is not one on the 1916 cars, but I guess they might be on the model 61. I was involved with a most helpful rubber extrusion and moulding company in the early 1970s. We had them mould a hinge into diecast magnesium half-shells which we devised and made at CSIRO Animal Physiology their. to administer sustained release Mg to cattle in areas where their reserves are critically depleted.. You need to machine a device so the two metal parts are accurately held in the right relationship so the rubber caster can bond, fill, and cure the elastomer. Some special grades of rubber may suffice; nut they may be able to use a suitable grade of polyurethane for better durability and performance. The later split-plane counter-balanced crankshaft engines were designed to have pistons which were accurate in mass to within fine limits. For flat-plane crankshaft engines, it is really only important to have all pistons the same mass, and it does not matter if they are lighter than original. It can be a trap if you use aluminium alloy without an efficient air cleaner, because grit embedded in the top ring lands can accelerate wear in the top of the cylinder bores. If you search "rubber casting and moulding you should find someone who can do it for you. ( I even found a number of people listed here in Australia where most of our manufacturing industry has been stupidly trashed and exported. Our "Mr T." has only special expertise and past performance in minimising corporate tax obligations in tax havens like the Cayman Islands; which hardly accords with fairly providing for essential government services. Unfortunately most politicians know about as much about economics as a pig knows about Sunday School; and still worship old Jeremy Bentham.

I can assure you that it is not age, but sunlight. When I was rebuilding my first car, a 1927 314B Cadillac 4 passenger phaeton, the local engine reconditioner pointed me towards Henry Formby, who was driving his 1923 Cadillac with a pair of incorrect headlights. Henry had one correct headlight with the lens darkened as your photos show. Well when I was in Melbourne at university, I used to walk everywhere, and one day I went into a city new car dealer for GM cars, and Cadillac was cited in the old signage, though I doubt they handled any for a long time. No; they had no old stock parts. But they gave me the phone number of a retired gent, Mr Johnson, who had been the Cadillac agent long ago. When I phoned and indicated my interest, He told me to hold the line and wait till he came back. He had just put out all the new old stock parts for the municipal corporation to remove as "hard rubbish"; and while the phone was silent, he was bringing them all back inside. It all cost me 30 pounds in 1961. It included a single brand new1923 headlight with unblemished black enamel, and a pure, clear, un-darkened Bausch and Lomb lens. So I gave Henry the new headlight so he had a set on his car. ( This is the way we worked before swap meets, and people became mercenary; and always since I have had most satisfaction through helping other people who need, deserve, and appreciate; and are prepared to help me or other people when possible.) Well, there was some other good stuff there too. There was one bank of new 30 thou oversize V16 pistons with rings and pins in original boxes. There was no longer a V16 Cadillac in Australia, so I gave them to Bud Catlett in April 1970 when two Harrah cars were out here for the FIVA Sydney to Melbourne run. I had incorrect headlights on my 1918 Mercer on that event; And Bud took the original headlights off one of Harrah's Mercers, and got Vic Billstrom to make a correct pair for me, which were beautifully nickel plated, complete with the left & right hand threaded sleeves to attach them to the mounting posts. Henry has been gone since 1981, but his twin grandsons Scott and Craig Emmerson share the car which is in a finer condition than Henry could ever manage and afford. Next time I see the car I will take note whether the lenses have equalised in colour. Incidentally, I have a Bausch & Lomb 2 axis digital readout on my milling machine, but it is not as reliable as their old headlights. I have to make a datum point I can re-set to; because it un-predictably gets a blank look on its face and loses its memory. That is a lot of nuisance when I might be machining new castings for a Stutz dual throat carby. Maybe I shall replace it with an honourable oriental digital position readout, which hopefully does not have that bad habit.

Sorry to become a nuisance over trivial issues. But it is claimed that the object was created under the auspices of Augie Duesenberg. The car is 1966, but Augie left us very early in 1955. It would be very interesting to get the account from the Medium through whom Augie conveyed his auspices.

Afterthoughts: I am sure this modern was not at the ACD Museum when I visited for the Auburn Meet in 1980. I had quite a lot of conversation with Ray Wolff then, because I still have a lot of correspondence with him, dating back to early 1960s. And because Joe Kauffmann was worried about Ray driving home late on the Sunday evening alone, he organised that I should ride with him most of the way. We did not discuss even the other modern re-makes, which are at least fairly faithful in appearance to some of the iconic originals. So I do not know what Ray might have thought of a car which neither mechanically nor externally resembled any original Duesenberg. I can assure you that he was alwáys polite and respectful towards peoples opinions and interests that may have differed from his own. He did trouble to explain to me that valuation of antique cars was not always necessarily as declared or printed. Ray said that trading could be likened to "exchanging one $10,000 dog for two $5,000 cats" !!! When he determined that I had always most admired and would like to restore an A model Duesenberg, he arranged and negotiated with his elderly friend in Mexico City that I buy his early 1922 plus additional parts, to restore. Among the extra parts was a 1923 chassis frame, cut and inverted at the rear. When Jim Gilmartin from NY needed a chassis frame for his project. I had material folded and shaped and prepared it to replace what was missing, and made a jig with a correct chassis, so that when Jim arrived to stay with us and help with the physical work because I needed to protect my lower back which was impaired by injury and surgery. Everything was riveted back together , first bolted, and the bolts replaced one at a time by hot rivets using the heavy pneumatic rivet tool with sets made from old axle steel. ( Jim had some nutritional beliefs which we respected. But the "gluten-free bread from the bread-maker was "tasteless, odourless, hard to chip or break, and would stand boiling". Then he watched that the dairy cows in the paddock next door fed on pasture grown with solar power without alteration by manufactured chemicals; whereas soy milk is predominantly manufactured from plant material which is genetically engineered so it can absorb weedicide that only kills the weeds. It would be nice if Jim would visit again sometime. It gives satisfaction when you can help somebody out too, like that chassis frame for Jim.