Bud Tierney

Jump-spark type plugs were available at one time for oil burners; as described above, they kept plugs firing in the oily combustion atmosphere that fouled a "standard gap" plug... We used to make our own, holding the wire just off contact with the plug/s...

I don't follow Franklin, or race cars, so I'm hoping some kind soul will fill me in on "...Franklin's long 8 Cylinder" mentioned in a 1905 race car/race meet piece... Two fours together?? True straight 8?? Many thxx for enlightenment...

I don't follow Maxwell, or race cars, so I'm hoping someone will be kind enough to fill me in on the 8 Cyl built as a possible Vanderbilt Cup car but not ready, apparently not run until some later meet... One reference referred to "twin motors", so I'm assuming that was two fours in line, or two fours driving one drive line (or each engine driving it's own axle?) rather than a true straight eight?? Many thxx for enlightenment...

If you're not already aware of them, there 're (or were several years ago) bus collector/club websites...can no longer find them in my notes but should turn up on Google, if no luck here...

A question on scanning/copying copy longevity--- In years past, working with copying/copies of various types, some types of copies faded with time (or the ink dots separated from the paper?)... Are the present day copies permanent, or do they have a "shelf-life" dependent on use, time or light exposure?? My few 20-30 (40?) year old "Xerox" copies are in glassine/poly? sleeves and only see the light of day in an occasional use..

Trimicar---was that actually IGT-4006A, which's what Shurkit shows for 39 Packard models 1703-4-5??? If so, Shurkit didn't then carry a cap for it.. That catalog is not a comprehensive master catalog type but a little one, which may well be even less comprehensive than usual...

Hey. this's fun...which are dist #s and which are Cap #s??... A Shurkit catalog sez 36 810 has dist # IGP4006, which takes their cap # 1C-120...which per that catalog also fits some Auburns, 37 812 and blown 812 and some Hupps, all with differing dist #s...... Granted, it's probably a company "universal" that may not match OE, but better than no cap at all......

Mroz/s US Truck Ency states Vim was an "assembled" truck (running gear off-the-shelf components from component m'f'r's) EXCEPT for a period (1918 is mentioned) in which they used their own 4cyl engine... As you can see from earlier posts herein Vim owners and engines do seem to've been around and available, but the posts didn't state if their "Vim engines" were the actual Vim Co engine/s? or the Cont'l, Herc, Model/Pittsburgh Model and Northway engines Vim used... A 1924 ring catalog lists Vim models 29-30, 1/2Ton, 1916-21, with"OWN" 4cyl 31/8 bore enbine (some later Vim models are listed with "OWN" 3' bore , so it appears Vim may've had at least two separate self-built engines, altho could've been one block bored out larger)... A 25 ring catalog describes those 1916-21 models as models 29 and 30... Hopefully your research will be encouraging enough to enable you to take the leap"...

As to you original questions, the answer would be insufficient data... While it would be a tragedy to scrap whats visible (front axle, springs, steering, etc) appeal and interest would be much greater if engine/trans there and in what condition (carb, ign, plugs in cyls, or block with head off/hole in block) stuff like that... None of this is meant to diminish the thanks all old car obsessive's owe you for taking the time and effort to post this here; too many wanted and needed pieces go to scrap simply because those searching for parts never heard about them. Presumably HET club members here will be asking where this is, in the hope a Club member may be close enough to make an in-depth appraisal of what's there and desirability as usable parts... Again, many thanks for posting this...

Well, Mroz was partially right, and my old catalogs again "incomplete"... The 1921 announcement of their 1T did specify Cont'l, but the 1922 anouncement of their 2T described their own 4x5 38HP 4cyl; if that asn't bad enough, the 2T has a Ruggles designed rear axle, which might further complicate restoration... While both my 30 McCord and 38 Victor gasket catalogs list Ruggles trucks with various vendor engines, neither lists any Ruggles motor, which apparently was only used in 1921?/1922 and maybe early 1923...some parts, not listed in the catalogs, were sometimes available on special order...

Here's an odd point---Mroz's Ency---which is generally reliable---says Ruggles built it's own 4 cyl engine in 1921-22, only switching to vendor engines in 1923... But the 3-4 old catalogs I checked all showed a mix of vendor engines from 1920 on, nothing listed for "own"... You sometimes womder how these managed to escape all the scrap metal drives and thr later ups of scrap prices... Per Mroz Ruggles was president of Republic Truck 1917-20...

How are you measuring your mileage?? Granted 10 is low, but remember these cars only got their "customary" mileage running at normal speeds on generally smooth level highway in clear weather conditions... Anytime you ran in short trips, or in-town traffic, your mileage fell , sometimes drastically, if you spent time in going thru the gears to the next stoplight, and if the engine's been idling/running while you tinkered, that consumes gas too..... Do lpok at the plugs, as mentioned above...

I'm inclined to go with those suggesting exhaust getting into the cooling... Had a Chev Cavalier the same---regular running around town or in semi-country/suburban area was fine; get stuck in heavy traffic it heated and would go into the red if couldn't get going or park to cool. Uphill, any load, same thing: watch it slowly heat....Running fan on defrost slowed heating but couldn't prevent it. Don't recall ever adding any coolant, ran ir like that for a year or so, and no visible exhaust when starting or running.

From my old shade tree mechanic days "tight" engines were normal, to the point I've seen some that had to be towed to get them started...but those weren't Classic Car Type engines but well worn beaters/drivers being (hopefull0 temporarily rehabilitated... I'd be inclined to raise an eyebrow at a professional shop dealing with rare/expensive engines that turned them out so tight they had serious starting problems; I'd expect the shop to run them in" a bit themselves if it couldn't be avoided... You might ask the shop what king of voltage they used when the engine started normally in the shop... It's perfectly true that the engine will "wear in" with driving; it's why new cars in my day came with "break-in" instructions for the first 500 miles or so, but, again, those were mass production engines, not engines turned out individually from a skilled professional rebuilder... An excessively tight engine could experience damage before comfortably "wearing in"...

Noted everything is "like new'... If your cap is old, and you haven't already done so, examine it carefully for: minute cracks or deposits that could bleed off spark intensity... clean contact surfaces on both the top and underside of the cap.. clean contact surface on the rotor...

Many early issues of The Automobile and many other automotive trade magazines/journals are available free full view, up to 1922/23 on hathitrust... NOTE: they've recently changed their viewing format, and, for me at least, it's much slower, more cumbersome and irritating than their old system, which had been a delight to use...but, that being said, still free and invaluable, so I should be complimenting their efforts rather than complaining...

I know nothing about these engines, nor do I particularly care to, being unable to keep up with those I am interested in... That being said, on 7-14 you stated you intended to contact the HCVS in the UK, which one would assume could/would tell you all you needed/wanted to know about your engine... So, what happened?? My experience with the HCVS/UK is limited to help with one US engine ID problem some years ago, but I recall them as being both gracious and appreciative, a pleasure to engage with......

Even assuming the 192os tire technology was more primitive, so were most of the roads...you're naturally going to get more miles if you're on relatively smooth pavement than if you're regularly on gravel, etc... And tire technology is almost always a compromise between traction and mileage, altho the last NHTSA? report I saw, several tears ago, did list some high end tires with excellent traction AND mileage... so a particular m'f'r's model X might be high on traction, but their model Y better on mileage... Then (sigh) there're drivers like my brother, who generally had either the gas pedal or the brake pedal jammed to the floor, but little in between...he did consume a lot of tires...

Haven't been in yesterdays tractors (ytmag.com) for some time; their stationary forum was minor, but am surprised no replies as remewmber thwm as very helpful/sypathitic... Can heartily recommend smokstak forum for your engines; give them a try...engine history, advice, parts, sympathy, as the case may be...

Without impugning your seller personally, whenever a car for sale has a few "minor" little things wrong, that (theoretically) would be easily (cheaply) fixed, I always wonder why the seller didn't get them fixed so he could sell a clean "ready-to-go" car??? Geez, the more i think of this...the transmission (a possible quagmire, as noted) and the battery drain (worse from a labor time tracking it down viewpoint) are bad enough, but he LEFT windshield wiper out?? He only drove it on dry days?? Sounds like something serious under the dash, frightening...

Will some helpful soul save me some time?? Std cat sez Auburn used some Rutenber engines in some of their 1910-17 30 to 40+ Hp models... Was one of them a 43/4x5--354.4 engine?? Many thxx for enlightenment...

Have to give up for now , but it does seem this engine was fairly well used in cars; didn't verify any trucks and never got to marine. Too many questions, too little time.

RO: So far i have almost 60 names on my Rutenber list, including that Wiki list, altho not all verified. Rutenber himself left the company, the new owners reorganizing and renaming the company Rutenber Mtr Co to retain the reputation. After being passed around, probably in financial deals, they were absorbed by/became a part of/merged/were engulfed by??? Indiana Truck (it's confused; I never took the time to pin it all down)... That Lexington motor may well be our 43/4x5, as classic car database has a 354 for the "A" and "B" series, which're in the right timeline... Somewhere in my scribbles there's a 354 that could be a Rutenber, but it's apparently in pairs, and I wondered if they'd produced the same engine for awhile in "more modern" pairs instead of separates, altho separates seem to've lasted longer in marine applications...fascinating... LAYDEN: Oh, yes, wonderful old example of advertising people running amok; I remember that illustration from some of their period advertising when I got into Rutenber several tears ago...if I'm counting the manifolds correctly that's probably their introduction of their new six...very nice piece to acquire...

While I'm not really into the old horizontal-opposed (flat) 2 and 4 Cyl auto etc engines, I 've noted that, generally, their bore is larger than their stroke...while almost all inlines are tho opposite: their bore is smaller than their stroke..(a few "square", and even fewer "oversquare" inlines are out there, but they're unusual and rare)... Is/Was there some technological reason/s for this difference??

WHAT A GOOF---THAT'S 43/4x5...another senior moment... Many thxx for comments... So far the Clark seems to've had a smaller Rutenber (41/2x5=318) one of their then advertised sizes... However, the Glide did use the 354 engine in several models; or appears to, the b/s matching... GROAN--(edited)--another goof---half marked off Clark until thought this AM to finish checking--right there in Std Cat, which should be first check, are 30HP fou and 40HP four---the 40 could well've been our 43/4x5, often listed as 40-45 HP (I think one source said it could develop 50)...