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Andrew - Do you have a Cole V8 or is it the Cadillac, Oldsmobile, or one of the other V8's that Northway made? They look the same in pictures from the top view and heads but there were some sizing and differences with the internals. For example the early 20's Oldsmobile Northway V8 only has two main bearings while the Cole has three. The Cadillac V8 in 1920 was a bit smaller than the Cole. Share some pictures of the engine if you have them. Kevin

My son and I agree. It would be “easy” to just put an electric fuel pump in but we want to get it working the way it was originally made. We are learning about them and have some more cleaning and fine tuning to do with this one.

UPDATE on the 1920 Cole Even though we got the engine running last weekend, the vacuum tank wouldn't maintain fuel to the engine. When we did the engine test last weekend we bypassed the vacuum tank just to test out the engine and the carb. So today it was time to take apart the vacuum tank and see what was going on. Well, this is what several years of ethanol gas sitting does to the innards of the vacuum tank. The pile of flakes was from the nozzle hole at the bottom of the vacuum tank going to the carb. What a mess! We are going to have to do another round of cleaning and a bit more sanding to the insides as these vacuum tanks are finicky.

This is what the hobby is all about. He is a great guy and very knowledgable. He has been enjoying playing around with my Coles as well and has been a great help. Glad you two connected! I can tell you from first hand observation that White engine is a powerhouse.

Thank you and I am glad you were able to hear and see the engine. I will make another video of it driving when we are done going through it. Right now we are working on a thorough cleaning of the vacuum tank as it is not pulling a consistent amount of fuel from the gas tank. The previous owner parked it with some nice gas with ethanol still left in the tank and lines so you can imagine the mess!

There were much more similarities in the earlier Northway engines. It was about 1913 that Cole started to do more individual work with 'suppliers' on the engineering and design. Here is the 50HP engine in our 1913 Cole and there are many similarities to other Northway engines though I don't believe many of the other ones used Aluminum for the entire bottom components of the engine. I may be wrong, but Cole was really into a lot of different metals for optimization in 1913. Aluminum casing, aluminum fan blade, bottom of distributor is aluminum, piping was all German Silver, and the engine valves were made of tungsten, etc.

Spot on with the variance of everything they made. I do bring them around to different places around the country, except for this year. I was planning to bring one to Hershey this year.

The trans and clutch was built to their specs as part of the Northway production. So Cole had Northway build and assemble all one 'unit' for them. Cole used a Cone clutch design until late 22 when they switched to multi disk. They discovered in early 1922 when they were testing 'balloon' tires with Firestone that in order for the tires to operate successfully on the car that changes to suspension, braking and the transmission had to be made for optimal performance. Our Cole Coupe was the test car that was used by Cole for the testing so it has the first multi disk clutch, four wheel brakes, and other optimizations made for the balloon tires. The Coupe was then used at several auto shows to show off the new balloon tires and other technology improvements. Cole became the first production car company to offer balloon tires as standard equipment on a car in 1923 and Harvey Firestone used this to motivate Henry Ford to adopt Balloon tires. Probably more info than you wanted!

It is a long story with lots of detailed history, but I will give you the short version. Both Cole and Cadillac engines were made by Northway, though they were different engines from different engineers. Charles Crawford, Chief Engineer at Cole, spent six months at Northway in 1914 working with a different group of engineers than the northway engineers working on the Cadillac V8. Cadillac released their V8 car in October of 1914 and Cole released their V8 design on January 15th of 1915. Coles was the first flathead V8 with detachable heads like we think of todays while Cadillacs was different and was a smaller engine than Coles. Here is a picture of each of the 'first V8 engines' from late 1914 (Cadillac) and early 1915 (Cole) Cole's V8 worked so well in 1915, after ironing out a few issues, that Cole standardized on the V8 starting in 1916. That means that you could only by a Cole with a V8 from 1916 until the end of the company in 1925. Cadillac ended up adopting Cole's design of the V8 engine sometime in the later teens so that it had detachable cylinder heads, etc. Cadillac's V8 remained a smaller displacement then Coles and even Buick used the Northway V8 similar to Cole's in the early 20's, though it was 200 and some Cubic inch and had two main bearings. Durant owned Northway and tried to buy Cole three times, but JJ Cole always refused as he thought Durant 'sucked the soul out of the automakers that he bought' and JJ Cole didnt want his name associated with that. The only V8 that was bigger in the early 20's was Cunningham's. I have many pieces of Cole advertising and some articles touting that their engine was only beaten by the twice as expensive Cunningham. I have quite a bit of documents and papers on the V8 related to Cole and Northway.

I believe @edinmass said something like "Sometimes the cars just find you when you are staying quiet and not even looking' in another thread. Well, I had the same happen to me. There was a 1920 Cole Aero 8 7 person Tourster powered by a 346.4 cubic inch V8 that I had known about as it was featured in an old Automobile Quarterly and some other places out there. Two months ago, I received a message that it was time for the owner to part ways with it and they wanted it to go to the right home. It had been sitting for 8-10 years since last driven and probably not seen in the public since the 1990's as the owner maybe used it for 300 miles of local drives around his town. I was able to strike the right deal for it, went and picked it up, and then my son and I started working to get it running again. Yesterday we finally woke the big V8 up and we are getting close to getting it back on the road after the some more sorting out. The car is a big impressive machine and the pictures don't really do it justice, but as a bonus I included a link to a short video of the engine running so you can hear the Cole V8. The original cost for the Cole Aero 8 Tourster was $3350 in 1920 and today all Coles 1916 and up are considered CCCA Full Classics.

I will let you know what I find out when I talk to the owner as well so it can help you piece together the White story. The owner is very active with the early cars and his Grandpa put together the collection of big powered cars like this White, a 17 twin six Packard, etc.

I see what you are saying about the difference in the White 'models'. Here is the other side of the engine in the town car. I will talk to the owner as I know there is some special history on the car and the engine. I remember he told me about his conversations with a descendent of the original founder. I see your model GL was a specific model with a body by Rubay I believe. I also found a picture online of a White model 45 engine and it is smaller and different.

Ed - That White Town Car I shared does have the 16 valve from what I know. Here is a picture of the engine in the 15 Town Car. looks to me to be darn close to what you have in your new car. It also has two plugs per cylinder.

Ed - great car! My friend has a 15 White that has been in his family a long time. He has it running and knows quite a bit about them. He has the same engine yours has. If you are interested I can pass along contact info to you. He had it up at the Gilmore Car Museum yesterday for a show. I grabbed this photo off of Facebook from the show.

My wife is very supportive but does not do any tours, shows, or car activities with me. How is she so supportive? I just found the right cars to get her that she can drive and have some fun with herself. Here is one I got her three weeks ago that she just loves to drive around the lake, even though she doesn’t like clubs, shows, or other typical car activities. I just have to do some maintenance on it, she is very happy, and then I got two additional cars for myself. Wish I had a fix for the high housing costs where you are at.

I agree. I have purchased three cars in the last two months. A 1911, a 1920, and a 1942 auto. None are project cars and are all ones that we can use and enjoy. There are people out there buying for sure.

Yes, it is a Cole Aero 8 with a special top. Also has some Westinghouse air springs.

early racing crash

Bill Endicott in his 1910 Cole 30 winning a Vanderbilt cup sweeps race

1910/11 Cole 30

Here is an interesting photo. 1911 Cole 30

That was a nice Maxwell and it also had a Mitchell overdrive so it would cruise all day at 45. I miss it a little but it was nothing compared to driving a Cole with the big V8.. For the original poster there is a lot of variance in the cars for sale in the era you are looking for. A lot of the cars that look like great deals will cost you more to actually sort them out. You really need to get to know some people that own these cars and may sell in the future. You will be hard pressed to find a car with your speed specs in the price you are looking for. That being said if the car is done and set up right it will be a joy. Heck, my 1911 model T speedster ticks off your speed and driving requirements as it cruises at 45 and tops at 55.

Interesting photo. Cole was the first company to offer balloon tires as production standard on an automobile in 1923 with their Firestone partnership. From the book 'The Firestone Story'

1919/20 Cole Aero 8 Tourster

1920 Cole Aero 8 seven person Tourster