nzcarnerd Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I took these photo about 30 years ago and even though I have not had contact with the owner for several years I presume he still has it. It looks to be an early American car chassis/engine unit, with space to the side for a planetary transmission. Due to it having an inspection plate I was able to measure the bore and stroke which are 5" by 6" - it works out to 118 cid - just less than 2 litres. I did some research at the time and found it is not one of the more well known makes. They all have 'odd' valve gear whereas this one has very conventional side valves. The only possible clue was that the oilers are Lankenspergers (spelling??) but they may have been used on several makes. At the time I took these the owner's son was living in the US and had made some enquiries but drew a blank. From looking through The Standard Catalog back then - my 1982 copy which I still have and refer to often - it appears there were not that many makes that used horizontal engines. Many used the de Dion system of a vertical engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleek Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 am no expert by far, but it looks much more likely to be an industrial setup than automotive. Hopefully someone will be along to give a definite answer soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Looks like a hit-n-miss that is missing the coolant reservoir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC5 Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 It does look like a stationary hit & miss engine. The flywheel looks massive; too much so for an intended automotive application. The 'chassis' appears to be pretty rude & crude angle iron construction. I would expect something a little more elegant if it were intended to be a commercial automotive product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gossp Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Have you tried @George Albright the very early and obscure seems to be his passion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Albright Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Looks like around a circa 1906 automobile engine with later mechanical inlet valve rather than a atmospheric intake valve as on pre- 1905 engines. Actually pre-06 cars generally had horizontal engines rather than vertical engines like de Dion bouton powered cars. Neat piece in an early but non original frame. Thanks George Albright. Gnalbright@gmail.com 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W_Higgins Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Massive flywheel and crude angle iron frame do not exclude it from being an automobile. In this case it's not the Ford that I've posted here to make the point. The engine being offset like that lends credence to it once having had a transmission mounted off to the other side with a chain drive sprocket in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzcarnerd Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 9 hours ago, W_Higgins said: Massive flywheel and crude angle iron frame do not exclude it from being an automobile. In this case it's not the Ford that I've posted here to make the point. The engine being offset like that lends credence to it once having had a transmission mounted off to the other side with a chain drive sprocket in the middle. Yes re the offset, that was my thought. I guess the Ford cranks from the other side like my mystery engine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldford Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Looks very similar to a one cylinder Reo engine (1906-1910) except that the main casting is lighter and the flywheel is on the wrong side. I know that Olds made engines that were used in industry other than those used in the cars. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustycrusty Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 (edited) Here is an image of a similar engine from a 1905 Gale Automobile made by Western Tool Works of Galesburg, Ill., USA from 1904 until approx. 1910. Quite a few manufacturers supplied engines to early Automobile manufacturers, which in many early examples didnt make the individual components necessary to build a complete machine and simply assembled their finished product from various parts (engines, transmissions, front and rear axles- even bodies) supplied by other shops. Whatever machine-shop jobber supplied your engine to its ultimate (automobile) destination probably had a hand in building the ones that Western Tool Works bought as well. The oilers appear to be Lunkenheimers. They did beaucoup business as a top-quality supplier of oilers and carburettors to the late 19th and early 20th century industrial boom. Edited April 30, 2020 by dustycrusty (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W_Higgins Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 3 hours ago, nzcarnerd said: Yes re the offset, that was my thought. I guess the Ford cranks from the other side like my mystery engine? It looks like you got positive identification above, but yes, it cranks from the proper right side. In the case of the Ford here is what the transmission assembly looks like without the tanks in the way. It's a pretty conventional configuration for 1-and-2 cyl. engines such as this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Schramm Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 Many of the Buick vehicles from 1903-1910 were two cylinder opposed engines. Think Buick Model F & G and 2-A truck. The flywheel on those engines probably weigh +- 100 pounds. As for "wrong side crank" remember that pre +- 1913 cars in the US were many times right hand drive. Here is a Buick Model F engine in the chassis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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