Airplane Engines in Autos

[cobraman]

And they don't look the least bit dangerous. : )

[Ace-Garageguy]

could i ask a question and pardon me if its already been mentioned in this thread but when you say:

"a 27 liter SOHC engine (2 cams, one per cylinder bank),"

you literally mean a twenty seven litre (like REALLY HUGE) engine? just wanted to make sure as that's pretty darn huge, like 1500 to 2000 cubic inches (offhand and undoubtedly way off calculation)?

and this "SOHC" part...to me that has always meant single over head camshaft, but what you are describing sounds to me like a DOHC: dual over head camshaft. is this something unique to aeronautic nomenclature, the camshaft for one bank of cylinders defining the difference?

jb

Yes, 27 liters. That's about 1650 cubic inches. For reference, the Allison V1710 shown elsewhere in this thread was 1710 cubic inches. Military aircraft piston engines tend to be large displacement because of the need to generate lots of power, extremely reliably, at relatively low RPM.

There's always some confusion about the SOHC and DOHC nomenclature. SOHC means a single overhead cam per cylinder bank. DOHC means two overhead cams per cylinder bank. Example: A SOHC V8 engine has 2 cams, while a DOHC V8 engine has 4 cams.

This is confused further by people sometimes referring to DOHC V-engines with two cylinder banks as "quad cam" (referring to the total number of cams), and in the same breath referring to another engine as "double-cam" or "twin-cam" (referring to the number of cams per cylinder bank).

In correct engineering-speak, SOHC ALWAYS means a single overhead cam per cylinder bank. DOHC ALWAYS means two overhead cams per cylinder bank.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[Atmobil]

A modelling mate of mine (Kjell Terje, some may know him from other forums as Slabbedask) started a project a few years ago where he combined AMT Ford C600 with Airfix Spitfire 1:24 plane. Here is a picture of it:

[jbwelda]

>There's always some confusion about the SOHC and DOHC nomenclature.

well yes now that i think about it, of course this makes sense. in an over head cam situation you of course have to have one cam or more per bank of cylinders, its only when the came is under the head/valves that it can be shared by banks of cylinders. duh. thanks for the explanation. made me think about it a bit

jb

[Lownslow]

[jbwelda]

man what some people will do for a little attention!

and i bet theres a little 1.6 VW air cooled engine in the trunk that provides the actual "go"!

jb

[Twokidsnosleep]

This pic kills me. He has gotta be saying the classic "hold my beer and watch this" or "whoever hangs on the longest wins"

This thread has really taken off....haha see what I did there

Thanks for all your contributions, lots of wackos have pried a huge airplane engine into a car

[Art Anderson]

Royce did the basic engineering for the V-12, ready when he died in 1933. The first aircraft use was in 1936.

The Rolls Phantom III, produced from 1936-1939, used a variant of the design in its protoypes, code name Spectre.

All sources, including the original Phantom III sales brochure, say the car's powerplant was based on the V-12 technology developed for aircraft and marine use. To me, that's related to this topic.

And yet, Rolls Royce had to be begged, coddled, and coerced into bringing the Merlin to production.

[unclescott58]

A modelling mate of mine (Kjell Terje, some may know him from other forums as Slabbedask) started a project a few years ago where he combined AMT Ford C600 with Airfix Spitfire 1:24 plane. Here is a picture of it:

I hope we can see this one when its done. I wonder. Would it post in Model Cars Underglass section? Or under the Everthing else section?

Scott

[DrGlueblob]

Of course, there's the Shockwave truck....

I fly a Powered Parachute, and there's a three cylinder Geo Metro engine in the works for it someday.

[Art Anderson]

I finally found pictures of the late Sig Haugdahl's "Wisconsin Special", one of the earliest aircraft engine powered race cars--it ran an unofficial 180+ mph on the sand at Daytona, unofficial as he was not an AAA-Contest Board licensed race driver at the time (1922).

The chassis is an unidentifiable large touring car chassis built sometime in the late teens, with sheet steel bodywork, clearly hand hammered to shape (there are numerous hammer dings from the inside out on that nose.

The engine is a 6-cylinder all aluminum affair, a preproduction sample 836cid unit built to meet contract specs for the US Army Air Service in WW-I, but only three or four were completed before the war ended in November 1918, and the project was cancelled abruptly.

When I saw the car in 2003 (it was then owned by the founder of a fairly large industrial gasses distributor in Mishawaka IN) it had just returned from that year's Goodwood Festival of Speed--yes, it still runs.

Art

[Ace-Garageguy]

Good one, Art !

The engine was apparently made by Wisconsin Airplane. Here's a shot of the intake side.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[cobraman]

What kind of HP did they get out of these things ?

[Ace-Garageguy]

What kind of HP did they get out of these things ?

Based on the output of engines having similar technology (the Liberty 1650 cu.in. V12 from around 1918 made about 400HP), my guess is that the engine in this car would produce 200-250HP, tops.

[LDO]

I'm surprised this one hasn't shown up in this thread yet. It's a race car with a Hispano-Suiza aircraft V-8 cut down to a 366ci inline-4. It was in Hot Rod magazine not long ago.

And a link to the story at Hot Rod Magazine's website: http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/1412-half-off-special-hisso-roadster/

If you haven't picked up Hot Rod in a while, check it out. IMHO, it's awesome. The best it's been in ages.

[Art Anderson]

Lee, there were any number of WW-I surplus Hispano-Suiza V8 aircraft engines cut down--easy enough to do, as those had separate cylinder blocks bolted to a common crankcase--by the 1930's, some Hisso powered dirt track cars being campaigned into the early 1950's.

Art

[Art Anderson]

Good one, Art !

The engine was apparently made by Wisconsin Airplane. Here's a shot of the intake side.

Bill,

I got to see the Wisconsin Spl., when a friend of mine from Griffith IN called me, told me he had a commission from a well-known antique race car restorer to scratchbuild a model of it in 1/15 scale (Gerald Wingrove's preferred scale, BTW). I arranged to spend an extended lunch hour from the office to scope out the car, but given the short notice, didn't have time to run by home, pick up my camera.

It's an amazing car, still almost all original, and it is HUGE!

Art

[Ace-Garageguy]

Here's a bizarro ride with another Allison, from 1954. The "Cramer Comet" was obviously influenced stylistically by Harley Earl's LeSabre concept car. I have black and white article on it in an old "little pages" mag.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[Art Anderson]

Good one, Art !

The engine was apparently made by Wisconsin Airplane. Here's a shot of the intake side.

A pretty nice photo-spread (vintage pics) of the Wisconsin Spl.

http://silodrome.com/sig-haugdahl-wisconsin-special/

Art

[Atmobil]

I hope we can see this one when its done. I wonder. Would it post in Model Cars Underglass section? Or under the Everthing else section?

Scott

Yeah, plenty of people are wanting to see that finished including myself as he bought both of the kits from me back in 2011 I think.

[gtx6970]

How on earth do the keep something like this cool ?

[Art Anderson]

How on earth do the keep something like this cool ?

A tall radiator, and speed.

Art

[dw1603]

How on earth do the keep something like this cool ?

An aeroplane engine in a car, how could it not be cool?

[Pete J.]

Not really feasible but this is a model I built years ago. There was a group of us got a bunch of parts from Tamiya and we all had to build something with the stuff we got. This is a 1:20 scale Honda F1 that was missing its engine parts combined with the cowling and engine from a 1:48 scale P-47. There was a big long fictitious story about post war France and some captured German experimental stuff that explained the whole thing. It was all done in jest. Great fun exercising the brain with a jumble of parts.

Edited February 1, 2015 by Pete J.

[Twokidsnosleep]

So my Fiat kit that inspired this thread arrived yesterday after work.....it is a beauty!

Italeri seem like they have done a good job in putting it together with multiple coloured sprues, a little plastic bin for screws etc and an instruction pamphlet

I am on this old car kick at the moment, so this fits in nicely

the other little bags are detail stuff for other cars...rivets, joints, seat belts that kind of stuff

Loving how they packed this up; separate bags for sprues, body in plastic and a little protected cardboard box. It reminds me of how Pocher packaged the Alfa...maybe even a little better

Anyways, this is the kit that had me start this thread, so here she is on my living room floor

Edited February 4, 2015 by Twokidsnosleep