Originally Posted By: addyguy
That is really cool, neat to see!
I've got a secret fascination with industrial engines. They're a whole different world, and there were lots of really interesting ones back in the day. But as I said, they're a dead breed now. If there's any need for a spark-ignition industrial engine nowdays (usually for LP gas or natural gas operation) it tends to be derived from an existing diesel.
Originally Posted By: addyguy
Only 277HP from nearly 9 litres!...geeze, I'm actually suprised some enterpising hot-rodders, wanting to do somethignradically different, haven't tried turning once of these into some monster hot-rod engine..that would be neat!
Industrial engines can put out 100% rated power 24/7 for years on end. It used to be that you could walk through West Texas farm country pretty much any time of day during growing season and hear several gasoline (or natural gas) irrigation engines humming away- day and night, all season long. Try that with a 380-HP rated modern automotive v6 and see how long it holds together
The reason the really big industrial engines don't wind up in hotrods very often (things like the Blastolene monsters notwithstanding) is that they're SO heavy. Yeah, with a lot of machine work, custom pistons, etc. you could probably get the horsepower up to 700 or so, but the engine would still weigh close to half a ton.
And even if it was a lighter block more related to car engines (like a Ford 370 or Mopar 413-3) pretty much nothing about it would work with the usual car transmission, accessories, etc. Back when I was much more active on the Mopar forums, about 3 times a year someone would pop up having "discovered" a "really cool old engine" in a motorhome or old Dodge tandem dump truck that "looked a lot like a 440 only different," and want to use it in a muscle car. A few questions would confirm that it was a 413-3, and someone would run down the long litany of parts that were just flat incompatible with a car chassis... which was pretty much everything but the bare block and the connecting rods (and even they were too heavy to spin much past 5000 RPM). Crank flange- made for an Allison, not a Torqueflite. Heads- external plumbing for water cooling. Water pump and timing case- too tall to fit under any car hood. Camshaft- nothing but torque below 3600 RPM, nothing at all above. Pistons- not enough compression for high power. Valves- really cool sodium filled stems, but too small to breathe at high RPM. Etc.
