Here is a fresh challenge for Frank T., our resident historian and triviologist (how do you like that one?), or any others on the forum.

Identify this automotive engine:

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Jim Arnett
Richardson, Texas
HLS30-15320 12/1970 (original owner)
ZCON 2015 Gold Cup - Street Modified class

Wow!! That's a Tucker!

The original 589 cubic inch Tucker engine had some problems, so Mr. Tucker bought a factory full of these 334 cubic inch air-cooled (yes, air cooled) flat-six cylinder engines from the Franklin Air Cooled Motor Car Company in Liverpool (Syracuse) New York. He then converted them to WATERCOOLED engines by enclosing the finned cylinders in water jackets. The car would have been lighter without the water, but there were no air-cooled heaters/defrosters for his car in 1948.

Because Tucker was unsure of the durability of the Franklin engines, he made them individually available to the owners of his 50 (fifty) cars. Therefore, there are A LOT more Tucker engines than Tucker cars.

Do I win something?

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1970 240Z

The winner and still champion. Your repository of knowledge seems boundless!

This is Tucker #50 (of 51) residing at Dick's Classic Garage in San Marcos, TX. It was still on the line when the factory was shut down and has 0.4 mi on the odometer. This car is absolutely stunning - roomy beyond belief.

Jim

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Jim Arnett
Richardson, Texas
HLS30-15320 12/1970 (original owner)
ZCON 2015 Gold Cup - Street Modified class

One more image, perhaps a bit difficult to read. 48 of the 50 cars (plus the prototype) are accounted for! Per the curator at Dick's Classic Garage, all of the cars were still at the factory when it was seized by the bankruptcy court. They were subsequently sold by the trustee, presumably to collectors and perhaps employees. This car was unfinished at the shutdown, was missing the hood, trunk lid, other parts for some time.

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Jim Arnett
Richardson, Texas
HLS30-15320 12/1970 (original owner)
ZCON 2015 Gold Cup - Street Modified class

Absolutely stunning. The Tucker was a total innovation ~ it offered unheard of features for its day, which the Big Three eventually copied in the next decade. Tucker drove his first one across the country to advertise it. Did you know it was built to let the engine be swapped out and in, in only 30 minutes? Tucker mechanics could drop the engine out the bottom of the car and install a "loaner" engine in 28 minutes. You dropped your engine off at the mechanic's, not your car! That's why there are hundreds of these engines available, for the few cars he made.

Wonderful, wonderful cars, no doubt copying Ferry Porsche's ideas, and leading the Corvair by nearly 20 years. Alex Tremulis said it was the first thing he'd ever designed. His first real job. Either that kid was a genius or he had the best beginner's luck I've ever heard of.

Thanks for this! Great car, great pictures. Mike "The Z Man" should make Dick a better show board!

*(Triviologist, huh? I like that! Thanks! )

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1970 240Z

OK, here's another one for ya.

What's THIS??

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1970 240Z

Okay, I'll bite.
Been gone awhile, so I'm playing "catch-up" (not ketchup)!!

On the horizontally opposed engine, I was thinking in terms
of a Gray Marine boat engine because of the water jackets,
but Frank got it right, which doesn't surprise me in the least.

Now on this V-8, I would say it looks like the original 331
CID Cadillac which began 1948 or 49 (a bigger displacement
but the same engine as the 303 CID Olds which was ripping
up the NASCAR tracks). This one looks to have 4@ Stromberg
single throat carbs, which I don't believe was factory. But I
seem to recall that one could opt for a 4-throat Quadrajet.

I was wondering if this is an engine swap into an old Ford or
some such, since that was a very popular swap back in the
day, when there weren't many OHV V-8 engines being made.

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All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

Rick's right. It's Cadillac's first OHV V8, dated 1949. It was a 331 cubic inch engine with 7.9:1 compression, producing 160 bhp in stock form, with a single 2Bbl downdraft carb. Without modifications, this new 'powerhouse' could push the 1949 Sedanette from 0-60 mph in a blazing 12.1 seconds! Wow! Top speed was a screaming 106mph.

But few people left these engines stock. They were very popular swaps into other cars, like Rick says. Foremost among those swaps was the semi-industrial arrangement btwn Cadillac and the British Allard sportscars. Allard made a race-ready car with a big, empty engine bay and shipped them over here to be stuffed with American V8 muscle. Several US engines were used, but this 331 OHV V8 was the favorite. The application was so popular, in fact, that the cars became commonly referred to as "Cad/Allards".

Cadillac offered multiple carbs for this engine, including dual 4Bbls. Offenhauser, Weiand, Moon and several other racing companies also made multiple carb manifolds for this exciting new engine. You could buy almost ANY combination (2x4, 3x2, 6x1, 6x2, etc).

But I have never seen or heard of FOUR single barrels for this engine. So when I stumbled across this stunningly perfect 1949 Cad 2dr Sedanette Fastback at Lime Rock Park a few years ago, I had to shoot some pics of this ultra-rare manifold. The hood was open, the car was open, the key was in the ignition and nobody was around. Nobody I asked knew who owned the car, so I couldn't ask any detailed questions about this rare and unique setup. I can't even determine who made this manifold. I guess it would be the equivalent of a single 4Bbl carb?

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1970 240Z

OK, any guesses?

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1970 240Z

Heehee, frank I can read the label.

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Justin
1986 Z31 NA 2+0

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1970 240Z

OK, since we seem to be having fun with this, here is one more from Dick's Classic Garage.

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Jim Arnett
Richardson, Texas
HLS30-15320 12/1970 (original owner)
ZCON 2015 Gold Cup - Street Modified class

Arrgghhh! My eyes! My eyes!

Wowwww! Straight eight, twin overhead cams, big downdraft carb, "envy green" block, lots of chrome......what a Duesy!

Actually, I can tell you that it IS in fact a Duesy ~ a Duesenberg. It's NOT a 1929 Model J, which I'm pretty familiar with, but I would guess it to be from the early to mid 1930s (because of the carb and intake manifold).

Duesenbergs ran off straight 8-cylinder, 7 Liter (420 ci), 32-valve Lycoming engines which made a massive (for 1930) 265 bhp. That pushed those behemoth luxury barges to well over 100 mph. They were the most expensive car America made for its day, and they were released *JUST* in time for the Depression. Only movie stars and gangsters could afford them.

Cord Motor Company (not 'Ford'), Stutz and Auburn tried hard to keep up with the Duesenberg Brothers by making cars equally fast ~ but they couldn't touch the luxury of the big Duesy.

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1970 240Z

Frank,
You are way too much. Right on target and... you need to retract the NOT word. Check out the backstory on the display card - dunked in the canal, recovered, ...

Here 'ya go:

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Jim Arnett
Richardson, Texas
HLS30-15320 12/1970 (original owner)
ZCON 2015 Gold Cup - Street Modified class

What a magnificent car!! There it is ~ the '29 J model Duesenberg. Wow.

Carb and intake manifold are incorrect for the 1929 model J. They had updraft carbs without the twin "porthole" vacuum plugs on the plenum. But no matter ~ this is a spectacular example of the very best America ever had to offer. This is our "Rolls Royce".

When I was a kid, I saw Clark Gable's personal Duesenberg on display at the Oklahoma state fair. I was about 10 and things of that nature normally didn't slow me down much. But when I saw it I STOPPED....and gawked for long minutes. THIS was what a motorcar was all about ~ THIS was what cars should be like ~ THIS was what all other cars were hoping to be, when they grew up.

There simply is no other American car like the Model J Duesenberg ~ ever.

(PS ~ If Mike T had made that show board, paragraph #1 would have properly ended with an 's' . A One-million-dollar show car represented by a $50 misspelled board )

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1970 240Z