1931 Ford V8 seen at The Henry Ford

[VeryTangled]

Hi Everyone, I thought I'd share some photos from The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, that I shot earlier today.

Caption on display:

1931 Ford V-8 engine cylinder block
Early version of a roaring success.

Henry Ford didn't stop trying when the X-8 failed. In 1930, he began work on another eight-cylinder engine, this time in a V shape. This casting was found in the basement of Fort Myers Laboratory in Greenfield Village, where the V-8 engine was designed. Creating this in one piece was extraordinarily difficult in 1930. The engineers might have made dozens of such experimental castings. Ford's V-8 became one of the most famous engines of all time.

The Birthplace of the V-8
In 1930, Henry Ford gathered a small team of engineers at this building in Greenfield Village, where he directed them in designing the new V-8 engine. As with his X-8 project, Henry might have selected a location away from the company for privacy. Production of the new engine began in March 1932.

Develping the new engine required a lot of experimentation over two years. The exhaust manifolds and cooling water inlets on this early version of the Ford V-8 differ from those on the final product.

Maker: Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan
Configuration: V-8, L-head valves, displacement unknown
Horsepower: unknown

[Brendan]

that's Kool Jeff, thanks for posting!!

[1937pickup]

That is great to see-thanks for posting.

[chuck stevens]

Boy we thought the intake ports were small on the later flatties, check out the ones on this pre-production v8. Thanks Jeff.

[RKS.PA]

Great pictures!! Dearborn is on my bucket list. Looks like you had a great time at the "holy land" of our hobby!!!

Dick.

[trainguy]

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I was at the HF museum last year and missed them.great place to visit but needed more than one day to see.Jeff thanks for posting. Phil

[LBs 37V8]

Jeff and I were at the HF museum over 5 hours yesterday, and we still didn't see it all. Bryan

[5851a]

Wow that casting is extremely interesting, the ports and what's going on at the rear, the bores look so small. Wonder if they did small batches and this is the only one to escape the scrap pile.

[jimTN]

There are pics of the complete version of this engine arouind and also as it was stored before it was sold in the big auction a few years ago. It had a starter where that hump is on the belhousing. Glad this block survived. Have asked several times about the engines that were stored at the lab and was always told they were sold.