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In 1931 Henry made a trip to his summer home in Fort Meyers, FL. Rather than take the train, he elected to drive down in a somewhat spirited Model A. It was later revealed that the Model A was configured with a prototype V-8, and Henry was performing a development test. Can anyone provide any additional information on this little known but important test ? Just curious how the engine performed since the initial development of the V-8 was plagued with problems and disappointments. Once the bugs were worked the Ford V-8 earned a major milestone in automotive history. Just hoping some of our Ford history buffs can tell us the rest of the story.

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I bet Paul Harvey would know. :confused: :eek: :D
TerryO

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Is there any substantial evidence for this story, or could it be another 'urban legend'?

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The story is documented by author Douglas Brinkley in his book, "Wheels for the World".

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It may not mean much but there was nothing in Charlie Sorensens book about it. Ford, or more accurately Jeno Farkas' unsuccesful experimentation with the X block 8 cylinder engine prior to the introduction of the model A was chronicled. The Henry Ford has a little bit of info on this site. https://www.thehenryford.org/collect...tifact/279399/

They have a photo of an experimental block cast in 1930 or 31. They also have a photo of the 1st V8 (complete) and it does have the side pads similar to the ones on the model A clutch housing. It mentions that they did some of the work down at the Ford/Edison Winter Estate in Edisons shop. I figure they put it together there and worked with it trying to get it operational. I don't know if they actually drove the car down to Ft Meyers though. That's a long way to be driving an experimental car that started out with a lot of bugs. I'd want to have a tow car following me. There would have been no capability to make parts down there. Parts would have come from the Rouge.

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Just going by memory (it has been several years) but I believe this is supposed to be the 1st V8 built. It is at the Henry Ford estate in Ft Myers.


TerryO

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1st V8 built in 1940 maybe? ?Certainly not the 1st V8! It has a '40-'48 transmission, water outlets in the center of the heads, a two barrel carb, an oil filter, and later generator without a cutout mounted on it. So at least a 1940 engine.

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I was going to say the bronze color is a nice 1950s Oldsmobile sort of color.

Maybe they hadn't developed "Ford Engine Blue" yet.

Joe K

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The head bolt pattern also tells us it's a 24 stud 239cu version of the flathead used in mercury's starting 1939 and Ford's starting 1946 vs the earlier 21 stud 221 v8.

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Well, not quite. The 24 stud came out in 1938 and was still 221 cu. in. The 221 24 stud engine was produced through 1942.

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There’s a bit more about in the book called “Uncommon Friends”. The author was a friend of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, among others. He sold the Fort Meyers properties to Edison and Ford as I recall. It’s a really interesting book.

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Back in '56 or '57 I went to the Henry Ford Museum with my father. Ford V-8 #1 was on display there. We went out a side door of the museum and wandered over to another old building that wasn't open to the public, it looked like a powerhouse as it had a big smokestack. We peeked inside a side door of that building and there was a bunch of various engines scattered on the floor, one of which was an air cooled X-8. We shouldn't have been there so we went back to the museum the way we came.

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Bronze engine color was used in the shoebox Fords with 8BA engines for a time. That engine could be a 99A or an 81A. It would be hard to tell without seeing the part numbers on the heads. It could also be a 59A from post war but most of them have the big 59 on the back.

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I know very little about the early V8 engines and like I said, it has been several years since I took the pic. I like to also take a pic of the placard to help my aging memory but I failed on this one. :confused:


TerryO

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The motor in that picture (V-8) is listed at the museum as ca. 1937. I was there somewhat recently and my photo has the descriptive plaque in it, thus my information.

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I was at the Henry Ford 3 or 4 years ago and I might be confusing the 2. :eek:





TerryO

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Trans is column shift-first year 1940. Do not see a fan on the generator-first year of crank mounted fan was 1939 Deluxe, if I remember. Holley/
Chandler Grove carb. '37 was Stromberg 97, as I recall. Also I don't think '37's had an oil filter.

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The engines were still 21-stud in 1937. 1938 was when the 24-stud 81A engine came out but they were mixed with 21-stud engines for a while that year.

Henry would hold out on changes until he had exhausted all of the new ideas that they hadn't perfected yet. He wanted a new 8-cylinder engine and a new 3-speed version of the model T transmission but finally gave up on both ideas before shutting the plant down on model T production and tooling up for model A production in 1927. They settle for what was viable for the time. It turned out pretty well but the multi plate clutch and a few other problematic items went by the way side pretty quickly after production started.

Ford was onto something with his bands, clutches, and planetary ideas for a transmission but it would be after his death before the automatic transmissions finally became reality. They just didn't have the technology figured out to make it work yet.

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Shouldn't that be WINTER home in Florida? This was before air conditioning so Florida was a hot humid place full of bugs. I have often read of Henry and family going South during the winter, but not summer, as best I recall. I'm still thinking this story is more legend than fact.

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Many manufacturers used a planetary transmission in the early 1900's