Old Ford pics

[CobraJoe]

[FiveSevenLiter]

Thanks CJ, I was just reading an article yesterday about the typed decal with the tach differences from actual RPM.  It was mounted inside on the door jam where the driver could not see when the door was closed.
Terry
 

[CobraJoe]

 

[CobraJoe]

[Marc]

Those old assembly line pics are the best.

[CobraJoe]

[FiveSevenLiter]

Found this in a 1951 Mechanix Illustrated.
How times have changed.
Terry
 

[CobraJoe]

[Marc]

This one might need a little TLC...

[CobraJoe]

  Shame 

[CobraJoe]

[SkylinerRon]

A 57 without rust around the headlights!

Ron.

[FiveSevenLiter]

For Steep Hills.

[SkylinerRon]

That must have been late 40's or early 50's.

[CobraJoe]

I remember reading about this a while back, that was the beginning of Paxton Superchargers:

"Robert Paxton McCulloch was a skilled Stanford University engineering graduate who inherited a considerable sum of money from his multi-millionaire grandfather at an early age. This gave him the financial freedom to indulge in two of his passions, boat racing and engineering, which eventually led to him becoming a national champion in classes C and D of outboard hydroplanes in the1930's, and the also saw him set up a machine shop, where he and his helpers made engines for midget racers, and ended up building a twin motored, four wheel drive, midget that was so fast that it resulted in the ban of this type of midget from the tracks. Search for more speed resulted in him using his inheritance to set up the McCulloch Engineering Company in which he employed a team of engineers to develop engines and superchargers for aeronautical and automotive applications.

The first product of the McCulloch Engineering  Company was  a 2 stroke 60 cubic inch 90 HP racing engine developed by Robert P McCulloch, Gerald C Robechaud  and  Milton Hoeppner. Another product developed at McCulloch Engineering by Francis L. Colburn was a centrifugal supercharger for the flathead Ford V8. The  flathead Ford V8  was an enormously popular powerplant at the time, and a low cost centrifugal supercharger developed for this engine had potential for high sales. The resultant supercharger was belt driven, was horizontally mounted between the standard intake manifold and carburetor, and may well have been one of the first aftermarket blower systems produced  "[/i]

90 HP 60 Cubic Inch Engine


90 HP 60 Cubic Inch Engine


"McCulloch Engineering Company was based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the flathead supercharger unit was manufactured and sold between 1937 and 1940, and was significantly different to the later McCulloch blow through centrifugal superchargers in that it was an inline unit, which compressed and mixed the fuel/air charge.  It consisted of an impellor, which turned at six times the engine speed in the impellor housing, and was driven by a set of worm gears mounted on the drive shaft and rotor shaft. The worm gears were driven by a triple pulley mounted an input drive shaft driven from the crankshaft pulley using several belts and were initially lubricated using engine oil under pressure from the engines oil system. By revolving at high speed the impellor caused the fuel/air mixture to build up pressure, up to a maximum of four pounds, within the impellor housing as a result of centrifugal force, and the pressurized mixture was discharged into the inlet manifold. There appears to have been two versions, one without a water jacket, and the other with a water jacket around the impellor housing which was used to warm the air/fuel mixture and was purported to aid low speed performance. A special three/four belt crank pulley was furnished for the Ford crankshaft, two new water pumps with three belt pulleys, as well as a set of matched V belts, a belt idler pulley and a special air cleaner which was required due to the reduced clearance added by the supercharger.  The initial units, manufactured in 1937 and retailing for around $85, were designed to bolt onto the existing Ford and Mercury V8's which had the water pumps attached to the cylinder heads.  Continuous improvement by the McCulloch engineers resulted in a modified version being introduced in 1938, retailing for $125, and which was also engine oil lubricated via a supplied intake manifold, which contained all the necessary link ups required for the engine oil lubrication. These also appear to have been offered with in water jacketed and non water jacketed versions. In 1939/40 thermostatic control of the exhaust gas through the impellor housing was introduced, in order to promote a rapid warm up of the fuel/air charge output from the blower. These flathead superchargers were designated with a model number that correlated the year of manufacture against the intended application vehicle (M for Mercury and F for Ford). Hence 38F refers to a 1938 model intended for a Ford."