Watch a 100-Year-Old, 28.5-Liter Engine Scream to Life (video 3min)

PopSci ^ | December 1, 2014 | Chris Cantle

[virgil283]

Watch this huge engine start and run......Turn your volume up LOUD !@!

[ElkGroveDan]

“Uh hello, is this Pep Boys? Yeah I’m looking for a head-gasket for a 1914 Fiat....what? Yeah, it’s the 28.5 liter... OK I’ll hold .... “

[yarddog]

Does anyone know how large those WWII Packard V-12s they used in PT boats were?

[Celtic Conservative]

Is the warranty still valid? Seriously , though I love the way things were overengineered back in the day. I can leave my ‘55 chevy in a dairy barn for 5 months, come back- throw in a freshly charged battery, spritz some carb cleaner/ ether in it and she fires right up. That stovebolt 6 (first produced in 1929, and used in one form or another until 1980) just refuses to die.

CC

[virgil283]

don’t know the cubic inches but a PT boat had four of them.

[Rabin]

Mmm-m sweet

Rabin

[JRandomFreeper]

Automatic or standard?

It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't have a little guy in the back that could whip out a head gasket and assign a part number. ;)

/johnny

[Rockpile]

I thought the PT boats had three engines. Now you made me have to look it up 😉

[MV=PY]

Very cool.

Back in the days when you could work on them.

[Phlyer]

There was some variation, but the typical Packard Merlin was 1620 cu. in, which equates to 26.5 liters, so they were actually fairly close.

Just for the record, a standard Elco PT boat had three, not four of them. Not that it really matters - even one of them is serious power!

[yarddog]

I thought it was two.

[Larry Lucido]

So as far back as 1911, Tony was Fixing It Again?

[Celtic Conservative]

27 litres or 1,650 cubic inches. Your mileage may vary.

CC

[Clay Moore]

I cannot imagine hand cranking an engine that size. I have almost had joints pulled out of their sockets cranking a VF4D Wisconsin on a Lincoln SA200 welder.

The bruises that crank would leave were impressive.

Love the Barracuda in the background.

[virgil283]

"I thought the PT boats had three engines"

There was an ad for several PT boats for sale last year stating they were without the 4 engines......that what I was going by....Maybe wrong.

[Rockpile]

Well, one source says 2490 cubic inches. Three engines and 1200 to 1500 HP.

[yarddog]

Back around 1960 my best friend had to plow his parents field with a Farmall Cub. It looked like a large tractor only a bit smaller.

One day he got it stuck in a hole and it would not pull itself out. He got out the hand crank which you had to use to start it, and literally cranked it out of the hole by hand.