landing craft engines.
Did the U.S. Military ever use large Dodge flathead six engines in landing crafts ? I have a friend that got two Dodge flathead engines at a surplus auction about 30 years ago.They are 370 cubic inches in size.They have dual carbs and dual exhaust.They had a sealed electrical systems.They had adapters on the the engines to use what looked like GM Hydramatic transmissions on them.He has used the engines in his 1947 5 ton Dodge flatbed truck over the years.He is currently trying to wear out the second one.The side of the engine blocks have the words NICKEL CROME MOLYBDENUM STEEL.Parts are kinda hard to find at times.The truck empty weighs just under 14,000 pounds.It has a 5 speed trans,a 3 speed secondary trans and a 2 speed rearend.
EvilDr235
EvilDr235
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call the army transportation musuem at ft eustis va. or the maritime museum in newport news va.. im sure they can give you an answer. go on line. 0 -
BTTT
XXXXXX0 -
I do know they use special alloys in marine blocks to handle the stress. It sounds like that block was cast for marine use. 0 -
The engines came from Mare Island Navel Shipyard in Vallejo California.The engines had been removed from the landing craft before it was cut up and sold for scrap.I saw them when my friend first got them.They appeared to be unused.They are huge compaired to a Chrysler or Desoto flathead six.They are the same engine that came in my friends big Dodge truck.Dodge also built one with over 400 cubic inches in the same engine family in the mid 1950s.Alot of them were used in garbage trucks and dump trucks.
EvilDr2350 -
fyi, ft eustis is the home of the east coast ghost fleet. i can assure you someone there knows about l.craft. we hauled many there. 0 -
I read an article in a vintage car mag - maybe a MOPAR mag - some years ago that said that M-4 Sherman tanks used a Dodge engine with that inscription - I don't know if it was a straight six or not.
If it was a marine engine, there would be no need for gears other than forward, neutral, and reverse.
In the same mag was an article about a warehouse full of new engines in France, that a guy had just bought to resell in the states. I think they were for Military Jeeps, or maybe they were flathead Ford V8s.
Wish I wasn't so senile.
Doug0 -
...Well, Doug, somewhere in my own senile mind, I think Shermans used a radial engine. Yes, I mean like an airplane radial. But then, I'm senile. 0 -
I also thought that, but they may have used more than one powerplant, for expediency.
Were the radials made by Dodge ?? I have a vague recollection that they were , maybe, 5 engines bolted together, sharing a common crankshaft ??
Doug0 -
Dodge flatheads wee used for anything and everything. Air compressors. Generators. Hydraulic power. Sprinkler systems. Massey Harris, Oliver and other lesser brand tractors used them. Grandpa liked them because it was easy to find parts. 0 -
I do know about the Dodge/Sherman tank connection.Some of the early (forget which model)Sherman tanks used five Dodge flathead six engines.They called it a 30 cylinder multi bank engine.They connected engines together in a circle so when you looked at the front,all the water pumps would be facing you.It did not work very well,and the idea was dropped.Some of the engines still exist both in and out of tanks.
EvilDr2350 -
They had room in a tank for all that engine? 0 -
Kind of reminds me of a tranny Dad has sitting around. It is three Chevy 4 speed transmissions from '69-'72 bolted together into one big long unit. Oil flows between them all. It was used to get on really really really slow speed. 0 -
I did see some kind of a two man tank about ten years ago that had a airplane type radial engine mounted in the rear of it.About thirty years ago I had a Cadillac flathead V8 that came out of some kind of tank.I have been in the scrap business for amost 40 years and have seen and owned alot of strange stuff.
EvilDr2350 -
I thought a landing craft could also drive on land,so it would need some type of transmission right ?
EvilDr2350
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