I got my shirt and stickers this weekend, unfortunately I didn't get the joy of opening it as I was out of town, but when I got home there were a few crazy looks and "Where did that shirt come from?" Thank you again for all your work and inspiration.
My vote for engines would be to clean everything up really well, rebuild what you have, then down the road put in a diesel with the twin stacks and racing it. That would be cool.
Keep up the good work mazdeuce!!!
In reply to everyone:
Shirt pictures in the thread and in my email and reports of shirts arriving and being worn...... to much to reply to everyone individually. Just know that Mrs. Deuce and I spent the evening together sitting on the couch watching football reading both the emails and the posts and showing them to each other and being happy. You guys are awesome.
As to the 2-stroke Detroit Diesel:
In the mid 60's the Midwest was approaching a crescendo. The big three were in Detroit along with AMC. International was out of Chicago making trucks and farm machinery and there were dozens of other companies producing industrial and commercial trucks and machines. Supporting this were the suppliers. Companies making brake parts and axles and transmissions and stamping dies. Foundries casting engine blocks and pistons and rods and crankshaft blanks and all of the other parts that it took to go from iron ore being mined in Wisconsin to a finished car in Michigan. Pony cars were on the drawing board. Ford wanted to purchase the premier sportscar builder in the world, and almost did. NASCAR was entering a period of genuine innovation.
The two stroke diesel engine is cool. There is a brief article here that talks about the history and important applications for the engines. They achieved incredible power to weight ratios for their time and it can be argued that they were instrumental to success in WWII in the same way that many developments at the time were. Eventually four stroke diesels won out for fuel consumption and emissions reasons, but the two stroke held on for a long time in applications that required high power/space like busses and fire engines. Again, the midwest, the history, the innovation.
It's sometimes hard to wander around southern Michigan and imagine it as the industrial center of the world. Even when I was growing up during the 80's and manufacturing was on the decline, it was impossible not to know someone who's dad worked making cars or parts for them. My freshman roommate in college had a summer job in an auto plant before he started his mechanical engineering degree, my brother has spent time making overhead consoles for Suburbans. When poking around Ferdinand I'm always glad to peel away layers of dirt and find casting marks, it's like archaeology. One that made me happy was on the PTO. It's hard to take a picture of, but it says Chelsea Products Inc, Chelsea OH. As far as I can tell, this company has either shut down or been consolidated into something else. There appears to still be a fair amount of parts manufacturing in Chelsea Ohio so they may have made it, but when I hear Chelsea I don't think Ohio, I think of another small town. In Chelsea Michigan is the Chelsea Milling Company, home of Jiffy Mixes.
This is personally important to me because Jiffy Cornbread Mix is Mrs. Deuce's nemesis. She's one hell of a baker, but try and she might, she has been unable to make cornbread from scratch better than Jiffy cornbread from a box. We're talking a dozen recipes, different pans, sourcing ingredients, everything. She's made good cornbread, cornbread worth serving to guests, but nothing that is quite as satisfying as putting butter and honey on a Jiffy muffin right out of the oven. It makes her so very happy and so very angry that every time we want cornbread she has to put Jiffy on the shopping list.
So a two stroke Detroit would be perfect from a history and culture standpoint. I'm going to work on rebuilding the 304, but I'll be thinking about a Detroit.
The turbo Detroits are good for some power too... It wasn't uncommon to see a 6V92TA pushing 550hp in a boat or an 8V92TA rated at 735hp...
Regarding truck racing, it doesn't have to be uber fast, off-road. There is a place in small town America for regular guys and their souped up semis on small oval tracks. I'll leave this video here... (skip to 0:45 for the start)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/QpVBxHrV6Z8?rel=0
Much more awesome in person with the throaty engines and loose rear ends in the corners, but you get the idea :)
My shirt arrived today, I am wearing it to work. Sure I will get plenty of questions. Thanks again to you and the Mrs. following along on your progression with Ferdinand.
OldDave said:Shirt got here, thanks a bunch, have paid it forward in the form of a check to the American Red Cross, dedicated to aid in Texas for Harvey victims.
NOW, you want cheap easily replaced HP.
Here's the plan, get 2 identical Chevy 350's of the Vortec (mid nineties) variety, cheap available everywhere and parts are dirt cheap.
Rebuild them to the 350hp/400ft.lb. torque area (also super easy) and chain them nose to tail with a double wide chain coupler. add a 6l80e trans to these, as it has not 1 but 2 O.D. ratios, thereby alleviating some of the super deep rear gearing. Oh, the sound, oh the fury, as four slightly muffled exhaust pipes announce your arrival.
i vote for this idea as long as you have this guy make you some headers for it:
In reply to edizzle89 :
The serious question is, and this relates heavily to Ferdinand, what do you do with something like that? It's awesome and terrifying, but once you've driven it to car shows a half dozen times, what then?
I could put a monster death motor in Ferdinand, but then what do I have? Home Depot is 8 miles away, do I fire it up to grab a couple 2x4's? Can I stand to drive it long enough to hook a trailer to it and drive to Atlanta to pick up a car? Will my wife drive it? Not everything needs to be practical and I appreciate the existence of rolling works of automotive art, but I don't want to build something that I don't want to own when I'm done.
The goal would be to find some kind of cool monster death motor setup that doesn't impede your ability to use the thing. So something that fits reasonably well, not insanely loud, etc. This might point more towards some kind of 2 stroke Detroit... Still a perfectly appropriate and functional truck engine as it was intended to be, but it just happens to make plenty of power and sound awesome.
Aw shucks, I wasn't proposing any thing as elegant or radical as the Twin Super Coupe.
just two very reliable SBC's hidden away under the cab and bed of an unassuming COE, making about 700HP and some sweet V16 melodies. they would not over heat, and carbed right would be so docile even momma duece would make up all kind of excuses to drive it.
mazdeuce said:In reply to edizzle89 :
The serious question is, and this relates heavily to Ferdinand, what do you do with something like that? It's awesome and terrifying, but once you've driven it to car shows a half dozen times, what then?
I could put a monster death motor in Ferdinand, but then what do I have? Home Depot is 8 miles away, do I fire it up to grab a couple 2x4's? Can I stand to drive it long enough to hook a trailer to it and drive to Atlanta to pick up a car? Will my wife drive it? Not everything needs to be practical and I appreciate the existence of rolling works of automotive art, but I don't want to build something that I don't want to own when I'm done.
i think it falls under the 'different strokes for different folks'. Me personally, i would DD the hell out of that twin engine buggy every day it wasnt raining and was above 50*F. I have an unhealthy love for light weight tube chassis monsters and low enough standards for comfort that make me ok with driving something like that where it would be hot, windy, and noisy for hours on end. But that isnt always everyone end goal and i also totally get wanting something practical vs. straight up, no frills hot rod, sort of... 
edizzle89,
I agree with you whole heartedly, I would give my left "you know what" for the Twin coupe to live in my garage.
But that isn't where I was going with the twin engine idea, abundant cheap HP, and a wow factor, that's all I'm asking for.
done right it would ride and drive like any normal COE.
and haul any thing you could load on it, with ease.
Is it just me, or does the "top" look like a Miata hardtop turned backwards? :) Go ahead, try to un-see it now.
if you are going to go multiple engines under the bed then Subaru engines should be in the running too. The intake will fit inside the frame rails, the heads underneath, and the crank would end up right about at pinion height. Add in a cacophony of individual zoomie pipes or assorted turbochargers dumping to stacks. No turbo engine every had that kind of space, and with the stock rear end a motor that revs might have more practical value than one with torque.
Along those lines, how many rotary engines would fit in a row between frame cross members?
If you're going rotary, have a 12 liter 10 rotor built, because revs.
they exist, YouTube it!
In reply to Recon1342 :
I'll just leave this here, even though it sounds like it wouldn't be great to actually drive in a truck:
I'm sure I could fit four two rotors in row, or better, two banks of three, but at some point we're getting silly. Next thing you know know someone will want to source 12 tiny turbos to bolt to the BMW V12 above just because there is room for 12 turbos.
Chelsea is still around, at one point the were owned by Dana. I'm not sure if they still are. I feel your wife's pain, those Jiffy mufffins are far better than mine.
Jiffy mix is the Wu Tang Clan of cornbread
Mmm... Ramp Truck...
I see the CEO of Chelsea Milling Co. at the gym all the time. I'll have to tell him that Jiffy Mix has become a topic on GRM.
I might have to try the Jiffy Mix cornbread. My homemade stuff is terrible. Anyone know the secret to the stuff at Famous Daves?
Back on topic: I probably missed the page where you plainly state that this is going to be a Dakar rally truck build or that you're putting the Airstream on the back to make a RV, but since I've only heard 'bench racing' type comments...what do you have planned after it runs/drives/stops?
In reply to rslifkin :
Of course they're Aussies. They really have "balls to the wall" cornered as far as automotive exploits go.
Ian F said:Mmm... Ramp Truck...
This is what I see. My favorite family activities are camping with our travel trailer and fishing / boating. I've done a lot of research trying to solve the "how do you bring 1 boat, 1 camper and 1 truck" problem, and haven't seen anything I like. I think if you switch boat for race car, you are in the same situation, and now you have the canvas (Ferdinand), race car(s) and airstream to do it. That would take this much more in a heavy fabrication / custom mechanism construction rather than a "put all the HP in all the things" build, but I for one would be just as interested. Hot rods are cool. Trucks are cool. I fall very much into the let hot rods be hot rods and let trucks be trucks camp.
In reply to AngryCorvair, et al :
If you like Jiffy Mix, and it IS good, you should do a taste test against Martha White Cornbread mix.
Even better IMO. And I usually throw some finely chopped fresh jalapenos in as well.
Well, I guess I now have one more item to add to the list of foods that I have to travel to Port Huron to acquire. I do like me some cornbread muffins if they are good and even more so if they are easy to make.
I think you are zeroing in on your relationship to this project when you started to include the family driving it. This is something that I am facing with the Molvo: It can't be Bonkers because then it will not be suitable for civilian use. So, since you have put the rest of the clan in the picture, start thinking about what would attract them to the drivers seat of Ferdinand when they walk out the door and towards the fleet. First thing I am going to put on that list is some serious AC and noise suppression.
You'll need to log in to post.
