earliest Flathead V8?

funrunr

funrunr

Well-known member
I visited the Gilmore museum in Battle Creek, Mi. last week. I seen this Lincoln chassis with this flathead that I have never seen before. Is this a prototype engine? I thought the first V8's came out in 1932.
I just thought I'd share it with you guys. The lighting was very dim and I had to take pictures close up.
 

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No, it is a production Model L Lincoln engine which was Leland designed (not Ford) and came with everything else Lincoln when Ford bought the Leland's creation in 1923. The '32 Ford V8 engine shares very little with the design of the L beyond having the same valve-in-block configuration.
 
The V8 you have photographed is not an en-bloc casting. It looks like the cylinders are bolted to the crankcase. Just an observation.

I need to make the Gilmore a priority vacation destination, my wife will probably preclude herself. Does the Gilmore have a beach or pool?
 
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All this time I thought Ford invented the first V8, actually kinda bummed to hear this.

Seth, I didn't see any beach or pool nearby, instead surrounded by farm fields lol. I did however think it was a better selection of cars than the Henry Ford Museum. You get to get up-close and personal with the cars, it is definitely a must see. Ford museum has more other interest, planes, trains, automobiles etc. also it only cost $12 to get in.
 
First V 8 engines came out in the teens and maybe in the oughts. I think that Cadillac had a V 8 early on. Chevrolet had a V 8 in 1917/
 
funrunr said:
All this time I thought Ford invented the first V8, actually kinda bummed to hear this.

Seth, I didn't see any beach or pool nearby, instead surrounded by farm fields lol. I did however think it was a better selection of cars than the Henry Ford Museum. You get to get up-close and personal with the cars, it is definitely a must see. Ford museum has more other interest, planes, trains, automobiles etc. also it only cost $12 to get in.
Click to expand...

I'm going! I told my wife about next years EFV8 club national meet. She said she's going to the Turks. I asked her if they had flathead fords there? She replied no, beaches and ocean.
 
Prior V8 engines were more like truck engines and it was common to have removable cylinder banks on a lot of early engines. Some of the real early V8 engines were for aircraft like Glenn Curtiss's OX5 but it wasn't a flathead. The Ford V8 was a wonder for its time. A lot of HP in such a small package that was about as simple as it could get. The price was definitely right too.
 
Yes, The Lincoln had a Flathead V8 Back in 1921, However as someone else said it had an aluminum crankcase with cast iron bolt on cylinders. The intake and exhaust was up on top like a Cadillac. Did you know Henry Leland named his automobile after the first president he voted for !!!
 
First Cadillac V-8 was for the 1915 model year. Two separate cylinder blocks on an aluminum crankcase. Non detachable heads until the 1918 model. 180 degree crankshaft.
70 hp. 314 cu. in. Roller camshaft. Forget the torque rating but lots of it.
It was the first production V-8.
 
Henry's v8 was revolutionary in that the block was made of a single casting. Something not previously done. This allowed him to mass produce a reliable and affordable v8 design that was in produced from 1932 to 1953 for use in Ford cars and trucks
 
Yes as jr9162 said---------- Ford produced the first PRACTICAL V-8 that would sell in a low cost car such as a Ford with their one casting V-8 block. The other V-8's from other cars were very expensive to produce.

Nobody else had been able to do it before. Henry did. And, he did it w/o having to go to an overhead valve arrangement. A very complicated affair but America LOVED it and the rest is V-8 history! The hot rod of it's day.
 
As has been stated, the V8 engines introduced by Cadillac (and several others in the teens and 20s) were expensive items using separately cast cylinder blocks and crankcases.
However, V8 engines made from a single casting were introduced by Oldsmobile in their 1929 Viking model and by Oakland in 1930. These were mid-priced cars which did not survive the depression, the Oakland V8 engine being last used in the 1932 Pontiac. These historical facts do not diminish Ford's accomplishment in introducing the first V8 in the low-price field.
 
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