Just how tough is the Model A engine?

Many years ago, a mate's g/f was returning to Brisbane from her home town in his Toyota corronary, sorry corona. Near the NSW QLD border the Corona loses power and struggles to get to 20 mph downhill with a tail wind. So we hook up a tandem trailer head down to the border to pick up the car. We start the car and every thing sounds fine, no knocks or scrapes or any thing. My mate goes to drive it up the ramps and as soon as the front wheels hit the ramps, it refuses to go any further. In our haste, we had hired a tandem without a winch, which is odd as it had ramps. So anyway, my mate backs up and floors the corona aiming it at the trailer. As the corona hits the ramps, up it launches, he hits the brakes at the precise moment and there it is, sitting in the right spot on the trailer, didn't need to be moved forward or backward to get it in the right spot for tying down, which is lucky for him as the tow vehicle was his g/f's hotted up Holden Torana. Aussies will know what a Torana is, if you don't, just check out google images. So, we tie it down and drag it back to their house and unload the car. The next weekend, my mate says he's not pulling an engine that runs so proceeds to start the car and rev it past redline until it siezes with a very loud squeal. After it cools down, goes to start it and of it runs again, determined to kill the engine, revs it pasr redline again until it stops again with a squeal. Once again, after it cools down, it starts up again. And again, the revs are above redline and stops with a squeal, although this time its only about thirty secs after starting. This time, it doesn't start after cooling down, and my mate just says "now it gets rebuilt".
We had some funny problems removing the engine. After removing the bolt on stuff, manifolds and the like, we didn't have a floor crane at the time, so we decided a small japanese alloy four cylinder doesn't weigh much and we could handle it without the crane. So after removing the bolt-ons and the bonnet, we placed a water pipe accross the engine, and passed a rope under the sump in a criss cross patern. To do this, I just placed one arm down each side of the engine and passed the rope from one hand to the other, an easy job. We unbolted the engine mount as well as the gearbox and torque converter. As we lifted up the engine, the front of the car starts to rise with the engine as the weight is lifted. But then we couldn't lift the engine any further, it felt as we were trying to lift the whole front of the car up. We lower the weight back down and start to look over the engine for any thing that we had forgotten to unbolt. I just looked at my mate and said "found it" and untied the rope, removed it and then retied the engine by passing the rope under the sump without going under the cross member at the same time. On the second lift, because we thought the engine was heavier than what it was after the first try, we put a lot of effort into the upward heave. The engine flies up, because there's now no weight on the ropes, they move back, the engine piroets ninety degrees nose down, comes out of the sling and lands back in the engine bay nose down. We retie the engine to the pipe and gently lift it out of the engine bay. After we stripped down the engine, one big end bearing shell had turned behind its other half so two shells were on one half of the rod and nothing was on the other side. The engine was rebuilt and then put back into the car, and driven for thousands of miles afterwards.

The best engine I've come accross for running without oil, is the Chrysler hemi six. It was an engine in Australian Chryslers and was virtually indestructable. The local wrecking yard decided to test a few engines from different manufacteres by pulling a few from wrecks, draining the oil and water, then starting them and holding the throttle wide open. They timed each one to see which lasted the longest. Most lasted around ten minutes, but the hemi 6 kept going until the fuel ran out. I had a few Chryslers powered by hemi 6's and in my opinion, they were one of the most reliable engines ever made, as well as very torquey.
 
While I was at Louisiana Tech Univ. back in 1972 I was on my way to the end of year party with a tub of beer and 6 kids in the back of my 28 Pickup. We topped a hill and begin to hear the telltale click-click-click. Within a few seconds it went to a clack-clack-clack, then a bang-bang-bang and finally a 12 ga shotgun KAWHAM. But strange, the engine did not die. We all jumped out of the truck and raised the hood to see what was happening. Lo an behold there was fornt half of the block on driver side missing. You could seee crankshaft rotating and see a 6 inch hole in the opposite side of the block. She was making a terrible racket, but like the Duracell Bunny, kept on running. I shut the ignition off.

While waiting for rides to get to the party most of the beer disappeared. After party we towed her back to my house and just out of curiosity tried to start her. Sure enuff she started and ran on three cylinders. No 2 piston and rod were missing. No 1 and No 3 rod were bent and the crankshaft was bent.

Needless to say she had to have a new engine. Testament of a tough engine design. Thank you Henry Ford. Ken
 
When I was in high school, I worked nights at the gas station on I-80. One night the highway patrol had us pull in a Ford Econoline van that was abandoned with supposedly a stuck engine. One slow night we put the van on the hoist and dropped the oil pan; the engine was stuck. We took the caps off the rods and crank and found the pistons were all free (by the way, this was a six-cylinder).

We took all the inserts and turned them 180-degrees. Slapped her back together and started her up. Ran like a Timex watch. We used that van for years as our hunting and fishing buggy. The body gave up, and we sold the engine and ****** to a farmer who used it in his Ford pickup.
 
Not engine related but as we're telling stories.

Same duo as my previous story much we're now much older and supposedly wiser, yeah, right.

So my mate buys a torana rolling body, but an earlier model than previously mentioned, an LJ. He lives on the side of a flood way in a suburb. To get into his backyard, you can drive along the floodway and the up the embankment and into a side gate. As the torana has no engine, pushing it up the embankment is not an option, but towing it is.
We hook up a tow rope, and try to drive up the embankment. The slope is about15 degrees and covered in grass. As soon as the back wheels of the tow car hit the slope, forward momentum stops and then the tow car breaks into wheel spin. I turn to my mate, "not a problem, I'll drive in a large circle through the floodway to get a run-up and we'll have enough speed to carry us to the top. You just steer the torry". We jump into the cars, give each other the thumbs up and I'm off. The tow car's got good acceleration and beforewe get back to the bottom of the slope, we're doing at least 60kmh. I give the rear view mirror a quick glance and all I can see in the windscreen of the torry is my mates very wide eyeballs. Widening my field of vision, I see the drivers door has come open and he's trying to hold it closed with one hand. The direction of our turn meant it was trying todrag him out with it. The I see his left hend hanging onto the steering wheel, near the centre of the windscreen and not attached to the column. We had just discovered that there was no nut to hold it in place. Do I stop, no way. I keep going laughing hard, almost take his fence, but miss it. At the top, I hit the brakes, he hits the brakes and there we are, lined up to gently push the torry into his yard through the gate.
 
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