Model B oil pan modification

Bruce Lancaster said:
Hmmm...looks like there were way fewer than half a million US B engines made, fewer than 10% of Model A production. Most came in '32 Fords, causing huge numbers of B engines to be discarded by rodders bolting in flatheads, yet there seem to be a lot of the things still chugging along...
Germans kept making them for truck and industrial use into the 1950's, Russians and their friends made them much longer than that, and they were the backbone of Russian military transport in WWII...and in both Russia and England, they supplanted the A engine for use in AA type trucks made for years after 1931. Seems like they survived fairly well.
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Hey Bruce,
Russian B seems to be well made. I happen to have one in my '30 roadster. One of the batch of Russian Bs (about 30..I think) that Joe Mac imported, back when. I know that there are a few others still about also and have been looking to get another.
 
I remember the ads in Hemmings...couldn't afford a gasket back then!
There was a great story in Rod&Custom back then, "All the Way In a Model A", about a Joe Mac expedition to Baja.
The Model A and the late model support vehicle (a '33 B truck) both had Commie motors from that batch...
A few years ago, there was a pretty plausible yarn posted on here by a member who had tried to arrange purchase of warehoused Gaz replacement engines from military stocks. He said that there were lots, and that they were kept in steel drums filled with oil...he supposedly got close to negotiating purchase of a batch, but backed off when he found that there would be a substantial negotiation and "tax" for the local mob as well.
The Russian military really does seem to discard nothing...so there may well be Gaz jeep and AA replacements sitting around.
The Germans made B engines into the '50's for a postwar truck model (they had previously made them into early WWII in 1932 BB chassis kept in production for 8 or 10 years), and after about 1942 modified them with insert bearings and full pressure.
 
Hey Bruce,
Yeah, I've seen those later built ('42 era) model Bs. They just do not , IMO, give the same exterior 'look' as the earlier Bs. You can only tell that my Russian B is such...up close and see strange markings.
 
Thanks for the comments on the B engine . I have a 1938 B diamond block engine with factory counter balanced crank shaft 60 over with inserts on the rods and babitt on the mains. So far no problems . I will have to keep my fingers crossed .
 
Duffy1 said:
Thanks for the comments on the B engine . I have a 1938 B diamond block engine with factory counter balanced crank shaft 60 over with inserts on the rods and babitt on the mains. So far no problems . I will have to keep my fingers crossed .
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Hey Duffy,
If it's no imposition, maybe you can post some pics of you '38 B diamond engine. Engine makers seemed to be strange birds, in the different ways that they made engines. I had '30 chev engine that had Babbitt rods and insert mains, just the reverse of what you have. Does the '38 have provision for oil filtration ?
 
Hardtimes;

This engine has been modified to change from babitt rods to inserts . No oil filter provisions from the factory . I did add an oil filter .Sorry, I am not sharp enough on these computers to post pictures.
 
Duffy1 said:
Hardtimes;

This engine has been modified to change from babitt rods to inserts . No oil filter provisions from the factory . I did add an oil filter .Sorry, I am not sharp enough on these computers to post pictures.
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A word of encouragement...as they say, if I can do it anyone can. I'm not against modern 'stuff' , but I could not begin to be interested in and do what I will now TRY. I have a talented instructor ..lol. The guys here can help also, and did in my case. Gave basic instructions and somehow it worked..pics posting that is. It is hard to believe that this (world wide web) stuff has only been around since about 1990 and it has only taken me till recently to start utilize it. Heck , do not even wear a watch to tell time..hey that's why HE made the sun for,eh :D
 
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