Hi All.....

Well here is my latest find. This power unit came off an old oil patch in Northwestern Pennsylvania. It was used into the late 1980's to pump oil wells. It was only changed because the owner got tired of cranking it!

Check out the pictures and you will see that this conversion used a lot of Continental parts. There is no generator, distributor or starter.

The front cover is different as well as having a bell housing. The Continental name is cast into the bell housing.

Notice the unique manifold (with Ford A carb).

The Casting date on the head is 3-29-23

The brass Star name plate is just visible behind the water pump.

What do you think? Ever seen anything like it?

Frank ---

Where Are You From? Hookstown, Pennsylvania

Do You own a car built by Durant? 17 Durant & Star cars & a Durant Dort buggy (one horse power)

I've never seen anything like this. Beautiful!!!
Continental produced a very large variety of engines and I wonder if one of them would have been a W4 Industrial version. Is that a governor just before the waterpump?

Where Are You From? Texarkana, Tex

Hi Don.....

I think you may be correct with the governor, couple more pictures. The one shows the aluminum part of the bell housing with the Continental trade mark.

Interestingly most of the unique parts have part numbers cast into them.....

Frank ---

Where Are You From? Hookstown, Pennsylvania

Do You own a car built by Durant? 17 Durant & Star cars & a Durant Dort buggy (one horse power)

Frank; if you added a couple of axles and a tiller bar then you could race it against that other doudle bug in your yard.

Where Are You From? Whitby, ON

Do You own a car built by Durant? YUP

Hey,,, I think you found a very rare combine engine!!! Check out this link,,,,

http://idisk.mac.com/forever4/Public/pages/gleanerbaldwinnr.htm

Where Are You From? Texarkana, Tex

It's likely a cobbled together combo. The combine wouldn't have used the automotive gearbox. The combine usually mounted the radiator above the flywheel and had a flat belt drive to the fan up above.

The part just ahead of the waterpump is probably for running the distributer when it's used. Note that the magneto would need to run at crankshaft speed, so the timing gears would be different. Also, as a consequence, the distributer gears would have to match.

Just last weekend I photographed an old Rumley combine engine. It had some similarity. Major difference with manifolding on other side.

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Hi All.....

Well this is getting interesting! Don's lead on the combine use, proves that Durant / Star engines were used in different applications. I knew about the Ford A connection, but this is the first indication of a Durant connection. I have emailed the author seeking more info.

Jack, this is a much better cobble than that Star doodle bug sitting in my back 40.

I have to agree with CDMN, I don't think this exact setup was used on a combine. We just didn't have such large machines in the hills of Pennsylvania. Plus there is no visible set up for an air cleaner, plus the gear box would not be needed.

Unfortunately the motor is locked up, can't see if there is actually a reverse on this gear box. It does have a flat pulley output.

I don't think this was cobbled together. The skid is riveted together. The fit seems way too good on all components. If you look at some of the detailed pictures you will notice:
The fan bracket and pulley are not Star
Both the crank and fan pulley are V=belt pullies
The radiator and top tank don;'t look automotive, look at the filler neck, it is factory
The bottom casting and crank hole mounting.

The search continues.......

Frank ---

Where Are You From? Hookstown, Pennsylvania

Do You own a car built by Durant? 17 Durant & Star cars & a Durant Dort buggy (one horse power)

Many early engine builders seemed to build engines for many other applications in addition to cars. I remember seeing an engine ad claiming to be suitable for marine use, gas buggies, or air machines.
It would not seem unreasonable to infer that Durant used "off the shelf" engines for their "assembled" cars and that Continental would use a given style engine to its fullest potential in the marketplace.
Frank's engine was probably built as a general purpose power unit. The transmission would be useful when powering different machines with different operating speeds.
You will notice the transmission is not a Star or Durant casting in that it has two lower mounting ears. Since the W4 and 5 engine do not have any provision for attaching a bell housing, it would be interesting to see what Continental did to attach it other than a special designed block casting.

Here is a link showing the use of a W4 engine in a Pietenpol airplane, and were preferred over a Model A engine because of the pressure crank and rod oiling.

http://www.antiqueairfield.com/types/Pietenpol/feature.html

Where Are You From? Texarkana, Tex

Brought this discussion back to the top. Like the A-22 magneto in the recent discussion......

Frank ---

Where Are You From? Hookstown Pennsylvania

Do You own a car built by Durant? 19 and counting !

OK, it's been 5 years since you scored this beauty. Is it running yet??

Where Are You From? Texarkana, Tx

Do You own a car built by Durant? several

Hey Don, he's not telling cause it's pumping the black gold from the ground on the Witkowski property you know!

Where Are You From? Oviedo, Florida

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes 1928 Durant Model 65 4 door sedan

Sooo, does this mean that I won't get kicked out of the club for using a manual dip stick instead of that *&%##@ cork #$*&^%# float thing on my W-5 engine?

Where Are You From? Leavenworth, WA / Yuma, AZ

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yep

Appears to be a Conny blue seal industrial engine like Don mentions.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

What is not visible in the pictures is the brass engine tag that says Star, made for Durant Motors, so is it a conversion or ??

Frank ---

Where Are You From? Hookstown Pennsylvania

Do You own a car built by Durant? many

Like everything with Billy always a ?

Could still be industrial use and they grabbed the wrong engine. Like Bobs observation on the 32A engine that has wrong plate info. Can't remember now but Bob can correct, engine should have Durant but has Frontenac.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan