(first posted 9/29/2016) Welcome to Part 1 of an intermittent dive into the depths of automotive (and truck) history, outlining relatively small displacement engines that did a lot of work for where they were planted.
Up first is Ford. With Ford currently offering a 2.7 liter V6 in their half-ton F-150, let’s look back a long time to when FDR was in the White House, Glenn Miller was on the radio, and Ford offered an exceptionally small engine in its trucks.
Since dropping the BB four cylinder engine after 1934, Ford’s truck lineup had been strictly V8 powered, with the little V8-60 on the bottom of the heap. But the V8-60 was destined to be phased out after 1940 by Ford’s new 226 cubic inch six cylinder, as the little V8 was just not well suited to American style use and expectations. It had an anemic torque curve, which made it a particularly poor fit for the heavier trucks.
Meanwhile, the new 226 six, rated at 90 hp, had a substantially healthier torque curve than the 221 V8. It would become the new base engine in Ford trucks, with the V8 optional, now rated at 95 hp. But the new six was not yet in production art the start of the 1941 model year, which is why it’s not mentioned in this brochure. It was available at some point later, although not many 1941 trucks were built with the 226.
Presumably to bridge the gap left by the departure of the V8-60 and the delayed availability of the six, and perhaps just to offer a high-economy engine for certain purposes, Ford also decided to offer a small economy four for 1941 and 1942 only.
Taking the 119.5 cubic inch (2.0 liter) flathead four from its new 9N tractor, which was essentially half of the 239 inch Mercury V8, Ford offered this engine in half-, three-quarter, and one-ton trucks. Ford did modify this engine for truck use.
The four used a V8 style distributor, a fuel pump was included to negate the tractor’s gravity flow, and the engine governor was deleted. An updraft carburetor was retained. It did have a better torque curve than the discontinued V8-60, peaking at 85 lb.ft at a tractor-like 1000 rpm, even if it was rated at a mere 30 horsepower.
Dyno charts show that it actually made a whopping 34 hp at 2900 rpm! And for 1942, the little four got a pwer bump to 40 hp.
This engine could be found in a host of different body styles and weight ratings in the brochure, but in reality it was apparently only installed in very small number of 1/2 ton pickups, a few 3/4 and one ton trucks, and on some panel and sedan deliveries.
Actual production numbers are not readily available, but some sources suggest that only several hundred four cylinder trucks may have been built. And there’s some speculation that a few Ford passenger cars also were built with the little four, presumably special fleet orders like taxis. There are several still in existence like this 1941 pickup. Its story is here.
Did using this engine make sense? Not in all applications, but it was adequate for some. City deliveries, urban street maintenance, and a host of other ventures likely benefited from this fuel saving engine intended for non-highway speed applications. Rural roads back then were not designed for high speeds. Top speed in the 1/2 ton pickup was about 40 mph.
Given that speed limits during WW2 were universally limited to 35 mph and gasoline was rationed, this engine was actually rather ideal for the duration of the war. Did Ford offer it in anticipation of that? By 1941, war was seeming rather more inevitable, and defense buildup and preparation was becoming an important part of the industry.
The availability of the four-cylinder was short-lived. When Ford resumed production of retail pickups in May 1945, the four-cylinder did not reappear from the war effort. Yet, for a brief moment in time during 1941 and 1942, one could get a new Ford pickup with their choice of four-, six-, or eight-cylinder power.
That’s a sideroad I hadn’t heard of. You’d think Ford would have figured out that the V8 was the SOLE reason why people bought Fords. No need to waste money on variety.
Those little fours are certainly adequate for city use. There’s an AA pickup driven daily in my neighborhood. It’s likely been restored but not rodded or modded. The engine sounds like a proper A four, with proper unsync’d A transmission. When it pulls out from a stopsign, it MOVES. Reaches 35 as quickly as any flat-black Honda.
You’d think Ford would have figured out that the V8 was the SOLE reason why people bought Fords.
Well, when all you offer them is V8s, there wasn’t exactly much choice in the matter, eh? Anyway, I would disagree with your statement in principle, because there’s no doubt many would have bought Fords if a six was also available. As they did once the six became available. Folks bought Fords because they were well built, rugged, light and generally performed well, as all Fords had been.
The AA pickup has a substantially bigger 201 inch engine, and was rated at 40 hp. And the A/AA weighed a fair amount less than these later ones. So yes, the Model A, like the T in its time, had good acceleration.
Nothing but V8s were in American Fords here, but of course after Sept 1939 there was no civillian sales until hostilities ceased
Very interesting article, Jason.
Funny how Ford was doing exactly the opposite on the other side of the Atlantic. In France, the locals balked at the idea of V8 trucks in the late ’30s. (Mat)Ford just responded by deleting their 4-cyl. range altogether, which had been reasonably popular. “You wanna have a Ford, it’s gonna have to be a V8,” was the ethos of the day. Result was that Ford wasn’t doing much business truck-wise in France, though all their stock was eventually bought up virtually overnight by the French Army circa 1938-39…
Incidentally, the French Army was probably the last big user of the flathead V8 trucks, with their SUMB trucks being retrofitted with Diesels only about 10-15 years ago.
Your V8-60 article reminded me of these having been made. I’ve currently got an infatuation with small displacement engines in less than immediate thought applications.
This story is a pretty good indication of the state Ford Motor Company was in at the time, and why it was in danger of going bankrupt during and immediately after WWII. Obviously, there was no long term product planning going on. Examples like this give the feeling that too much was being done on the “I’ve got an idea” brainstorm on the part of one person who managed to sell it upstairs.
The more I think of it, this sounds like one of damned-near-going-on-senile Henry’s last ideas. Think about it: He hated sixes with a passion, and the 1940 six certainly wasn’t his idea (I believe credit for this one has been given to Edsel). The small V-8 failed badly. There was a need for something less expensive than the big V-8. And Henry was certainly behind the design of the Fordson tractor.
So . . . . . you take the tractor engine, make a couple of changes to make it amenable for road use, and voila . . . . . the new Ford truck engine! And it doesn’t have those six stinking cylinders. OK, so it can’t really go past the city limits. Details, details.
There used to be a kit available ex US army to bolt a Fordson tractor diesel into a Ford truck. a very popular swap on half ton pickups when petrol prices went up here a friend had one 49mph flat out 48 mpg no matter how you loaded it.
Ford was far from going bankrupt before and after WWII. They sold just about more cars than anybody prior and had huge government contracts during the war.
Their suspension system was a bit archaic after the war but that was remedied with the 49.
The 9N wasn’t as Fordson tractor – it was the Ford-Ferguson that came out of Ford’s famous handshake deal with Ferguson. Much later model than the Fordson.
The actual Fordson engine of the WW2 era was an archaic design that was still being used in 52 when the last E27N was built a slanted tube dripped oil on the big ends and mains run off a slash system on the flywheel, I took a 1952 Fordson engine to bits, it was amazingly primitive but they worked ok on flat land the oiling system didnt work on hill country.
Well I just learned my thing for the day, I had no idea. Thanks JS.
Love that crazy air cleaner!
It appears the 4-cyl design did not have the V8’s fatal flaw–the exhaust routed around the cylinders. As such, I bet this engine ran dependably cool. Despite its relative low power output, I would take it over the hot-beast flathead V8.
True, but I would hardly call it a fatal flaw. It just meant that the V8 needed a larger cooling capacity. keep in mind that the flathead V8 was widely used in very punishing situations. Ford made a very popular city bus in the 40s, that did just fine with it, and there’s few things harder than that use. And the V8 powered tens of thousands of medium and even largish trucks, in very demanding use. Undoubtedly, they needed to be overhauled sooner than a true large truck engine, but the economics still worked out well enough.
Flathead V8 engines did stand up well to heavy-duty use in commercial applications quite well but Ford dealers also did a steady business in swapping tired flatheads for factory rebuilt service engines. My father told me about local dealers where one could schedule an engine swap, leave the vehicle off in the morning, pick it up later in the afternoon, fresh flathead all ready for many more good miles. Apparently it was a pretty common practice in the 1940’s and into the 1950’s. Commercial users kept a rebuilt short block or two on hand for quick swap outs to keep the truck or bus in service.
I have had three Ford Flathead V8’s over the years, and one 226 ci. 6 cyl. The V8’s can be kept cool with careful maintenance. The big problem with them as I see it, is the terrific thermal stressing on the block from using a portion of it as an exhaust manifold. They sooner or later end up cracked. All three of my V8’s were cracked and it is expensive to fix if you even can. There are a lot of junk cracked V8 blocks out there.
In contrast, the 6cyl. was a really sweet engine giving no trouble. It was a daily driver and not a weekend hobby car.
Great article on an engine I’ve (of course!) been aware of for some time. The 9N engine was also used in the Ford Pygmy and GP prototype Jeeps (of which about 4000 were made).
Great history lesson. Thanks.
The dyno chart does raise a question. How are Mechanical Efficiency and Compression measured?
Thanks for spotlighting an obscure part of Ford truck history, well written. The ’41-’42 four cylinder 1/2 ton pick-ups were even found in hilly rural areas driven by farmers who were used to slow going on rough dirt roads, used to shifting gears to let the truck do its work. It might seem primitive from our perspective but remember this generation not long before had had to hitch up the team to the wagon to transport goods or fetch supplies. Even an underpowered pickup was viewed as an improvement. The fuel economy of the four also had great appeal to these fellows whereas a V-8 viewed as wasteful and unnecessary.
A nicely preserved/restored ’41 four pickup showed up at a local car show a couple years ago.
Cool obscurity, Jason! Owning one today would present an interesting problem: it’s different enough to leave it alone, but dangerously slow on modern roads.
No engine that served so many people, for so many years, and became the darling of the hot rod crowd like the flathead Ford V8, would have had a “fatal flaw” Did they overheat? Yes, mostly due to lack of maintenance, such as servicing the water pumps. And most of this rep formed during the depression, when many people struggled just to eat, never mind taking the Ford in for routine maintenance. H&H Flatheads sells water pumps for these using modern sealed water pump bearings. End of that problem. Great article Jason!
Wow, never heard of this one! Thanks for the enlightenment, Jason. One correction, just from reading the fine print of the ad: you write that it was fitted to a few 1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks, but in fact the ad mentions a 1 ton pickup available with this four banger. It must have had some low gearing to handle that load in a work environment without daily clutch replacements, though I realize that all this 1/2, 3/4 and 1 ton stuff is just nominal
The gearing was low, but I didn’t include it as I couldn’t verify the recollection. At some point I read something about a one-ton with this engine used by a city street maintenance crew. The person claimed the rear axle ratio was like 6.5:1 with a top speed of 35 or so.
Sadly, I couldn’t confirm this.
That sounds about right. I had a ’34 Ford 1.5 ton and it had a 6.6:1 final drive.
I somehow had *no* idea of this 4cyl. engine. A 1942 ad (thanks eBay):
One more:
Wow, completely new information to me. Ford really was running on fumes in the early 40s.
Nice work, keep them coming. A few years after WW2 Ford UK introduced the conventional Fordson Thames ET series of trucks. Initially the only gasoline engine option was a Ford V8. In the early fifties the English chaps developed a new 3.6 liter OHV 4-cylinder gasoline engine for their trucks, called the “Cost Cutter”. No need to explain the name, I guess…
Jason—-great story. I thought that Ford had discontinued usage of 4 cylinders in their trucks in the early ’30’s, so this re-introduction was a revelation. I also did not think that 6 cylinders were used in Ford trucks until after WW2, so that was interesting as well.
I have a recollection of reading about these engines, too. I also remember reading about a war time run of Ford cars were fitted with the 4 cylinder flathead, I think they may have been staff vehicles, but I read this close 40 years ago. I remember thinking to myself, who would want to drive something so underpowered and slow, not remembering that war time speed limits were something like 35 or 40 MPH. In that application, it would be workable. Good article, Jason. I hadn’t thought about these in years.
Wonder why they didn’t re-use the Model B and BB engine: well proven, more cubes, 50 hp and more torque. My uncle has put them in his Model As due to better oiling and other improvements. The 9N engine seems an odd choice, considering.
They were already making the tractor engines. To retool to produce an out of production engine would have been expensive if it was even possible. BTW, someone is producing a new, reengineered Model A engine with full pressure oiling and five main bearings. Pretty cool!
I just read the very interesting story about the 1941 Ford pickup with the 4 cylinder. What a great story. Amazing that the owner uses the truck as a truck! That would be just the thing to run errands around town or haul a few things to the local transfer station.
I was always surprised when I saw the engine specs of trucks from that era, their size and low power ratings. But given the roads and speed limits back then, they seemed quite appropriate.
Spence Murray wrote an article about these in one of the Petersen Complete Ford books in the early 70’s. Called it the ‘half-merc’ due to it’s displacement. At that point, there wasn’t a lot of info on it’s use.