Continental Flatties

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PA41

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Messages
872
There's still quite a few Continental flat 4s and 6s around, and you can even get a fork lift or welder or agg motor that's factory refreshed. Parts are pretty easy to get through a good parts store for a semi OK price. I may have access to one in an old Massey Harris 22 tricycle tractor, and was thinking it might work in an old style T-ish speedster highboy. Anyone have any experience with them?
 
I believe they were used in Kaisers and Frasers. There's a junkyard near here with about 20 of them. Might be a builder engine among them.
 
Wow, I didn't realize they were used in so many different vehicles!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Motors_Company#Automobiles_that_used_Continental_engines

I knew about Kaiser-Fraser, and REO trucks, but man, they went in a lot of low production vehicles and a bunch of military stuff.

That's a good link!! I never thought the aircraft conti was made by the tractor/industrial engine company, but it seems so. I can see a similar philosophy in them. I've been around some of the military contis, but they were big, clunky things. The smaller civilian agg/industrial motors seem a more likely candidate for a hobby project. I had a 46 (or so) Jeep CJ2A--weird rig, had a PTO. It had a flat 4 that may have been a conti.(lots of companies made the jeep in the war) Just 4 lawn mower motors stacked in a row on the same crank and water cooled. Looooow tec!!! Might have made 25-30 horsepower. Real simple and easy to work on. The CJ2A motor had holes drilled and tapped for multiple bell houses. I had an old WWII vet working for me that claimed that we won the war from simple rigs like them. He claimed any guy could patch them together from junk in the field, but the German equipment was so sophisticated that they had send them somewhere to have experts work on them. (BTW--I think we have that problem today with industrial electronics --there is allotta junk out there) It might still be an easier path to take for a simple stupid light weight speedster that would have the flathead personality.
 
I have a michigan payloader that had a continental flat head six in it, also referred to as a red seal. it was way under powered and ate fuel like water going over niagra falls. Granted it was old but I wasn't impressed. My uncle who is 80 has was in the army and worked on them before during and after he was in the service claimed they they where terrible motors. At least one car company ran them with a super charger I was told. It may have been kiaser?. Like you said there were so may used that parts are available for them but they are all getting old. Most had updraft carbs but that can be worked around by building your own intate. The other thing about them is that the distributor is above the head and sticks up kind of high if you plan on running a hood.
 
I have a michigan payloader that had a continental flat head six in it, also referred to as a red seal. it was way under powered and ate fuel like water going over niagra falls. Granted it was old but I wasn't impressed. My uncle who is 80 has was in the army and worked on them before during and after he was in the service claimed they they where terrible motors. At least one car company ran them with a super charger I was told. It may have been kiaser?. Like you said there were so may used that parts are available for them but they are all getting old. Most had updraft carbs but that can be worked around by building your own intate. The other thing about them is that the distributor is above the head and sticks up kind of high if you plan on running a hood.

There's a group called the Flat Earth Society. They suspend reality (on purpose) and live in their own weird little world. I think guys that run flat head motors might live in the same neighborhood. The guy in the corner of the room dancing by himself when there ain't no music playing. The guy on the 3 wheel bicycle with whip antennas and streamers coming out of the handgrips that waves at everyone and smiles. The guy that picks up aluminum cans along the highway. The guy that throws aluminum cans out of his truck to support him (a community service). The guy that spends 10-15 K$ building a Ford flat head with a blower. :eek::eek: I'd like to see that supercharged Red Seal, or even better do it.. Weird is interesting.
 
My dad had a number of the four bangers, and they all came from different machines. One came from a combine and was stuck, one from and aircraft tug, another was attached to a generator. The rest were just lose engines he managed to find, and he got them all running again. We had toyed with the idea of puting one in a 28 Whippet we were thinking of buying.
 
I kept waiting for him to catch a rod with his face, had to settle for a belt to the hand tho.

Yeah--me too. I'd like to see that for real. I've built a couple turbo motors, and things will go bad REAL fast. I'm kinda suspicious the thing was way over carbed, and it was falling on its face and flooding out. I blew up a 5.0 twin turbo ford and it went from predetonation to a messy pile of parts in a fraction of a second. I do like what the guy did though and would replicate his work, but would downsize the carburation and look real hard at the turbo size. I have a draw through system from a SBC bob truck that has a very large turbo that makes great torque at 3500, but the boost gets too big past that. Great for towing, and makes a super muffler, and looks interesting. Needs some sort of rev limiter. I wonder if the guys still messing with it.














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PA41; I wasn't trying to discourage you. I like different and odd also. That is why we are all hanging out here isn't it?. If you want to come to Rhode Island or can talk someone into it I will give you the one in my parts machine.
 
There's a group called the Flat Earth Society. They suspend reality (on purpose) and live in their own weird little world. I think guys that run flat head motors might live in the same neighborhood. The guy in the corner of the room dancing by himself when there ain't no music playing. The guy on the 3 wheel bicycle with whip antennas and streamers coming out of the handgrips that waves at everyone and smiles. The guy that picks up aluminum cans along the highway. The guy that throws aluminum cans out of his truck to support him (a community service). The guy that spends 10-15 K$ building a Ford flat head with a blower. :eek::eek: I'd like to see that supercharged Red Seal, or even better do it.. Weird is interesting.

PA .. not sure to be honored or insulted by you statement above [S but I have 6 flattys in my shop and do not have 2 grand in all of them [ all run ]
.......come to think of it I am genuinely flattered by your observations ..:D
 
PA .. not sure to be honored or insulted by you statement above [S but I have 6 flattys in my shop and do not have 2 grand in all of them [ all run ]
.......come to think of it I am genuinely flattered by your observations ..:D

I'm mostly describing myself--(except for the blower on a flathead Ford), so its all flattery.
 
This summer put a crank and new lower end bearings in my sons SA200/
Continental F162,The only real issue was the end play shims for the crank,was a little tricky.
 
This summer put a crank and new lower end bearings in my sons SA200/
Continental F162,The only real issue was the end play shims for the crank,was a little tricky.

What's the application for the engine ? From your experience, do you think it would run a speedster?
 
What's the application for the engine ? From your experience, do you think it would run a speedster?

This was in a 1960 lincoln red face welder. They're pretty tough little motors.
I know 8&9N tractors run a similar motor and rated about 25hp
 
The CJ2A I had would do a smoking 45mph(real deep geared), the 36 hp 1100cc 50s VW I had would not hit 55 (needed rings) and the 49 chevy 216 I drove of and on in high school, claimed 60 hp and would run about 60--but it was heavy. So in an ultra lite 1600 pound single seat speedster running a 25 hp L4 continental with 'hi way' gearing, you probably might hit 60 on a cool night with a tail wind, and couldn't get much of a ticket.
 
You may be surprised at the power you can get out of one with a little work. The 6 cylinder was supposed to have 71 hp if memory serves. I also don't think that the stock compression was very high so with a little head shaving and a decent intake with down draft carb(s) and a free flowing exhaust you shoulud do ok.
 
You may be surprised at the power you can get out of one with a little work. The 6 cylinder was supposed to have 71 hp if memory serves. I also don't think that the stock compression was very high so with a little head shaving and a decent intake with down draft carb(s) and a free flowing exhaust you shoulud do ok.

Yeah, that's true, the compression on flat heads can be real low. I was tinkering with an old tractor a few years back, and replaced the head (had a crack), and the tractor really ran great. Turned out it had a tractor fuel (kerosene) head that was 4-5 to 1 compression, and I accidently replaced it with a gasoline head. Rather be lucky than smart? Also I think fuel quality in the old days was real irregular and they designed the engines to run off the worst by lowering the compression. I bet the CJ I owned was one of the low compression 'multi fuel' wheezer motors. I put pistons and rings in it but didn't consider the compression. Cool old CJ--wish I'd have kept it. Found a pic of it.
 

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