War Hemi: The Story Of The GAA V8 - 1,100ci of aluminum WWII Ford grunt
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- It's a stunning thing to realize that Ford mass-produced an 1,100ci, dual overhead camshaft, alunimum block, flat plane crank V8 in the 1940s. Sill the largest mass produced V8 engine ever, it was just what Uncle Sam needed to power Sherman tanks. But how did it come about?
In this video we not only look at the awesome specs and mechanical feats that this engine is known for, we also look into its murky and wild history. A history intertwined with international governments, shifty deal makers, and perhaps a little big of industrial espionage mixed in.
Far more than just an engine, the GAA is a fascinating piece of American mechanical history which in some ways is still unrivaled more than 80 years later. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
When I was about 12 years old I was riding my bike around my neighborhood and happened to see into my neighbors open gate that he had one of the biggest engines I had ever seen. Of course with my mechanical obsession I had to go take a look. Turns out it was a ford GAA tank engine that my neighbor Barry was building to put into a car hauler to move his show cars. became my friend for many many years god rest his soul. We never did end up finishing that project but hearing that engine start up for the first time with its coffee tin sized pistons when I must’ve been around 15 years old was an amazing experience. I learned so much getting the opportunity to work on such a specialized engine at an early age just by chance. He was a really cool dude. Also worked a lot on his stutz race car another experience I’ll never forget.
That is what engineering is capable of when you dont have a budget but want it RIGHT....Most car manufacturers have a budget that does not allow this kind of engineering.
A really informative video sir, always been mightily impressed by that engine
You were one lucky kid . :)
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
My dad now 85 years old and doing well was a tank mechanic in Korea no combat , thank God but he kept the tanks on TRACK he was an excellent automatic transmission rebuilder in the 60s and 70s retirement in the late 90 s and now we brothers and my son have a job rebuilding automatic transmissions called Edwards Brothers transmissions ROANOKE RAPIDS NC
😊
"hydra-matic"-the greatest transmission ever made !!--even "Rolls-Royce"-grudgenly used it to 1996 !!--AND MY "ROCKET 88 "
@@johncaldwell-wq1hp yes 👍 the 400 was a really great transmission ,I don't have the pleasure of seeing them in my shop very often ,and hard to find
@@Louis-kk3to how far from Washington NC are you guys? I am looking for a decent trans shop
@@user-ju8po9sy2m well, I think Washington NC IS near the southern coast I'm on the Virginia border on I - 95 ROANOKE RAPIDS NC , I'LL BE GLAD to help you out with any automatic transmission needs
The shaft & Gear cam drive combo just.. feels good.
It's extremely ingenious but my goodness it needs precision in manufacture and the thrust loading on the tower shaft is something else. Ford had some extremely good engineers and machinists.
It’s way better than a long timing chain that could most definitely fail under heavy loads
thats what i thought
@@georgegundersen562 Well, worm drives do have other issues. I think possibly in the early 1940s, worm drives were ahead of chains. Certainly before WW2 many racing bikes used vertical bevel drives, after the War they were supplanted by chains and high cam pushrods.
The skew gears were a source of problems throughout the life of RR engines. They have very high pressure contact points.
P.S. Ducati used bevel gears in their camshaft drives and were considered to be completely fail safe.
GAAs were popular irrigation engines where I grew up in the Texas panhandle in the late 70s.
One of our neighbors used one about a mile away and the exhaust was pointed straight at our house. That thing would shake the ground and I would fall asleep every night to the drone of that big V8.
Fall asleep to the drone and the carbon monoxide… 😴
Well, it was a mile from the house.
@@kevinkirk4285 it's ironic the GAA was born out of fords desire to build an aircraft engine ,,,on the opposite side the rolls royce meteor was born out of britians need for a tank engine ,,the 1100CI GAA made 500HP with 8 cylinders and the RR Meteor made 600 with 12 cylinders and 1650CI and had a similar torque number,,,funny that the GAA is only 200 pounds heavier than a modern cast iron big block chevy which weighs 900+ pounds fully dressed
@@seanwieland9763Better than being burnt to death from an exploding RV
@@wildcoyote34 A big block chevy never weighed more than 750 pounds in its fattest dress. Cast iron block, heads, intake, and exhaust manifolds.
For that matter neither did Mopars hemi.
Hey Brian, That's a picture IN MY GARAGE of the Ford Flathead V8 at the 17:56 mark in the video.
I took the picture in the early 2000's and posted it to the Wikipedia Ford Flathead V8 page sometime after.
I was quite surprised to stumble upon a picture from inside my garage while watching your video!
But honestly, that picture (among others) has been viewed many millions of times and shown around the world in many magazine and web articles edging on 20 years now but needless to say, it sure woke me from my half slumber when I saw it during your video.
Right now that same Flathead V8 engine sits in my living room fully dressed with Offenhauser Aluminum heads and a Joe Abbin Blower bolted on top.
At one point I had 3 Ford Flathead V8's sitting inside my house all dressed up with different race intakes and heads.
Great video by the way,
Cheers, moe of the north
Wow!?
WWII nerd here, but also engine building nerd. What a great, fresh and new story to watch! Well done on the content, sir.
Brian, you have managed to capture the innate curiosity of the ever wondering gear head mind combined with enthusiasm for interesting historical context translated into video form for another awesome watch.
Maybe indycar offenhauser engine should be next video. It's cool how this engine still competitive until the late 70s
Two legendary lumps!
I vote for the offy
I'd love to know how many full size Offy engines were built because I'm sure the number would be shockingly low. The block was notoriously hard to cast and it's said that only one small foundry on Oakland cast all of them. Others tried but no one claimed success. What I really would love to know is what was the Offy that started the Indy 500 the most times. My bet is at least 10. I consider the DGS engine an offy and the last time a Offy/DGS started it finished third. They dissipated so quickly because the Cosworth DFX was more economical than trying to make more Offy parts. Of course the same could be said for the FOYT/FORD V8 which powered AJ to his fourth win in 1977 and was gone from AJ's car in 1978.
@@brianlohnes3079
Jayne Mansfield?
That was based on a 1904 Peugeot engine.
I saw a couple of GAA's on pulling tractors in the late 70's/early 80's. People weren't modifying them for power back then, and naturally aspirated big block Chevies could beat them.
I had a friend in Phoenix, AZ about 15 years ago that had one he was going to put in a street car. I visited him and he showed me the innards. It was quite an achievement of design that was far advanced from Ford's typical flathead 4's and V8's.
Yeah if they weren't modified at all from original it makes sense that a modified big block could beat them.
Just incredible casting technology, metallurgy and engineering for even today!
One of the best engines that almost no one has heard of! What I like best about the engine, well besides the sound it makes, is the lack of chain drive for the camshaft. Todays engines, including Ford, some of the weak points are the chain drive. This is a fantastic engine. Kids today have no idea what came out of WWII and how it is benefiting them in their rice rockets. You can definitely tell that the Merlin was the inspiration, but Ford did what Ford does best and that was to make it cheaper and faster to build. Europe today still over engineers their engines, making them costly to build and repair, however they do produce some nice machines. Great video, thank you.
Cam chains are fine, but they need small links to handle the inertial forces at the crank sprockets. Duplex or triple row to handle the loads and adequate oil jets.
Right-angle spur gears are notorious for rapid wear. The thumping of camshaft springs would seriously take their toll.
10:52 was a point of the video that I knew I had to comment. Thank you for the engine sound. I absolutely loved the sound!!!
Thank you for the time stamp.
Love hearing these stories. The War created a lot of great engines . Always love hearing the history of how they where created! Thanks for sharing!!!
War, or, better said, the military, are behind the modern evolution of so many things in automotive, weapons (duh!), aviation, engineering, metallurgy, medicine, pharmacy, communications, electronics, etc.
Without the power of states and the immense dedicated budget (a good chunk of which isn't even in the public knowledge) we would not enjoy the world as it is today.
Just saying... internet was originally a military project (in 1969, at the peak of the Cold War, the US DoD’s Advanced Research Projects Agency started building a network of computers before universities and other government research centers were eventually looped into the network. It was ARPAnet, from which, after many years, the world wide web evolved
@@stevemilo6935 Goodness me! How? HOW will I recover my self esteem after such a harsh blow from an unknown username on YT?
Heidrich Performance is the CZcams channel with the GAA Mustang, it used to be called the Locomotive Breath channel or something like that. Cool stuff.
The sound of them in unlimited tractors pulling in the old Nassau Coliseum is what i remember as a kid. Great to finally see pics of inside them.
Sounds like a beast of a engine. Thanks Brian !!
Now that is quite a story , and very much appreciated! Your research is unbelievable and well done. Many thanks Brian.
As a mechanic technician and WWII tank nut since my childhood, I enjoyed this video immensely. A real masterpiece, Brian, thank you!
Add some variable valve timing and you have a modern engine. Absolutely fantastic design, especially for the time.
Brian, I’ve been a gear head my entire life and never knew anything about these engines. I’m 68 now and love learning from every one of your videos! The podcasts, too. I read an “alternate” reason why Ford refused to build the Merlin: supposedly he said he couldn’t produce it to Rolls-Royce’s high precision standards, and Packard said Ha! Hold my beer and watch this. This story was told by a Packard enthusiast who evidently got the story wrong. It figures Henry Ford was on the wrong side of history. I daily a restored 1931 Ford Model A Roadster, and love it, but that Henry Ford was a really bad guy.
Keep it up Brian! I can’t wait for your next history lesson!
It was the other way round, the Americans were into high volume production and parts interchangeability. They couldn't believe how low the precision standards were on the Merlin and effectively blue printed it. i.e. built it to much higher tolerances than Rolls Royce ever could with their older machinery. The RR Derby engines were originally virtually hand built with parts matched by tolerance, so yes, you could end up with a precision engine but it took too long to manufacter each one. When I worked in the drawing office at JCB excavators in the mid 80's our chief engineer who was about to retire saw war time srevice in the merlin factory and was charged with checking component tolerances and went into great detail about this.
@@russellmills4878 You are absolutely correct. Ford expertise was of course Mass Production and that requires high precision. With a capital intensive operation such as say the Rouge plant you cant afford to have the assembly line go down. If the parts coming into that line are not consistent the line stops and you are now burning money, in wages and the idle machinery you paid millions for.
On a trip to England I visited a Birmingham museum that was mostly dedicated to the history of the textile industry. But there was a display of a Ford built Merlin (not a GAA) in the museum, because the plant had been located in Birmingham. In the description in front of this engine was the story of the British government reaching out to Ford to produce the engine because Rolls Royce could not produce engine in the quantities needed. The British War department paid for the plant, and the machinery Ford needed to be able to produce the Merlin in the numbers required for aircraft production. That description with the display included the fact that Ford had to take the RR blueprints, and rework them for mass production, as the RR blueprints were overly reliant on the craftsmanship of their regular rank and file employees.
Rolls-Royce was still hand building merlin engines using obsolete methods of fitting individual parts to an engine, with no interchangeability between one engine and another... completely unsuitable for American standards and production volumes.
Britian desperately needed more engines and looked to America for a solution. Ford turned down the Merlin offer for good reasons. Packard had excess capacity and won the contract. the rest is history.
In my first reply, I tried my best to keep it as short as possible but there is yet more to know about this story for a full understanding.
First of all, Henry Ford was a pacifist who absolutely detested war of any kind. So, prior to Pearl Harbor and the entry of the U.S. into the war, Henry Ford was not open to the production of any war material. That explains his refusal to produce the Merlin in any of his North American factories. After Pearl Harbor and formal declarations of war of course Ford plants were duly converted to the production of any number of critical components for the American war effort. These included Jeeps, and most famously the B-24 bomber built in Willow Run in an entirely new plant designed expressly for bomber production.
However, prior to Ford Motor Companies' reorganization of their international operations which took place in the 1960's the overseas operations were separate companies with a mixture of ownership between the Ford parent company and local ownership. Henry wanted local ownership of significant amounts of the stock so that their operations would not be regarded as outsiders in each of those countries. That is how Ford came to produce Merlin engines in Birmingham (see my previous comment with the details of that) and why the British war department had to pay for the plant and the tooling so Ford of Britain could build those Merlin's in the quantities needed. Henry would not have allowed the production of Merlin's in the Dagenham plant.
Perfect. Hit every point. Oh, the Merlin did wind up in Cromwell tanks as the Meteor. Many thanx for another GR8 👍👍
Thank you! A story that had much more depth than I ever understood before digging into it!
Centurion tanks as well!
Steel block instead of aluminium, chargers removed, and derated for durability.
Meteors were in a LOT of Brit tanks. And associated vehicles, APCs, engineering vehicles etc.
@@ldnwholesale8552they also made a V8 version, my friend Pete Grieve is working on one for a drag racing Land Rover. czcams.com/video/CgV9skMYLxo/video.htmlsi=uI8dTF4DcrORb4Qn
The Meteor had an 8 cylinder version too. My friend Peter Grieve is working on a turbocharged one for his drag racing Land Rover. czcams.com/video/CgV9skMYLxo/video.htmlsi=uI8dTF4DcrORb4Qn
Love these vids man!
Thank you!!!
Imagine that thing in the hands of Keith Black or Ed Pink.
Lohnes you’ve done it again. Nice piece brother 👍🏻
Now that is a cool video. I knew about this engine but this video covered it all and very well! Thank you!
Correct on the pulling use The only one currently running (in the US anyway) that I know of is Doug Roberts of Carthage, MO called The Patriot. Twin turbo on alcohol.
Awesome vid as always, many thanks for bringing us this history
Another gem, Brian. Thanks for what you do!
That's one bad ass engine. Thanks
Great video Brian, I love this information.
You and me both, thank you for watching!
The GM sign at the entrance to the building! We will never see great things like this again!
Nicely put Brian I thought I had a decent handle on this motor then you dropped that bomb of a military document on me. I still continue to drool over this motor after finding out about it as a teenager in the mid to late 90s. Thanks for telling its story.
Fascinating stuff. Thanks for putting this together.
Very well done research and presentation. Thoroughly enjoyed this video.
A great history lesson. Thank you Mr. Lohnes.
Dude you're awesome these videos are impressive 👍💪😎
A Barra turbo 6, Whipple Coyote, and GAA are the Ford engines I've always wanted to swap. If you could get one of these to fit in a 32 5 window or 4 door Lincoln Continental with a pair of 91 or 98mm turbos it would be just so damn cool.
those are nice, but GM LS engines build more power and are way more reliable.
@@GMCOGRE LS engines make more sense, but hot rodders are known for not always doing things that make sense.
LOL.. there's always some chevy ball slurper to chime in.
@@r000tbeer That's not nice.
@@r000tbeer no need for any "slurping", just pay attention to what people are building and you see all you need to.
The starting and idle of the engine at 10:52 was awesome! I'd ten times rather hear that kind of purring engine than some smarmy music track, and not even voiced over. In fact I replayed it a dozen times ...🥰
Thanks for the video. Great job.
Just found your channel and that was extremely thorough explanation of this engine and I enjoyed every minute and subscribed. Thank you.
You been missing out!
Absolutely brilliant, technically precise information as always...love it !!
Thanks Brian, love the content.
Thanks for watching it!
Brian;
Love theses unique & refreshing stories from
you ! Keep it up man!
Regards;
Derek
Incredible presentation. Well researched, excellent editing, superb narration.
Amazing how you had engineering talent from Rolls-Royce, GM and Ford ending up coming to together to produce such a critical part of war equipment.
Yet another outstanding presentation Brian. Admittedly, this piece of history is brand new to us and as such, we wished there was more to soak up like a sponge. All the best to you and we'll be watching and listing to your colorful and always entertaining commentary coming from Pomona. Cheers!
This is glorious. Thank You for making this.
Thank you Brian. Every time you post you have my attention.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,amen......same for me..............................................
Great video! I enjoy all the information you provide!! Keep it up!
Brian produces these high quality vids, fantastic visuals & in depth info. Also he speaks interestingly & enthusiastically. Top drawer👏👍👍
I dont know where you find this stuff...but really cool history, and love all the technology and specs you reserch and share.
Great engine. Awesome video. I love the history and the way it's presented.
Love this story. Incredible technology for this time frame. There were some really smart people working on this stuff. Amazing! Great job Brian! Keep 'em comin'.
Thank you for all of the effort
Absolutely brilliant video
As someone who likes outlaw dirt winged sprint cars mechanical direct methanol injection direct drive V8s... and also a fan of history this is pretty cool🤩
Very interesting story, thanks for posting.
Wow, this is the best video of the Ford GAA I've ever seen.
With regard to how Ford came into possession of the Merlin blueprints a little known fact is that Ford produced Merlin engines for the British War department in a plant in Birmingham England.
On a trip to England I visited a Birmingham museum that was mostly dedicated to the history of the textile industry. But there was a display of a Ford built Merlin (not a GAA) in the museum, because the plant had been located in Birmingham. In the description in front of this engine was the story of the British government reaching out to Ford to produce the engine because Rolls Royce could not produce engine in the quantities needed. The British War department paid for the plant, and the machinery Ford needed to be able to produce the Merlin in the numbers required for aircraft production. That description with the display included the fact that Ford had to take the RR blueprints, and rework them for mass production, as the RR blueprints were overly reliant on the craftsmanship of their regular rank and file employees.
Mr. Lohnes,your research and storytelling are amazing. I thought I knew the history of hot rodding and early American cars until I started watching your shows. I don't know how many there are but I will watch them all, it's just a matter of how many times.. Thank You again Sir..
Thank you for another nice video. Glad to see more subscribers.
This was a great story, Thanx for posting.
I remember being surprised to discover how many tanks were powered with aero motors until I realized that power-to-weight ratio is as important in a tank as an aircraft.
Best comment on this video, you are absolutely correct in your assumptions.
“Hand built with surgical care” while showing photo of guy standing over engine smoking a cigarette
This was in a day and age when doctors were recommending one brand of cigarettes over another as easier on the throat: “It’s Toasted!” (From an old Camel ad.)
But, yeah-I take your point. ; )
Indeed that was "surgical" in the day... WOW!
Smoked just like the Doctors of that time......
The ciggarett was to steady his hand after 12 hours and 20 cups of coffee
Ahhhh... the good ol' days...
Excellent documentary on this unusual subject! 🙂
This is one very excellent video. Lots of good info here.
Great Content as usual.
Great video, so much I didn't know about Fords ww2 engines!
I enjoy the way you introduce and explain the genesis story and mention just enough technical information so as to illustrate the clever thinking applied by Ford's people. I've now learned about a great NA gasoline engine. Thank you!
I know it was an experimental aircraft engine that barely existed, but I'd love to see a video on the Rolls Royce Crecy. Arguably the most advanced piston engine of all time.
Ooh yes! Flight Dojo and Curious Droid have both done pretty good videos on the Crecy. What a monster. That and the Napier Sabre are about as good as big piston engines got.
Excellent/informative video sir. Thanks for sharing. 👍👍👍
Apart from the use of gears surprisingly modern. One thing for sure they fitted a true range of weird and unusual engines to tanks during WW2. From the twin Caddy flatheads, the dual 671's the crazy Chrysler flat head radial thing there was some creative desperate stuff going on.
Brian, I subbed a while ago as the content you have always interests me and is very cool to a gearhead, but I had no idea of your career off YT. I just finished watching the Phoenix Nats on TV and about skid marked myself! Your talent is amazing. Keep up the great work. I had no idea, but that makes me respect you even more after seeing your wonderfully produced videos:)👍👍
This was totally, totally fascinating. Thanks.
you keep up these type of videos and man your channel is going to grow
Best account of this Engine Yet !!!
Very nice video. Thanks for making it.
OUTSTANDING video! Ford's chopped-down Merlin was an awesome piece of engineering and manufacturing!
Awesome video, makes you wonder how much of the tech gained then is moved forward in the modern engine's like coyote and other ohv engine's👍👍
outstanding content Brian, cheers from Florida, Paul
Yes, you have got the story. I have tried to spread the story M. Ollie told in his book but who would expect such a story from a book with that title? My personal opinion was that Ford thought they could build better than the R-R engine and were trying to get the Pentagon to except the Ford engine as a substitute for the Merlin and they failed. Interesting that Knudsen was the former president of GM and it leaves the question in my mind, was he looking out for Allison by blocking the Ford V12? Also interesting that the Mustang was built by North American Aviation which was also majority owned by GM. So many interesting things to investigate here. The Mustang was built at the British request but not with the Merlin, though they wasted little time in installing Merlins in Mustangs when they had them. The British also ordered P-38 lightings without the counter rotating turbocharged engines they normally had, which brings the question 'were they just wanting Lighting airframes that they would install Merlin engines in? I can only wonder.
Aha! Some industrial intrigue!! I love the way you think!
except the Ford engine ? you mean accept
Merlin engines were not in stock, just waiting to be used, it took time to make them
@@robertbihn3005 Yes, accept, as substitute for Rolls Royce engines the contract was written for. Ford thought they had "a better idea" about aircraft engines. All indications were that they may have been right but they tried to sell it the wrong way.
They had asked Depression-Era America to pony up taxes to pay the huge sunken investment in aero engines so they were not to be discarded lightly. Folks back home heard a breath of scandal about procurement - it could be Administration-Ending.
Excellent points.
Great story, we thank you!
This is such a great American story by a ruthless business man. This was very well narrirated and explained. I really enjoyed listening and watching it. Thank you for sharing.
There was a GAA on display at a local Mesa AZ auto paint shop for 20+ years. I haven't been there in a while, but it still may be there.
So this is the grand daddy of A: most drag motors and B: The 572 Ford Hemi (and World Products Merlin I guess?) that Bob Chandler’s Bigfoot raced to dozens of championships in the
80’s,90’s, and 2000’s? Unreal! Also it kinda sounds like a monster truck or early dragster in that sound clip. Showing this to my friend who loves WW2 history and tanks.
I need one of these engines Brian, I've known of them for many years but have yet to come across one
My grandfather WWII tanker had a GAA in his tank. He said it was favored because they could idle all night to keep warm and not foul the plugs in winter. When speed was the way to maneuver and survive against better German tanks to get behind them fouled plugs was not a good thing.
Interesting and well made as always. I didn't know this engine at all.
Thank you for taking the time to watch it and glad it was fresh material to you!
Great as always. I saw a couple of these in a barn as a kid in the late 80s. Wish I knew what they were at the time. Ah missed opportunity? Thanks as always great work.
Awesome story, Brian. I've never heard of these.... until now!
Fascinating Story! Thanks, Brian.
Jocko's Streamliner started life with one of GAA Engines m
Soooo good I had to listen to it twice.
Great job Brian !
I need one of those, no...everyone needs one of those! I saw a tunnel hull speed boat that was powered by a supercharged Merlin at a race meet once, it was incredible to hear but the boat driver seemed to have some problems and it sank slowly as it went around the circuit. The Merlin was powerful enough to keep propelling the boat even when it was mostly under water with just the engine and cockpit above the waterline, I was impressed!
Cool and interesting, engaging. Thanks. Subscribed and I'll be watching more.
I never knew about this - THANK YOU very, very much...
Great bit of engine history man. I really enjoyed it... I've always loved American made vehicles, from all the brands.
It's too bad Ford doesn't have that kind of work ethic these days... None of them do.
Leyland in the UK built an 8 cylinder version of the meteor. This was used in tank transporters and was named the meteorite.
I'm just lovin this channel I can't get enough of this stuff I had no idea that such exotica such as sodium filled valves existed back this far and beautiful things such as shaft and gear driven four valve DOHC keep up the good work this is gear head ( or as we say in Australia petrolhead ) heaven ❤
Exelent video! Thanks.
Great video