Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Hercules Diesel Engine Block & Head Casting

An advertisement from the period. Another war advertisement.
                                                                                                                   
This Studebaker is just one of the type of vehicles that this engine would be found in. Link: The U.S. / American Automobile Industry in World War Two / WWII An American Auto Industry Heritage Tribute By David D Jackson


Rebuilt.


An actual engine ready for a rebuild.


Schematic.


Schematic.


Inspection of the flat head.


Inspection for conformity with a fixture.




Overall inspection. No machining has been done yet. That would happen in another factory.


Cleaning any sand or other residue. The turntable on the line looks like it is used for the trouble parts. You can also see the heads moving on their own line in the background. I can see powered grinders in the workers hands. This could just be flash removal.


Filling the mold for the engine block.                                                                                                     
Opening the mold.





Filling the ladle with molten metal (cast Iron).


Factory #70 foundry was the location for gray iron casting of the Hercules diesel engine block and head during world war II. A total of 204,500 sets were made. Buick did no machine work on the head or block as far as I know. Follow the Google book link for this complicated story. Factory #36 and #05 did not yet exist during the World War II time period. Links:


Buick At It's Battle Stations

Factory #70 Raw Casting

Factory #70 Before 1953

Factory #70 Core Room

Block Grinding In Factory #70

Factory #70 Engine Block Pouring

Factory #70 POTS

Factory #70

Factory #70/#71a To learn more about the history of the diesel engine during world war II go to Google Books

1 comment:

  1. The pics shared by you are amazing! That's a very good collection.

    ReplyDelete