Re: IML: first hemi

["Bill Watson" <wwatson5@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Riley 2.4-litre hemi 4 was one of the engines Chrysler checked out after
WW II.  Most stories have it as a Healey sports car, but Healey did not make
their own engines and in the early postwar period they bought engines from
Riley.   The Riley engine had dual camshafts, but unlike common practice,
were mounted at the top of the block, just below the head.   The engine thus
had dual rockershafts with very short pushrods.

The earliest hemi engine that I know of was the Welch.   The first Welch was
introduced in 1903 using a 2-cylinder, overhead valve engine with
hemispherical cumbustion chambers.    In 1904 they moved from Chelsea,
Michigan to Pontiac, Michigan where they introduced a 4-cylinder hemi
engine.   A 6-cylinder engine came a couple years later, again with
hemispherical combustion chambers but this time with with s single overhead
camshaft.

In 1909 it became part of General Motors and the company opened a new plant
in Detroit to produce a new non-hemi four.  The new head of Welch, A.B.C.
Hardy (who would head Oldsmobile from 1921 to 1925),  following instructions
from GM head office, moved all machinery from the Welch plants in Pontiac
and Detroit, to the the Rainer plant in Saginaw where GM began production of
the Marquette (not connected to Buick).  The engine was a T-head four but
the first Marquette was gone by the end of the year.

Bill
Vancouver, BC



----- Original Message ----- 
From: PNigelW@xxxxxxx
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2005 12:18 AM
Subject: Re: IML: first hemi


When I get home i will check my reference books but various European
manufacturers were using hemi headed engines for racing prior to the first
world war (before 1914).

Riley in the UK were mass producing (well they made over 50,000) hemi headed
engines from 1927 through to 1955.

As 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder and V8 engines, the six cylinder engine formed the
bassis of the engine used in ERA racing cars.

Regards

Nigel Plant

L*80 Locke Convertible Coupe




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