Inliners International Forums General Discussion MOPAR Chrysler engine-made in Mexico??

Gentlemen;

In the mid 60s there was an engine built in Mexico (by Chrysler) and it ran on anything that burned.

I recall seeing a photo of an Engineer pouring Tequlia into the tank, with a big smile. On the deck lid were cans of lighter fluid, barbeque starter and laquer thinner.

It may have been a turbine engine. It quickly disappeared because of EPA regulations, or so the story went, back then.

Does anyone have knowledge of, or any data/photos reguarding this project??

Happy trails.

Here's some info John. I actually went to college in Philly with a fellow student who was lucky enough to get one from Chryslers Test Marketing program then. He had it for a month or so and was the envy of alot of people.Or maybe it was the girls he attracted !!


www.turbinecar.com

I was in the Army in the early 70's and we had a lot of tuck engines that were "multi fuel". I don't think there is a big trick to it but the compromise is that they don't run good on anything except diesel. These were big inline sixes but a turbine will run on anything that burns. Interestingly many auto makers are currently experimenting with variable compression ratio engines that convert from Spark ignition to compression (diesel) under light load. They burn gas (mostly) and the idea is that they can have an unthrottled intake and very high CR for maximum efficiency.

Thanks guys, that's the info I was looking for.

Lear; like in "Lear Jet" built a steam car too. To surpress that they gave a hugh grant to make a 'steam bus'.

Happy trails.

Hang on... there was another one, and I raised the issue on one forum or another previously.

It wasn't in Mexico, but a group of some kind used an early fifties Mopar flathead six, built a new head for it to generate extreme swirl in the combustion chamber and devised fuel injection for it.

It ran on anything.

Dear Ray;

Chrysler Corp. has a lot of military contracts and proved the turbine engine was "workable" in the 50s & 60s. It, along with General Electric; built the first electric car via government contract too. This was in 73-74 during the "energy crisis" here.

ALL of these vehicles were "shelved" and the Feds. gave them "bail out" money to be quiet. :rolleyes:

After that was; the 'steam engine/car' via Mr. Lear & most recently General Motors (EV-1) in California.

None of this was important until retail fuel prices went above $2.00. But now It's a different "ball game" with gas heading toward $4.00 a gallon.

It's a long established (well known) fact; If you want to cripple the United States, stop It's transportation systems/ability.

With world affairs what they are; the (proposed) 50 billion dollar "energy fund" will do just that.

A situation our friends in Canada spoke of recently in the 'bench racing' forum.

Happy trails to all.

Yeah, I know all that stuff John...

All I wanted to do was bring this other development into the equation in case it was relevant.

The overhead valve head was specially designed, as mentioned, to swirl the incoming charge so it would burn cleanly or something.

It was a product of the early sixties, perhaps 1963.

Dear Ray;

I don't recall that head conversion for Chrysler 'flathead' 6 engines.

Arden had a set for Ford V-8 engines that were used a lot in Europe on trucks/commercial engines and here on Hot Rods. Hard to say.

The turbine engine Chrysler developed (50s & 60s) didn't like leaded gas. Back then "white gas" was the ONLY unleaded around and was special, for Coleman stoves and some torching applications etc.

Perhaps "today's the day" to bring it back. It would work great with today's multi speed transmissions, liter weight bodies and a mixture of bio-fuel & unleaded.

Happy trails.

Hi Ray
The new book on Chrysler engines (see earlier post) has a few paragraphs on an experimental DOHC head for the Hemi. It was developed in 1964 as a response to the Ford SOHC. When NASCAR outlawed the Ford, Chrysler discontinued the project. If I knew how to post a picture, I would post an engineering drawing. Is there a place on this website where they say how to do it?

By the way, the same book (Written by W. Weertman, who started at Chrysler just after WWII and retired 1987 as chief engineer of engine design) says the the turbine was dropped about 1970 because there was no way to make it fuel efficient.

It wasn't marketed, John, it was an experimental job that some company put together.

Leif, I'd like to see that...

To post a pic, first you must ensure that it's only about 600 to 700 pixels wide.

Then you go to www.imageshack.us and upload the pic. Once it's uploaded you go to the first line below the stuff on the centre of the screen that's showing, that line has a check box 'include details'... uncheck that... and at the end of the line it says 'hotlink for forums 1'.

You simply left click in that line, right click and click on 'copy', then without changing a thing, put your cursor in on a fresh line of your post and right click, then click 'paste'.

Dont forget the 30 cylinder engine Crashler built for tanks.

Neat pic Don. The only thing better would be to hear it run---massive!

Dear Don;

Yeah; That's really huge all right. Got any Specs. handy??

How come those pics appear on every thread that talks about something a bit different?