Making a power plant

Dan-IA · Sep 15, 2009

I was having an odd thought the other day. I have 2 old cars in my yard, 85 Buick Century and 86 Chevy Celebrity. Both have the same engine, a 4cyl-2.5L 151ci 2474cc-TBI,GAS,OHV. The kind of engine that runs forever. Since I've got a pair of 'em and I'm tired of looking at the cars I was thinking about jerking the engine, fuel tank, computer, etc and putting it all together like a power plant. The car book says it's a 92HP engine so I think that if I get a gearbox to slow it down and slap on a 540 power shaft I could have a pretty decent power source for an auger, generator, or something else.

What kind of gear ratio should I look for? I figure a reducing gearbox would be important.

glennster · Sep 15, 2009

whay not leave the transmission transaxle attached and use low gear. with an rpm meter, you could figure out what gear and what rpm will give you the 540. use one of the drive axles to run the pto shaft. as long as it is not a limited slip front differential, pinning the other drive axle will leave the other one turning.

Dan-IA · Sep 15, 2009

That would make it much simpler. Great idea!

Russ from MN · Sep 15, 2009

If you have cruise control I have always thought that would make a good governor, you usually need something to maintain a constant speed. I once ran a 4" dredge pump with a Plymouth slant six and it worked quite well. left the 3 speed right on it and it would run in high in cooler weather but when it got hotter I would have to shift down to second. Did not have any governor, just a micro-adjuster on the throttle. Get it primed and give it enough throttle to pump well. If it sucked up a big gas bubble and lost its prime it would race a little but I was always nearby to shut it down. I knew someone that used a Ford Pinto (2300) engine to run a wood splitter(where you would really need a governor) but I don't know what they did about that. Good luck!

Dan-IA · Sep 15, 2009

I just ran some numbers and came up with 45mph gives 540rpm on each side, and if you lock one side that effectively doubles the speed on the other side so I estimate 22-23mph on the speedo would be about 540RPM.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2009

That would double the speed of the turning axle, and wear out the spider gears , wouldn't it ? Could you go in and weld the spiders. like the dirt cars do ?

old · Sep 15, 2009

You need to pick the brains of some of the older people around you. Find one that had or knew of a saw mill where they used a car or truck engine to run the saw. Most where set up with the tranny still on them and a way to set the RPMs at one speed for the saw. Very common set up many years ago

Russ from MN · Sep 15, 2009

Another thing, if it has an automatic transmission you probably need to go fast enough so the torque converter locks up (I assume it will) or it will generate a lot of heat.

phillip d · Sep 15, 2009

Stuff like that was common in the past like others said.I remember seeing an old rwd chev with the driveshaft hooked to a forage blower for a silo.Thing just sat out there year round.

Dan-IA · Sep 15, 2009

Well it always locked up at about 42mph. I wonder if there's a way to force it to lock up the torque converter at a lower speed. I know I could simply pull a wire off the corner of the block and it would never lock up. Maybe I could trace it out and figure out where that green wire goes.. BTW the Buick does have a cruise control and it worked when parked.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2009

There are aftermarket belt driven governors available. Last I noticed nnalert had them in their catalog.

I don't think the cruise control works below about 30 mph, but I've not owned one.

Gerald J.

Owen Aaland · Sep 15, 2009

The converter lockup wire power is controlled by the PCM. You can feed power to it instead from the battery through a switch. The clutch should stay locked as long as there is power on that wire.

Old Roy · Sep 15, 2009

You have worked my brain a bit. Good theory at first.

But in order to go from say [Example] 40 mph to 60 mph how would 40 mph go to "resume speed" automatically to 60 mph max the resume button would have to be manually pressed.

Other than that the cruse control would be just an electric throttle.

Tony S. · Sep 15, 2009

Our Case 960 combine had a belt driven governor on a slant six engine. Maybe you could find one of those.

Gun guru · Sep 16, 2009

I had the Iron duke motor in my 1981 Phoenix too.

glennster · Sep 16, 2009

dan, i got a chance to sleep on yer idea. have a couple thoughts. how about leaving the car intact, then make a shaft adapter to bolt to one of the hubs on the front drive wheel to hook a pto shaft up to. if the front disc brakes still work, splice in shut off valves in each front brake lines. apply the brake and close the valve on the side you dont want to turn. that should pin that axle from turning. drive up to the auger, jack up the side of the car that will drive the pto, hook the shaft up, put er in drive and set the cruise. whalla!!!! or, using the same set up, you could cut the whole front section off the car thru the winshield posts and across the floor just behind the door posts, then take the rear axle out and mount it under the front end of the car for a trailer. or just rig a drawbar up off the engine cradle and pull the front end around as a trailer. that way, the radiator, trans and all the necessary wiring are intact, and the hood is still on to keep the engine out of the elements. woo hoo!!!! farmer fabrication!!!

INCase · Sep 16, 2009

you didn"t happen to see that in Northern Indiana.. Kendalville area did you?

steveormary · Sep 16, 2009

Dan-IA;

We had several cars we put out to pasture. The engines were still pretty good in them. I was always tryng to figure which engine would go best with which tractor. Like mabe the Buick v8 into the M Farmall and the old 6cyl. chevy engine in the Cockshut 30.

steveormary

Anonymous-0 · Sep 16, 2009

My dad did that with his 33 Ford while house building in the late 40s. Jacked up one rear wheel, hooked on a pipe with a coupling made to fit the axle nut, that ran the concrete mixer most all day. Had a hand throttle to set the speed. Didn't have to add it.

Gerald J.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 17, 2009

Linsay publications has a book on using auto engines to run generators.Model A ford engines ran cordwood saws and sawmills in the 50s.

TimMiller · Sep 17, 2009

I have a torque converter lockup switch installed on my truck. All it does is ground the torque converter. The TC gets a constant 12V, the PCM works by turning the ground on and off (I know fords are wired this way for most things) so that its easier to fuse everything, rather than having a bunch of wires come off the PCM go to the fuse block, than to whatever, they just make 12V from the battery to the fuse block to the device, and PCM completes the circuit by ground. The PCM doesnt care if i enguage the TC or if it does.

Making a power plant

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