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Burtz Engine Update
Terry, Where is my Engine?
Last year Terry Burtz asked if we would take the first casting of his new Model A engine block to the MAFCA meet being held in Vancouver, BC Canada. He wanted the attendees to be able to see the actual cast iron block and be assured that he was moving forward on the project. Many of them have been receiving the e-mail updates he sends out each month but seeing the actual block would be a way of assuring everyone that this was a real project and there will be a real engine one day.
We picked up the very first block less than 24 hours from it coming out of the mold. The foundry had inadvertently moved the mold which caused an internal piece to slip which created a void in the casting that showed up as a hole in the water jacket. Once we returned home we dropped off the block at the foundry. The block was cut up and the cause of the void was located.
Moving forward to January of this year we invited Terry to bring another casting along with the crank and rods to our booth at the Turlock Swap meet. This was casting number four and much of the mold problems had been resolved. Casting number five was done and they were hoping for all the wall thicknesses to be correct. This one proved out when it was cut up and casting number six has been done. This one will be the start of the machining process, he hopes.
Because Terry is concerned about keeping the cost of the engine block reasonable and reachable for the entire Model A community, he does much of the work himself. While this is cost effective, it does create a slow process for a much anticipated project. He had hoped to have a running engine at the MARC national convention in San Diego, but this didn’t happen. He will have a seminar and display components for everyone to see but alas no running engine. He says he is now anticipating the end of August for his prototype to be finished.
If you would like to get included in Terry’s e-mail updates send your information to: model.a.engine@hotmail.com He attempts to get a monthly message out with pictures of his progress. We will be doing updates here as we move forward with our roadster pick-up project that will be using our evaluation engine.