I have a 239 engine in good condition. I may have need of large air compressor soon so I thought I may use one cylinder bank for the engine and the other bank to pump air. I guess I may need a custom head for the air compressor side. Has anyone heard of doing this?

 

I recall having read about this in the past. I cannot recall whether it was done with a Model T or Model A Ford 4 cyl engine. I'm sure that it has been attempted with both! Anyway, in this conversion, I believe that the front half was used for one purpose and the rear half for another.

There is no need to build new heads. In searching to find examples of my recollection, I googled -- convert "model a" compressor -- and came up with an interesting old paper for converting a flathead Ford back during WW2.

Since the enlightened policy of this board forbids posting urls of other web pages, you will have to do the google search yourself. I scored this hit, which is a .pdf of an old University of Illinois paper. Look for this in your google search: [PDF] DWIGHT H. GREEN, Governor

As you read this paper, note that in flathead Ford parlance, a "pushrod" is what we'd call a tappet or lifter. You will see that the paper suggests making the intake valve "automatic" by replacing the normal valve spring with a light one, and putting one way check valves in bored out spark plug holes.

If you do such a conversion, remember that an even firing order, running on 4 of the 8 cylinders, will include the center two cylinders of one bank and the outer two of the opposite bank -- this is true, no matter which bank you choose to start with.

You won't need to make up new heads, either.

Also, there is a company that I found called Dunn-Right Incorporated, and their web site includes dunnrightinc followed by the traditional period and extension that is the most popular one. These folks advertise conversion parts for doing something similar to volkswagen engines, calling them the "Volks-Air" Air Compressor. Maybe you will find that interesting, as well.

 

Seriously? I did not know that... It's a wonder the FORUM POLICE haven't spanked me yet.

 

I've seen a 302 4/4 air compressor in action. It was professionally built and sold under someones name. I'm not sure how it was set up, but he was using it to power a sandblaster. I've actually seen an IH motor that was an air compressor. It was a I-6 and powered by a big electric motor. The spark plug holes were the exit for the air going to a storage tank. It must have had a custom cam setup to open and close the valves at the same time so to pump the air out the spark plug hole.

 

If a light weight spring is mounted on a valve, the descending piston will create a low pressure in the cylinder, causing atmospheric pressure to open the valve and allow the cylinder to fill.

This principle was used in most of the earliest Otto cycle engines, and was/is referred to as an "automatic intake." Old engines therefore required only one cam lobe to operate the exhaust. In fact, most of the early stationary gasoline and kerosine engines used a governor that interacted with the exhaust valve, holding it open when the rpm got too high. These engines were known as "hit at miss," and if you ever hear one running, it will be immediately apparent as to how they got this name.

Automatic intakes were cheap, but disappeared for two reasons: The principle of operation ensured that the intake opened long after TDC, no matter how light the spring was that closed the intake, and in aircraft engines, high altitude (understandably) caused them to really inhibit performance because the pressure differential between the cylinder and atmosphere wasn't as great -- and this is the force that operates the intake and governs its duration.

On a compressor, it shouldn't be as much of a problem. You will likely get plenty of air!

 

I've used several commercial units with converted small block ford engines, and they work very well. Here is a link to a company that makes conversion kits. Mainly Volkswagon conversions, but they DO have kits for V-8's.

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doesn't ingresoll use ford small blocks as air compressors? the left side is for air and the
right side is still intact.