Biggest inline 6 engine
Postmaster
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 3,241
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From: Broken Arrow, OK
Biggest inline 6 engine
My 61 International has the 501 in it with a 4 speed and 4.10 gears. If I ever want to move all I have to do is wrap a chain around the house and dump the clutch. 
The low end torque of the 501 makes the 300 look like a VTEC in comparison.
The low end torque of the 501 makes the 300 look like a VTEC in comparison.
Senior User
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 321
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From: kansas
Biggest inline 6 engine
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 14-Dec-02 AT 05:06 PM (EST)]>My 61 International has the 501 in it with a 4 speed and
>4.10 gears
What do you use that thing for? Towing Battlecruisers out of port or what?
Gas or Diesel?
>4.10 gears
What do you use that thing for? Towing Battlecruisers out of port or what?
Gas or Diesel?
Hotshot
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 18,488
Likes: 22
From: The Big, Oregon
Biggest inline 6 engine
There is a crane at a local junkyard, with a pair of Continental 6-cyl's. At fist I thought they were diesels, they are about the same size dimensionally as a Cat 3406. Big ol' flathead gas hogs. Maybe good for 150hp.
Jared
Jared
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 298
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From: Kentucky
Biggest inline 6 engine
I have stood on top of a piston in a Fairbanks-Morse Diesel engine on a generator set. I was bailing water out with a 1 Gallon Paint can...LMAO I could squat down and get the can between my legs to get it full.
ftwfred
ftwfred
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 3,241
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From: Broken Arrow, OK
Biggest inline 6 engine
>>My 61 International has the 501 in it with a 4 speed and
>>4.10 gears
>
>What do you use that thing for? Towing Battlecruisers out of
>port or what?
>
>Gas or Diesel?
It's gas. Right now it just sits in my parents' back yard awaiting it's turn under the knife. It's a 1 ton crew cab short bed 4x4 with a top speed of about 40 mph. Came with 36" tires stock. Someone at some time put a 1 barrel carb and intake on it, probably because the stock 4 barrel manifold cracked and they couldn't get another one for it. Not a bad purchase for $200. Had it running in under an hour after dragging it home on 4 flat 6 ply tires.
>>4.10 gears
>
>What do you use that thing for? Towing Battlecruisers out of
>port or what?
>
>Gas or Diesel?
It's gas. Right now it just sits in my parents' back yard awaiting it's turn under the knife. It's a 1 ton crew cab short bed 4x4 with a top speed of about 40 mph. Came with 36" tires stock. Someone at some time put a 1 barrel carb and intake on it, probably because the stock 4 barrel manifold cracked and they couldn't get another one for it. Not a bad purchase for $200. Had it running in under an hour after dragging it home on 4 flat 6 ply tires.
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New User
Joined: Dec 2002
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From: Rome US
Biggest inline 6 engine
If you are asking just about Fords, yes the 300 is the largest for trucks and indurtial! Looks like these boys got a little happy with some other companies.
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Senior User
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 252
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From: Granite Bay USA
Biggest inline 6 engine
Thanks to all. I knew some of the other companies had larger displacement engines but I was curious about Ford. I have a 68 Ford Step Van that I want to repower (currently a 240) and would like to use a larger inline but being a purist it would have to be a Ford. Otherwise a diesel would be tempting. Guess I'll go to a 300 with a few basic mods. Heck, maybe I'll put two of them in it.:P
Elder User
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 535
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From: Laveen
Biggest inline 6 engine
Ford did mess around with some big I6 gas engines way back when but I don't think any of them were produced in more than prototype quantities on the other hand they made thousands of GAA V8 engines, 1100 CI overhead cam gas engines used in tanks in WWII and for some number of years after, there was even a V12 version but by then the Army was becoming interested in diesels, Diesel leaks are a lot harder to ignite and easier to extinguish and armoured vehicles typically locate the fuel tanks inside with the crew, toasty huh.
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 5,860
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From: Metro Detroit (Redford)
Biggest inline 6 engine
FWIW: I was browsing a tractor site and they had a "Classic Truck" forum. In it I found a discussion of the International 501 straight six. These folks all seemed to think the 501 was a dog:
http://www.ytmag.com/trucks/trforum/messages/3509.html
Text from one poster on the site: "All I know is the 501 was'nt a sleeved engine. They were supposed to be a super duty and the 501 was supposedly a bored 450 block. It's been alot of years but best I can recall they were bad about busting a piston which in turn ruined the block. Folks around here would replace the 501 with a 450 when their 501 laid down cause the 450 was a sleeved engine you could rebuild and their was'nt enuff difference in power to really be able to tell a difference."
INLINE SIX POWER!
'95 F150 XL
300 Cubic Inches of Low RPM Truck Torque! And twin-I-beams too!
"Drive a stick young man! There'll be time for automatics when you're old and unable."
http://www.ytmag.com/trucks/trforum/messages/3509.html
Text from one poster on the site: "All I know is the 501 was'nt a sleeved engine. They were supposed to be a super duty and the 501 was supposedly a bored 450 block. It's been alot of years but best I can recall they were bad about busting a piston which in turn ruined the block. Folks around here would replace the 501 with a 450 when their 501 laid down cause the 450 was a sleeved engine you could rebuild and their was'nt enuff difference in power to really be able to tell a difference."
INLINE SIX POWER!
'95 F150 XL300 Cubic Inches of Low RPM Truck Torque! And twin-I-beams too!
"Drive a stick young man! There'll be time for automatics when you're old and unable."
Postmaster
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 3,241
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From: Broken Arrow, OK
Biggest inline 6 engine
Nobody in that thread said the 501 was a dog, just that it wasn't very powerful. Back then nothing was very powerful, that's why everything was so big. The specs I have for the 501 are 215 HP@3000 rpm and 451 ft-lbs @ 1600. The compression ratio was a whopping 6.8:1. Definitely not a firebreather by modern standards, but 40-50 years ago was probably pretty decent. The inability to rebuild the engine is a slight liability, but many modern engines have this trait. One of my customers broke a piston in his 2001 Camaro SS and scratched the cylinder wall rendering the engine a paperweight. The block can only be bored about 0.020 over on a good day, and the scratch was slightly deeper than that.
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 5,860
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From: Metro Detroit (Redford)
Biggest inline 6 engine
>Nobody in that thread said the 501 was a dog, just that it
>wasn't very powerful.
You're right, nobody in that post said it was a dog, that was just the impression I got from some of their statements like, "They weren't very powerful but with patience you could get there." I posted that thread as a contrast to what was being posted here and to stimulate further discussion. The hp and torque stats speak for themselves. If that engine is a dog, then so is my 460 V8. Thanks for posting the stats. You wouldn't happen to have them for the International 450, would you? What is your source? I have a 2-inch thick book on International trucks over the last 100 years and it does not have stats like that.
>wasn't very powerful.
You're right, nobody in that post said it was a dog, that was just the impression I got from some of their statements like, "They weren't very powerful but with patience you could get there." I posted that thread as a contrast to what was being posted here and to stimulate further discussion. The hp and torque stats speak for themselves. If that engine is a dog, then so is my 460 V8. Thanks for posting the stats. You wouldn't happen to have them for the International 450, would you? What is your source? I have a 2-inch thick book on International trucks over the last 100 years and it does not have stats like that.
Postmaster
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 3,241
Likes: 3
From: Broken Arrow, OK
Biggest inline 6 engine
I got them from a Chilton service manual I have. It lists the 450 as having 202 hp and 422 ft-lbs, both at the same rpm the 501 peaks at. The 450 has a 7.1:1 compression.