1914 Saxon, (Continental) engine questions

[vern0n]

A few years ago I picked up a 1914 4 cylinder Saxon car engine made by contenintal. It is in a crate and I was thinking of putting it back together. Does anybody have any info on this engine? It is small, flathead, 2 main bearings, intake manifold is cast into the block. The distributor comes out the back of the block. Did they put this engine in anything else?

[Bud Tierney]

Well, maybe getting back to important thing's'll get my BP down after a couple posts re the bailout...
1930 McCord shows a Saxon 4cyl passenger, Models A,B and B5R, 1914-17 (McCord shows very few years)with a Cont "O", but then shows TWO b/s: 25/8x4 and 23/4x4.
1924 piston catalog shows two 4cyl Saxons (no yrs): Mod A with 4cyl 25/8 bore, "own" engine, and Mod B14 (could be models B and 14?) and B5R with 4cyl 23/4 bore, "own" engine.
Per a 1917 ring catalog THREE "O" engines were available: the two above and a 415/16 bore model (??).
The McCord doesn't list any "O" in the engine section; the piston catalog lists several unidentified 4cyl Cont''s but none of the above bores.
A 1936 King catalog lists the Cont "O" and "OA"in the Cont engine section as a 4cyl 25/8 bore, but has no listing for Saxon.
Probably your best hope is to Google for a Saxon club, or possibly Chalmers, as the Saxon was supposedly started by the head of Chalmers. Good luck.

[Doug Kimball]

Here's a Saxon set up for stationary use.

[vern0n]

That looks like my engine. Cool looking govener.

[Bud Tierney]

Kim: If you're wondering what happened to your 1926 Acme post, I had it moved to a new thread (1926 Acme Five Ton truck etc) on this forum, to get your request more exposure.
Hope it helps. Bud

[Bud Tierney]

Vern: meant to get back to your original question (was your engine used in anything else) but lost you in the shuffle...
Cont made more engines than Carter made Little Liver Pills; in trucks/eqpmt, they usually were tagged as Cont'ls, and used their Cont ID designation, but the "assembled" car mfrs often preferred to pretend they were their "own" engines.
Cont also sometimes assigned a speciic designation to a motor for a particular mfr, even tho the engine was the same as, or basically the same, as others sold to other mfr's.
Probably your best bet, as to whether used in other vehicles, is a man named Gerrad Moon at Monte's Equipment, an obsolete Cont parts dealer; he's very highly praised in these forums for being helpful with obsolete parts and info.
gerradmoon@montes@flash.net
montesequipment.com. Good luck.

[rustngreese]

I have a 1915 Federal Truck with a Continental "C" engine in it. I have only seen one other engine like mine in a truck at the Hays Museum in Woodland, CA (near Sacramento). My truck is chain drive. Continental made many engines for trucks and cars of those early vintages. I have an original owner's manual of my engine with cutaway drawings that is really beautiful to look at. When you read it you would swear that the author is talking about caring for the engine as you would a team of horses! I also have a book that I got at Hershey one year of the Federal Truck factory in those days, including pictures of the offices, parts storage room, and assembly area, also quite interesting! If any of you guys out there have any information on Continental model "C" engines or know of parts, please let me know. Thanks.

[Bud Tierney]

First, either contact Harry (site administrator) to have this made a new post, or repost it yourself; buried in this Saxon thread you won't get nearly as much exposure.
I have very little that goes back that far, and very early Cont'l engines seem to've sometimes had variations within the same engine designation (I recall a Cont'l "O" that my catalogs showed with three different bores).
My only catalog that shows the "C" is a 1917 Burd Rings catalog, and that shows the "C" engine with TWO bores:
33/4 bore for unstated year, for 1916 and "1917 33/4";
41/8 bore for unstated year and 1916.
The above are 4cyl; there's also a 6cyl, shown in that catalog as C6 in the index and 6-C on the size page: I don't know which is correct. This catalog only shows bore and ring size, no stroke , no other info. Needless to say, the catalog and later ones show a number of "C" variations: C2, CA etc.
Carefully clean your engine and take down any numbers or letters embossed or stamped, if you haven't already. If your papers say it's a "C" engine, it wouldn't be unusual for the engine to've been upgraded to a later model. When you have all the info you can find, contact Monte's mentioned above; they're considered the most knowledgeable per posts on various forums.
If Monte's no help or too expensive, check the engine and tractor forums here for recent post "1922 Waukesha" for my post of some other obsolete engine parts sources (if I look for it I'll have to retype this!). Good luck.

[John Schwiebert]

Vern: I sent you an e-mail about one of those engines we did several years ago. Did you get it? He had pistons made by Egge Machine. Let me know.