Need help identifing this Hercules! EK

[frostydawg69]

Hey guys this is my first post so hello to all from Abbeville SC, now my question is can someone help me identify this hercules me and my grandfather are restoring. Im pretty sure its either a 12hp or 14hp it has a 7-1/2X12 bore and stroke. I can not find any numbers or markings at all. Thanks in advance for any information you can give.

[Skip Landis]

i have a herc book that lists a 7 1/2 by 12 as 14 hp. if that is what you have, they are pretty scarce. skip

[Andrew Mackey]

With the squared hopper profile, your engine may be an Economy, hercules built but sold thru sears. Did the engine have any paint on it?
Andrew

[Joel Mosley]

Your engine is definitely a Hercules. The throttle governed type EK was only marketed in the Hercules Line. The hopper with the rounded corners and the oval opening is another Hercules trait. The 12 and 14 HP engines are virtually identical. Just a HP rerating later in production. Here is a line up of 2
12 HP Model E Economyengines, 1 10HP Model D Economy engine with a 9 HP Hercules (unpainted) and an 8 HP model D Economy to show the difference in the two brands of engines. Good luck with your engine.

[frostydawg69]

does anyone know where a serial number my be located or some kind of casting mark, I would like to get an idea about what year she was made in. This project sure has been fun and we hope to find a 3hp to restore when were done with this one.

[Tom Cwach]

The serial number would have been on a brass plate on top of the water hopper. You should see two holes on top of the hopper near the cylinder head end of the hopper.

It would be a 12EK with the Webster Mag. A 14 would be a SK series with a Wico mag and sparkplug and set 25 rpm higher.

[frostydawg69]

there are no holes on the water hopper at all? I read somewhere about a serial number on the crankshaft end but there wasent one there. Is it true that if it was made in 1914 that it could possibly not have a serial number at all.

[Tom Cwach]

I have seen some Hercules engines sold by jobbers have the plates on the engine base near where you have the feul tank.

Maybe the hopper was damaged and replaced.

[frostydawg69]

this was my great-grandfathers engine he bought it new and to my grandfathers best recolection there has never been anything changed on it before it was put in the barn in 1947 when he bought a farmall c and quit using it on the gristmill. I have looked it up and down and the only markings on it that i can see are on to of the crankshaft greasers and all I can make out is phila.PA.? Please forgive my ignorance this is all new to me and I just have fun learning all I can.

[Tom Cwach]

In the production era this engine was made the tag would be the only place I know of that the serial number was stamped.

I have only seen casting dates on later 1920s engines.

The flywheels changed somewhere in mid 1916 I belive. The later style like your families engine have hollowed out areas in the flywheel for balancing the rotating assembly. The earlier style have a thicker area of the flywheel rim for balance. See illustration.

Look at Keith Kinneys site www.herculesengines.com for pictures and catalogs/owners manuals.