How longer could the Ford Model T engine have eventually soldiered on?

[freebeard]

It's a start. www.motortrend.com/news/hrdp-1210-vintage-ford-model-a-b-c-four-cylinder-engines/

There was a time when the whole of hot rodding was based on making old Model Ts and later Model As run as fast or faster than anything in Anytown, USA. For the few who could afford it, a reground cam, improved ignition, and an overhead conversion could make a stripped-down roadster dance to the tune of 115 mph on the dry lakes. Bangers were the hardware to beat, even into the Ford flathead V8 era until about 1938, when hot rodders were able to apply their talents to four more cylinders—and the rest is hot rod history. Their depression-era cost and obsolescence after WWII make them a genuine score today.
....
Model A engines are rated at 40 hp stock. They use a smaller crank than their B and C counterparts, and use a gravity-feed or "splash-n-drip" oil system—not a pressurized oil system.

Model B engines feature a larger crank with no counterweights and a four-bolt water pump. They feature a pressurized oil system with direct lubrication to the mains. The oil galleys can be tapped to provide better lubrication for the crank, cam, and timing gears.

Model C engines pick up all of the advances of the B, but feature a counterweighted crank, a lighter flywheel—offsetting the crank counterweight's heft—and a three-hole water pump that will help you eyeball the difference at a swap meet or estate sale.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

As the Model A, Model B and Model C engines can be bolted easily to different transmissions, unlike the Model T engine, maybe this would make it easier to adapt such updated old-school engine design even to a modern car.

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

That's a lot of coin for like 30hp.

Collectors are sometimes willing to pay for expensive stuff which may not seem like a huge improvement at a first glance.

[Piotrsko]

You have a perfectly good chassis, but threw a rod and thrashed the motor case. Most of the aficionado I knew in Bakersfield would consider a new block cheap even at those prices because motors were hard to come by. some that I saw had welded patches and other external signs of repair. Not unusual to overbore and use sleeves or spraymetal/weld the crankshaft bearings

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

You have a perfectly good chassis, but threw a rod and thrashed the motor case. Most of the aficionado I knew in Bakersfield would consider a new block cheap even at those prices because motors were hard to come by.

I'm sure some American collectors who I told about the Chevrolet engine swaps into Model As which used to be common in Brazil while they were worth nothing would rather open their wallets...

On a sidenote, AFAIK the Model A resorted to a smaller engine in some parts of Europe such as Italy, and the first flathead engine for which I remember finding info about recast blocks was the Willys Go Devil which is similar in size to that smaller engine fitted to the Model A in Italy. Well, that's another engine which is harder to find in Brazil after the Army got some of its flatfenders repowered with Chevrolet engines around the '80s...