Crosley Engine Family Tree

One byproduct of Crosley's war effort was the production of a, lightweight four cylinder engine for auxiliary power for field equipment, aboard PT boats and B-17 bombers. The unique little mill was fabricated from sheet metal rather than cast iron. It had its beginning at Taylor Engines, Inc., Oakland, California. Taylor Engines was a 3 man company, consisting of a machinist named Jess, a draftsman named Joe Smith and Lloyd M. Taylor, the man with a dream. Taylor was a self-taught mechanical genius. Taylor knew the trouble with high compression engines had to do with thermal efficiency. At the high compression ratios needed to get lots of horse power out of a small displacement engine you could get violent denotation at unwanted times, sending shock waves through the block, canceling any gains in efficiency, and possibly destroying the engine. Taylor's obsession was to figure out why that happened, so he could make it stop. As he came to see it, the stumbling lay in the inherent properties of cast iron, the standard material for engine blocks. Technology of the time did not allow castings thinner than 1/4 inch, thicker in most places. Taylor calculated that temperatures could rise to over 600 degrees on one side of an engine block wall in spite of the coolant flowing past the other side. Hot spots around the combustion chamber acts as a spark plug, causing the pre-ignition. A thin, uniform wall thickness would dissipates heat rapidly, allowing higher compression.
Fabricated block construction on a tubular one piece crankcase with 7 mains was proposed.	X-24 Defender On May12th 1942 a report was submitted to Ray Olson Jr of the Navy Department proposing an all new 24 cylinder aircraft engine, designed by Taylor Engine of California.  This would be a fabricated block engine using ideas developed by Daimler and Mercedes-Benz in the early years of the autombile as well as the 27 liter Liberty V-12 aircraft engine during WW-1.
1702 cubic inch X-24 Defender HP estimated from the 950-1050lb package:     Un-Supercharged    1000 HP     Supercharged 32 In.*     1,250 HP     Supercharged 39 In.*     1,600 HP     Supercharged 48 In.*     2,000 HP *Manfold preasure in inchs of mercury(hg). The overall size with tapered nose for the prop and the rear accessory drive assembly was 76 inches and 45.5 inches in diameter.  It was interesting to look at the drawings and see if the front nose and rear assembly was removed, the engine was almost a perfect cube and would have fit in a 36 X 35 inch box.	Four 6 cylinder banks 90 degrees apart.	Proposed for aircraft use but for any use where space and weight was a important.
The decision to build a 6 cylinder (one bank) test engine came after the design of the X-24.  An army engineer suggest building a one cylinder demonstration engine, after they submitted the plans for the Armies consideration, so performance test could be run.  Taylor did not feel a one cylinder version would adequately test for possible structural problems with this new design.  He was not concerned with the performance testing, he knew it would pass and decide to move on with a 6 cylinder version, to speed up the process, since all indications were that the USA would need high output engines very soon.  There is no indication that the X-24 or Flat-12 were ever built.		A flat 12 cylinder version that would weigh 750 pounds, displace 851 ci was peopsed for use in tanks.
Taylor 6 Cylinder Taylor first built a 425 CI 6 cylinder with fabricated block hoping for a military contract. When the 6 was not accepted, he built a 4 cylinder version, based on the same principals, that he submitted for testing by the Navy. The Navy liked he engine but Taylor was not in a position to build engines in quantity, Crosley Corporation came into the picture and that is where we begin this family tree. If anyone knows if the 6 cylinder unit survived or what happen to it, please contact me.
Mystery 6 Cylinder Another mystery engine has shown up, this one in Ohio.  It is a 6 cylinder fabricated block engine,  reported to be 90 CI and is visibly larger than what an extended standard CoBra would be. It was bought in piece as army surplus. Could this be a smaller Taylor 6, supplied to the military for testing?  An early Crosley creation?  Any ideas? Were there more of these made?	It appears somewhat cruder than the Cobra especially the crankcase. The engine is currently mounted in a midget racer.	Not all parts were part of the surplus purchase the manifolds were with the engine but the carbs and water pump were added.
Crosley Fabricated Engine - 1942 to 1945
No I didn't flip the image, this very early fabricated Crosley engine was a mirror from the later production engine.  This photo was part of a report to the Navy on August 8th 1942.	Thank You The vintage photos and info on the Taylor engines and the early fabricated Crosley was made possible by a generous donation to the club by Ray Olson III, of reports and photos saved by his father Ray Olson Jr. Ray Olson Jr worked for the Navy Department early in WW II and was involved in the early development of the copper brazed engine for the Navy. He was also involved in the testing and manufacturing techniques required to produce the future CoBra motor. He often told his son about carrying the block from Washington DC to California. More early info was published in the club Quarterly and more will be added here after the series of articles is completed.	CoBra Years
Correction or additions are welcome. Jim@Bollman.com
Taylor Years CoBra Years CIBA Years Post Crosley Big Block Years

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