1919 Federal Truck fitted with a 4-cylinder Continental engine

Hi, I hope someone may be able to help with the cubic capacity and possible horsepower of the above engine No.1705704 built 4th month 1818.
It was sold new in Sydney and I writing a comprehensive story about this trucks working life in Australia.
I am Jim Gibson automotive journalist and past editor of Truckin' Life, now running a website with fellow automotive journo Allan Whiting.
You can view our website – historicvehicles.com.au – it has a mountain of information and stories about Trucks, Cars and Motorcycles.
Hope you can help with my enquiry.
Cheers, Jim Gibson

The company was founded in 1910, as the Bailey Motor Truck Company, but was later renamed to Federal. The company then opened a factory in Leavitt Street, near Southwest Detroit. During the prosperous time of the company, around 700 people worked there, producing as many as 3,500 trucks annually. The main competitor of the company was Diamond T. The main provider of engines for the company were Continental, Waukesha, and Hercules.

The company later producing some delivery trucks, with Willys-Knight engines, and these were marketed under the Federal Knight brand. Despite being an independent manufacturer, the company produced its own cabs, in both standard and deluxe versions. In 1942, the company bought the Stewart Motor Company. After the war, the company enjoyed high sales, and was bought by Fawick, although it was soon discovered, that the new buyers knew nothing about manufacturing complete trucks, and the company was sold to NAPCO, that closed down the company's factory in Detroit, and transferred the trucks' tooling in their own factories in Minneapolis.

Due to economic problems and the uncertainty of the future of the Federal brand, NAPCO retired the brand in 1959, with all operations ceasing in 1960.

From a 1918 Magazine







It would appear the engine in question is a Continental N. This was one of the most widely used engines of the era and more than 15 makes of truck were fitted with the Continental N.

Besides that, the famous Liberty Engine of WW1 was built by a number of manufacturers eg it had Continental block, Waukesha head and Buda internals.

There is a 1919 Corbitt in Australia with a Continental N that I know of and probably quite a few others.

The N came in two bores 3 3/4" and 3 1/2" both with 5" stroke. I am still looking for HP but guess it is going to be in the 50-70hp range.

Lang

Gibbo, Welcome.
I would ask your Question here forums.justoldtrucks.com/Default.aspx

There's some very knowledgeable Guys on there...

Here is a list from Daniel Strohl of the makes that used early Continental engines up to about WW2.

Abbott Ace Ambassador Anderson Apperson Auburn Bantam (Jeep) Barley Bay State Beggs Benham Bendix Birmingham Blackhawk Bour-Davis Bush Cardway Case Checker Colby Columbia Comet Commerce Motor Truck Continental Crawford Dagmar Darling Davis Detroiter DeVaux Diana Divco Dodge DuPont Durant Eagle Economy Elcar Empire Enger Erskine Ferris Flint Frazer Ghent GMC Graham-Paige Hanson Hertz Hollier Howard Hudson Huffman Imperial Indian Jewett Jones Jordan Kaiser Keller Kent Kenworthy Kleiber Kline Lambert Leach Lexington Liberty Littlemac Locomobile Luverne Marion-Handley Martin Merit Meteor Metropolitan Monitor Moon Morris National Noma Ogren Overland Owen Magnetic Paige Pan-American Paterson Pathfinder Peerless Piedmont Playboy Reo ReVere Roamer Rock Falls Romer Ruxton Saxon Sayers Scripps-Booth Severin S&M Stanwood Star Thorne Velie Vogue Walker Washington Wasp Westcott Willys Windsor Woods Wolverine Yellow More trucks Biederman Brockway Corbitt Federal Indiana Moreland Reo Sterling

This should interest you. More than likely the same engine as in your Federal truck.

collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/403860

Here is a Liberty truck. They do not say if it is a Continental, Waukesha or Buda built engine

.

Here is a 1919 Federal in Norway. Certainly a different engine from the Liberty. The thermosyphon on the Liberty is via two pipes while the Federal has it built into the head.



Here is the Continental N



Here is the Military Standard Liberty B engine built by Continental, Waukesha and Buda 1918 onwards

In the 2nd video it looks as if the front wheels and tyres are smaller than the rear. Is that right and if so why?

Early 20's Brockway used Continental engines which look the same as the catalogue drawing in Lang's post and also a makers photo I have of an L series engine.. The bigger engines used the twin bore cylinder blocks while smaller engines and post mid 20's used monobloc cylinder blocks & heads. There were many permutations of ancillaries and governor layout but an absolute dearth of information to say which is which. The book on Continental engines is useless for the early era. Typically each manufacturer cast there own top water outlet with their own name on it and pretended it was their engine.