Were L-29 engines mounted backwards?

The L-29 engine does run in the opposite direction as rear wheel drive cars. Dick also said it in an earlier post. The crank is fit to a gear which allows you crank the engine in normal clock direction, but that gear allows it turn the engine in the opposite direction. And as Stan and Dick said there are very few parts that interchange with the Big 8 Auburn. pistons,rods, valves,headgasket
My 2 Cents
Ken Clark

I'd sure like to know the "source".

Now what do you suppose the chances were that E.L. Cord would put all that effort and money into getting the first front-drive passenger car onto the American market and then name it "Miller"?

Actually, the front end was designed by C.W. Van Ranst. It's based on his "Detroit Special" racing car. All the L-29 mechanical patents are in Van Ranst's name. Cord bought Miller's patents, but the L-29 design owes little to them.

One source said that if they could have made the Miller FWD transmission work the car would have been called Miller. The Miller FWD transmission was impossible to shift on the street, or at least very hard.

The rest of the front end is basically a Miller indy car.

The Cord V-8, Lycoming's FA, was designed for a rear-drive car. (Possibly the so-called "Baby Duesenberg".) It was indeed turned "backwards", modified, and dubbed the FB for use in the FWD Cord 810. Lycoming called the supercharged engine FC.

Auburn/Cord Parts wrote: I agree on the 810/12 Cord Lycoming V8 as mounted backwards for the F.W.D.

I think that it would be best to say that the L-29 engine was designed for front wheel drive utilizing some existing Lycoming straight 8 parts from the Auburn series.

It seems od to say that the engine was 'mounted backwards' if it was designed for the car in the first place. Did the 810/12 V8 ever get used in some alternative operation? I mean, the drive belt and all is mounted against the firewall, which is odd, but if the engine was designed for the car (as with the L-29) it wasn't really mounted backwards, just designed backwards. The V12 in the Cord E-1 was most assuredly mount backwards though, I bet.

Dick Greene wrote: The L-29 Cord is an unique piece of equipment -- simple, but quite different and distinct. You should own one!!

L-29 CORDially, Dick Greene

I will someday. I need to get my 810 Cabriolet restored first. An Auburn Speedster is next on my list, then an L-29. Please note that I am not listing these in order of importance or relavence!

Bill, I don't know what happened to my reply of some months ago, but it seems to be in never-never-land (not Michael Jackson's Neverland, the other one).

Stan is correct with regard to the history of the L-29 engine, especially the use of some Auburn parts. But, as he said, the three main units were designed specifically for FWD in the L-29. The only gearing to reverse anything that I know of is the hand crank, which cranks through an idler to give the same direction as a "normally installed" engine, i.e., cranking clockwise while facing the front of the car.

The L-29 Cord is an unique piece of equipment -- simple, but quite different and distinct. You should own one!!

L-29 CORDially, Dick Greene

I agree on the 810/12 Cord Lycoming V8 as mounted backwards for the F.W.D.

Initially the L-29 was going to use a smaller sized 8 engine but it wasn't powerful enough. The production L-29 engine was more purpose built and designed. It was based on the Lycoming H & MD, Big 8 series, Auburn engine from 1927-28. Some parts interchanged like pistons, valves, rods, and cylinder assembly. The head, crankshaft, and crankcase were built for front drive. This engine was 3 pieces: head, cylinder block, and crankcase. This was old technology, cast in sections. Of course, the accessories like the water pump, generator, and water jacket side cover were L-29 Cord only.

I think that it would be best to say that the L-29 engine was designed for front wheel drive utilizing some existing Lycoming straight 8 parts from the Auburn series.

Stan
Auburn/Cord Parts, Inc.
620-326-7751

ACD Club members have been telling me that the Lycoming engines in Cord 810's and 812's were literally mounted backwards in the cars. This is so the transmission would come out the front.

Three questions.

Were the engines in a L-29 mounted backwards as well?

Was there additional gearing so that the engine wouldn't have to run in reverse to get the car to go forward?

Were these exact engines ever used in rear-wheel drive models? If not, then can they be said to have been mounted backwards? This may have been the way they were always designed to have been mounted.