last of their kind engines

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Lima, Ohio, USA
for years i've been wanting to post pictures of the engines on display at the local Museum.
We have a Ford Engine Plant in town, and when they shut down a Line, the Last engine off the line gets covered in "signatures" of the folks who worked on that line, and either Donated, or loaned to the county Museum.

they used to have more on display, but today they just had two (there for the annual christmas tree festival, community orgs decorate trees, which are then judged and displayed at the Museum)

anyway, The Pictures! apologies for the quality, lots of folks bustling around, had to make it quick.






I believe the V8 is a 460, and the other is the last 2.5l 4 cyl the last variant of the "lima"/Pinto engine.

on the 4cyl, some one wrote "last truck engine" which while true at the time, the plant's current out put includes the NA 3.5 &3.7l, and the 2.7l & 3.0l EB V-6's.
 
Originally Posted By: pbm
That 'Lima' engine was one tough sucker...

Yep. Even as a GM guy, I respected the 2.3L Lima 4 cylinder. I had a friend that had a Mustang II with that engine, and we noticed that its tach didn't have a redline. So what are high school kids supposed to do? Uh-huh, we went around town pegging the needle on the tach at every opportunity. Never did hurt it.

I think a version of that engine still lives on as a midget racing engine. (The Esslinger, maybe?)
 
Another fun fact about Lima, Ohio is that some of the best steam locomotives ever produced were made there. The Superpower Steam technology that the Lima Locomotive Works introduced was revolutionary in its time, and probably slowed down the takeover by diesel-electric technology by a few years. I spent a few hours one day researching what happened to the Locomotive Works, but it was torn down decades ago. There is a Shays locomotive next to the historical society building in town that has a plaque about the Locomotive Works. Lima tried to make a go of producing diesel locomotives as part of Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton, but didn't make it.
 
There's a lima locomotive works Shay locomotive directly behind me in that last picture...you can see the front of the tracks and display for it in the background of the second.
 
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Originally Posted By: demarpaint
How about the 4.9L I6, AKA 300 Inline 6? I still love mine after 30+ years.


Yes! Wow what a great I-6 that was we had one at work in a delivery van that was treated like you know what and it ran forever!
 
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There were some really great med duty and school bus engines that came out of there too. I can remember Ford brochures in the late 70's and early 80's promoting the "Lima" V-8's used. IIRC they were a 370 2 valve and a 370 and 429 4 valve..but I think valve may have referred to the carb being 2 bbl or 4. I drove a dump truck for a couple weeks once that had a 429..stout engine!
 
I had one of those end of the run Lima I4s in an early 2001 Ranger. It was a rock solid engine. I think my 3.0 was built there too.

They should put a pushrod 3.0 in that museum...just put some Oil Dri on the floor.
 
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Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
I had one of those end of the run Lima I4s in an early 2001 Ranger. It was a rock solid engine. I think my 3.0 was built there too.

They should put a pushrod 3.0 in that museum...just put some Oil Dri on the floor.


yeah, your 3.0 is a Vulcan. Lima product. they have/had one. it was either off display, b/c of the tree festival, or it's back at the plant in their private museum... one of the 2...
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
I had one of those end of the run Lima I4s in an early 2001 Ranger. It was a rock solid engine. I think my 3.0 was built there too.

They should put a pushrod 3.0 in that museum...just put some Oil Dri on the floor.


I had a 1991 Ranger with the 3.0 with 354K when sold. Probably what leaked was the low oil sensor located in the pan. For $25 for the part and 15 minutes work that would stop the leak. That was a known problem.
 
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