When our first Liberty Truck rolled into the museum, one of the first things that caught all of our eyes was the size of the engine. This thing was massive! Cranking out a whopping 52 bhp, this 425 cubic inch engine moves the Liberty Truck at a max speed of 15mph. But what it lacks in speed, is made up in torque. Made by Waukesha. It is a four cylinder, L head engine. For the gearheads, the bore is 4 ¾ inches and it has a six-inch stroke. Yeah, the pistons are like coffee cans. What is even more impressive is the use of aluminum in the engine. The entire engine block is all aluminum and the cylinder heads and carriers are steel. The fly wheel feels like it weighs 150 pounds.
When it came time to restoring this beast, we decided to let people with the right tooling and experience bring this engine alive. Reaching out to FX Engines in Mokena, it took about two years to complete the project. With parts for this engine not really available at your local NAPA store, most of the time was finding them or having gaskets cut, repairing cracked cylinder walls and etc. Currently, the engine is in the truck but we have not cranked it over yet. We still have the water pump and original carburetor to fix… we plan on hearing this thing turn over and run by the end of the year, if not sooner. So stay tuned for that!
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