The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Japanese Stovebolts and Electric Trucks

Let me preface by apologizing to Peggy for the dirth of photos. Somehow, some of the photos I took disappeared from my phone or my computer - I don't know which. I know that I took them and I know that I actually saw them on a screen. I don't remember which screen it was but either way I can't find them on either device.

Yesterday, a friend's kid's school was having a history exposition. The private school has students from elementary school through 12th grade. In addition to automotive history, they had exhibits of technology, fashion, science, agriculture, music, medicine, advertising, etc.

The teachers combed the internet for vintage clothing, office equipment, magazines, technology, furniture, and other old stuff.

The teachers dressed up as famous people from history depending on the display they were hosting. Coco Channel, Steve Jobs, General Patton, Nicolas Appert (Frenchy who invented canned food for Napoleon's army) Snap Crackle & Pop, Tina Turner, and many others were present and spoke about their accomplishments to the kids.

Anyway, they had vehicles from 1950 to the present. Unfortunately, they were unable to find anybody willing to venture into Atlanta on a Friday morning with a Model T or any other pre-war car. I'll try to help them remedy that next year.

They specifically asked me to bring Ol' Roy so that it could be compared directly with the newest vehicle, the Rivian. The Rivian is an all electric "truck". I put it in quotes because I don't think it is or will be a serious work vehicle. That's a discussion for another thread, I think.

Ol' Roy is a 1950 Chevrolet 3100 and was a crowd pleaser. For some reason, girls and women seem to really like it, even more than boys. I guess it's the humble, beat-up appearance that gets them.

The contrast between Ol' Roy and its 70 year younger counterpart was a source of discussion. Ol Roy weighs about 3300 lbs and has a whopping 87 hp to propel it. The electric Rivian weighs more than double that of the AD Chevy at 7100 lbs but has 830 horsepower to move it down the road. That's more than three times the power to weight ratio of Ol' Roy. Over 4000 of those pounds are batteries.

Most interesting (to me, anyway) was the Toyota LandCruiser.

Just before WWII, Toyota reverse engineered, i.e. copied, Chevrolet's first Stovebolt 6 cyl, the 1929-'36 207cid engine. This engine is known as the Toyota Type B. Many of its parts, including pistons, rockers, etc. are interchangeable with genuine Chevrolet-built engines. Toyota initially wanted to copy the flathead Ford V8 but decided that machining two cylinder heads instead of one was not cost effective.

The engine in this Toyota Land Cruiser is a Type 2F. It is NOT a copy of the Chevrolet Stovebolt as is commonly believed, but rather a copy of the GMC 236 inline six of 1939-'63. Unlike the Type A, this engine was built under license from GM. The block and crankshaft and lower end are based on the GMC engine while the head and combustion chamber geometry is a larger version of the Chevrolet Stovebolt.

It's pretty amazing to see the two engines at the same time. Aside from the intake manifold and carburetor, they look identical. Even the pushrod cover and two big bolts holding the valve cover in place look identical.

What struck me as amusing is that even though the LandCruiser has 135 hp compared to Ol' Roy's 87 hp, it has the same top speed and gets about the same fuel economy as its progenitor.