Origins of the Patrol Engine

[Esteban]

The source of the engine of the Patrol has probably been in the mind of every one of us at one moment or another. For a long time my father believed it was coming from an International truck since he was a big fan of them. At some point I thought that maybe it was even feasible to source engine parts there. This was before the internet era… Others thought that maybe Chevrolet, Ford, or Dodge.

Many of us knew from the early days of Nissan/Datsun, the collaboration between Austin (BMC) from the U.K. and Nissan, but this was for small cars. Besides, Austin never had a big 6 cylinder engine like this. For some time I was never able to locate a close match. Well, in 2006 after looking at some pages on the internet, and connecting some dots, finally I had a clear idea: it came from the US car manufacturer Graham-Paige. Note: my search was purely looking at a match between bore and stroke, and the fact of the 7 main bearings. After finding this is that I was able to look at other sources pointing to Graham-Paige.

In the early years of Nissan (early '30s) an American engineer was brought to Japan to help develop its auto industry. His name was William R. Gorham. A friend gave me a copy of a book that was published in 2005, William R. Gorham: An American Engineer in Japan that gives a good insight of his collaboration and influence. He became a Japanese citizen eventually, and had difficult times during the war because of that.

One of the key influences of Gorham, was to convince Nissan in 1937 to buy an entire assembly line from the US car maker, Graham-Paige, since at that time this company was struggling and desperately needed some cash to keep producing other cars.

Graham-Paige sold all the body dies and engine tooling to Nissan, of their Crusader line of automobiles for $390,000. In a few years, they were in deep trouble, since the Japanese were supposedly using this tooling to produce weapons during World War II against the US.

Nissan manufactured a Crusader based car until the early forties, and a truck with the Graham based inline 6. However, this engine was with an L-head design, with a bore of 3-1/8” and 4-1/2” of stroke, and was well known for its capabilities at the time, developing 71 bhp at 3,200 rpm. The seven bearing crankshaft balanced both at rest and running, the white metal bearings having bronze shells, aluminum pistons with Invar steel connecting rods.

Nissan later modified this engine, still L-shaped, to 3-1/4” bore, until 1954. It was fitted on the first Nissan Patrol, the 4W60 series. Had an output of 85HP.

During the fifties, Nissan again decided to bring another American engineer to modify the L-shaped engine, and convert it to an overhead valve one. By 1958, the P engine was up and running. Bore was increased to 3-3/8”, and power was 125HP at 3,400 rpm (stroke remained at 4-1/2")

This engine was kept in production, with minute changes until 1980, when the P40 engine was produced with only minor changes to the P engine. Displacement was the same, with intake and exhaust manifolds modified, and other minor changes that for the untrained eye, the engine is basically the same. This P40 engine was kept in production until the eighties.

So as you can see, the very soul of the classic Patrol, the 60 series one, has an American designed engine. One of the few with 7 main bearings, specially for that era.

Hope you enjoy these facts.

Some interesting links and excerpts follow so everyone can read additional or complimentary information.

1. Austin – Nissan – Healey Connection
http://www.acmefluid.com.au/larry/austinnissan.html
http://www.ratdat.com/?p=144#more-144

Apart from the Austin 7 connection [1954] this wasn’t the first time Nissan had sought overseas assistance, as back in 1935 a technical agreement had been reached with US manufacturer Graham-Paige which involved the shipping of an entire production line to Japan.

2. The Graham Brothers and Their Car
by Jeffery I. Godshall
http://members.shaw.ca/rjsill/justwhat.htm

3. The Datsun Story
Many, many pages to read interesting things.
http://www.ratdat.com/
http://www.ratdat.com/?tag=datsun-history

4. Old Car Specs
http://www.carnut.com/specs/index.html
Choose Graham to see all the engines they produced and size. This site list all Graham’s engines with valves in the head.

5. The Graham Legacy
My initial writing of the "Origins of the Patrol Engine" was done in 2005, without knowing the publishing of the book “The Graham Legacy: Graham-Paige From 1932” by Michael E. Keller, that has excellent content in its Appendix B, The Nissan Connection (in collaboration with Bill McCall), where all the above facts become evident (except the technical info of the engine) This book is a must read for any Patrol fan, and for car enthusiast in general. Very well written and with lots of information.

6. An American Engineer in Japan - William R. Gorham
http://www.ratdat.com/?p=108

7. DatsunHistory.com
http://www.datsunhistory.com/home.html

8. Graham-Paige in the UK
Brief interesting facts. This is where I found about the 7 main bearings that completed the match.
http://www.age-net.co.uk/vintage_motori ... -paige.asp


Thanks,
Esteban Tobar

[miksum56]

Great research and info Esteban. I have been interested in Graham for years because of their Spirit of Motion Sharknose styling of 1939, They were also supercharged. The next model was not so pretty and hastened their demise around 1942 if I recall correctly. I don't think they survived beyond the war.

[RiverPatrol]

Thank you SO much for this Esteban!

[Esteban]

Thanks a lot Leslie and Mike. I guess that this is going to be a work in progress. Some of the links that I originally saved, didn't work, so I had to find new ones.

I'm going to add the following link editing the article. This is where I found about the seven main bearings (a powerful reason why Toyota Land Cruiser engine never attained the torque of the Patrol among other things)

http://www.age-net.co.uk/vintage_motori ... -paige.asp

...The general specification of the Graham-Paige was said to be very sound, the mono-block six cylinder engine was of "L" head design with a bore of 3 and 1/.8 inches and a stroke of 4 1/2 inches, developing 71 bhp at 3,200 rpm. The seven bearing crankshaft balanced both at rest and running, the white metal bearings having bronze shells, aluminium pistons with Invar steel connecting rods...

[bosque]

Thank you SO much for this Esteban!

Dude! You are the man.
I totally bow to you Maestro. Thanks, this really opens up my eyes to the things I do not know about.....internal engine design.
I find the read on William Gorham especially intriguing due to my years of living there. This must have been a very very difficult personal situation for him. Japan was quite agressive in the Orient but still fairly neutral with the rest of the world. The 30's was when they were revealing their ambitions outside the Orient. There were other gaijins (foreigners) with stories of embracing Japanese culture like Anjinsan (boat pilot) from the story "Shogun", who's grave site is in Kanagawa. In this 30's era, Gorham really must have been banned or called traitor I'll bet.

This is where I found about the seven main bearings (a powerful reason why Toyota Land Cruiser engine never attained the torque of the Patrol among other things)

I like this fact.

[Urban60]

If you are interested there is also a book about the Nissan auto industry and why they were successful in the 70's and why Ford was not, called the
Reckoning by David Halberstam (very long read) but I am told very good.

[Esteban]

I found this very interesting reading today: Shell Bearings for Early Graham Motors

http://www.graham-paige.com/tech.htm

This is the technical section of a forum devoted to Graham-Paige. The first article in that tech page is written by Brian Barwick and has some interesting facts about the engine block, crankshaft and camshaft of the P engine and the Graham-Paige inline 6 engine of 1934, and how similar, and in cases exact they are. He has done all the measurements himself in his quest to do a repair of a Graham-Paige engine on his car.

Note: I think he mistakenly refers to the P40 engine, when in fact it is the P engine.

[r1lark]

Yes, very interesting. Thanks for posting Esteban.

[Ascinder]

Esteban, thank you very much, that was a great read. It is really neat seeing the origins of the Patrol. It is also an amazing testament that the engine survived for so long with relatively little to no change (after the overhead valves of course). I seem to be finding this a lot with inline 6 engines. I have an old '47 Dodge rat rod truck with an inline 6 flathead engine-just like the Patrol, it work's great. My first vehicle was a 1989 Jeep Comanche with the 4.0L inline 6. What a great engine it had too.

[L60Boerne]

Thank you. I appreciate your research. Patrols to Paradise, L60Boerne