How The Model A Ford Engine Was Built; The Engine Assembly Line 1928 1931 

These are the same hard men who tooled up America for WWII and saved the world. Thanks for posting!

My grandfather worked at Ford Rouge plant casting engines and other labor intensive jobs. He came here from Lithuania and spoke polish and very little English. All our relatives worked at Ford and lived in Dearborn Michigan. My father started at Ford Willow Run Bomber plant. Went to Night School at Henry Ford Community College and received an Associates degree in Business. The first one in the family with a college degree. Being the oldest second generation I was told to study hard and get the First Bachelors Degree. Then my responsibility was to encourage and help other family members to study for Bachelors or technical trade school. We helped with tutoring and a pool of money. Being part of a Ford employee family was important for us. Just last week we took our grandchildren to the Henry Ford Museum to show them what our family accomplished. Looking back Ford Motor Company provided opportunities for many hard working families.

Having worked in a forging as well as a casting facility for 20 years, I think it would've more interesting to have actual shop noises on this video instead of this music. Anyone who has worked in these conditions will tell you there a a lot noise, dust, and heat on the shop floor. Nothing glamorous or fun. Hard and dangerous work that wears men down much too fast.

Utterly amazing how "Close Tolerance" was held in a time when carbide was Unknown along with CNC technology. Fantastic process of crankshaft and camshaft manufacturing, 2 most Critical components in an engine still today.

I don't know how those men kept up that pace in the casting plant-it looks impossible for someone to keep that pace for 8 hrs. Years ago, my uncle, who was a supervisor, took me through the engine plant in Cleveland. I was blown away-what an incredible operation!

Absolute Men....Grabbing those blocks, just hoisting them up in the air with their bare hands to hang on something, like it was a five pound sack of potatoes. And that crankshaft forge, I couldn't wrap my head around that. Thanks for the awesome video.

Fascinating and I too would like to heard the original noise and smell the original smells. It must have been like Hades working in there

Astounding film footage. OSHA inspectors of today would have a fit seeing all the safety hazards Ford workers were subjected to back in the day. Our grandfathers were definitely made out of tougher stuff! (Thanks for posting!)

I'm so glad they recorded these amazing times. And I'm so glad you're sharing them. A very cool step back into time.

The fascinating thing for me is everything from the building, the machines the engines they are casting. The cars themselves were designed blue printed to the last detail with a pencil and a piece of paper. Impressive is an understatement.

I could watch these all day. Hot dirty hard ass work. Massive dangerous machinery. Hard working Americans. Powering the Industrial revolution. Building America. 👏👏🤠🇺🇸

Absolutely fascinating documentary film. Model A Fords are still so interesting.

State of the art. The men who made the machines that make the machines unsung masters. Thousands crowded in a tight space. Someone back then was brave enough to capture every step, in dust and fumes and racket.

A lot of them still running to this day. AMAZING

After Henry Ford built the River Rouge complex, he rarely set foot in it - the inhuman scale of it was just too much for him to take. He soon created Greenfield Village, an homage to a way of life that he helped destroy.

I remember touring the Ford plant in 1968 when I was 9 years old. From the steel mill to the end of the production line with ‘68 Mustangs rolling out. That’s when I learned the power of vertical integration. (Contrary to the GE school of management.)

And this is why these engines still run after 100 years real craftsmanship 🇺🇸

Amazing how many jobs the auto industry provided back then. Everyone wore hats too!

Flew over Rouge daily for 16 years when I was based in DTW. Absolutely colossal! It's one of the top man-made structures I've ever seen from the air. Toyota in Georgetown, KY is a distant second.

those engines are tough, and were designed to be rebuilt, this would be strange words to our present day "THROW IT AWAY" mentality!!!! . back then all bearings were "FITTED" and adjusted with shims to get the proper clearance.( poured bearings are a "LOST ART") thanks for posting this video!!!!!

A Complete version of the film Interesting how they fit the safety wire at the flywheel Today most people make it much more complicated, twisting it all over Also the man who torques the crankshaft does it without any special tools, only by hand and arm feeling Thanks for posting it complete

Really appreciate the opportunity to see this

Teamwork and synchronization at its finest.

I really like the Dark Town Strutters Ball at the two minute mark. Adds to the ambience.

amazing no dial indicators all thickness gauges .....also see the man check the drag on the crankshaft , he knew just by feel...wonderful vid

I never thought about how many people were working in these factories. Now I understand why whole cities were built around them.

Very cool video! Thank you for posting. Those poor guys, we’ve come along way.

Came here first for the video, came back again for the music😂

4:50 battiting the mains.... amazing!

Totally awesome old footage of so many men working on the line and making $5 a day, which was real good money back then.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I AM LEARNING ABOUT THE MODEL A MOTOR!!!! GREAT VIDEO & EDUCATION. THANKS FOR SHARING!!!!

At first I thought c'mon get to the good stuff but then I realized it was showing the casting media and how they set up the castings. Then every single step was a new form of "Wow, that's cool!" Those flywheels were gigantic especially for small 4 cylinders. Really, really interesting. The music gets a little old though.

I served my time as a fitter turner so I really appreciate this film.

Who knows...one of those engines in this film clip could be sitting in my car...!!

What a treasured piece of video history. Just the sheer volume of activity from raw materials to finished product on machines made just for the tasks at hand give a fresh ...or revived meaning to "qualified tooling" .

Looks like organised chaos. Funnily enough, some of those motors are still going today. That says something about the reliability. 👍🏻🇦🇺😁

Excellent documentary on Fords ingenuity to mass produce these cars.

Thank you for this history 🙏

The flywheel that's being handled with such apparent ease @ 8:12 weighs 65 pounds!

It's nice to see how it was!

Henry Ford was a genius

My dad did that at the Chrysler foundry in Indianapolis for 30yrs it's now done in Mexico

4 minutes of that music was all that I could take!

Seeing the quality dept. checking the go / no go gauge for the finished crankshaft👍

Amazing from stick's & stone's to this marvel of Engineering. If only we could get along.

Fascinating !

Love the hand torquing of the main bearing.

Loved the sync of the music as the engine was lowered ! Great film!

Remarkable industrial engineering.

Excellent videos! I like seeing the old Ford stuff.

Very impressive!

Excellent video.

Excellent video

Just brilliant

The way they use that hydraulic hammer to beat down the cam shaft. No wonder they last so long.

Get any 18 year old to that kind of work today.

Mass production was almost more impressive from that era because so much of it was done by hand

thank you Henry

The internal combustion engines for the second generation of mass-production vehicles. The overall thermal efficiency had improved to around 8% under optimum conditions, rivaling the OTE of contemporary engines made by Alco, Baldwin and Lima Locomotive Works.

Have you considered adding some selectable CC captions describing what is happening in each step? It might broaden your video's appeal a bit.

its amazing those things ran at all

Around 5:48 you can see an inspector come around with a couple of Jo blocks to check the guys calipers or guage to make sure it hasn't worn from use. He is using the gauge to measure the crankshaft journals. The inspector actually cleans the gauge before he tests it against the Jo block.

Amazing

The assembly line is similar or the same to the Gorky motor/car plant in Russia. In 1933 when they started full production of the Model GAZ A and GAZ AA(a redesigned Ford A and AA). However ford had a major problem from the very beginning. The lack of skilled workers in Russia. Ford had to send his own employees to train people who had never even seen a car. Not talking about how to assemble one. But that is another story of it's own.

very, very cool, thanx

The safety wire job is what surprised me. Did not know they would have done back then..@ 9:00

Its amazing that Ford could build this. But like all good things, progress must continue.

Liked and subscribed.👍 Many thanks.👍

Very interesting

Hard to believe they could focus on the task at hand with that piano constantly playing

At 6:10 they use Mr Johanssons gage block, this was a great help for Mr Ford, to accomplish mass production. Mr Johansson was from Sweden, and among other things, the inventor of the wrench, as we know it.

Love the music.

Pistons, cams, valves, cranks, blocks... all components found in engines today. The fundamentals all still here in cars.

Henry Ford was a great man

Wish there was at least some naration on the video. Great historical footage.

Very difficult to kill one of those engines and even if you did, a weekend in the shed is all it took if you could fix an old Briggs you could fix one of these. You could pull a piston and rod out on the roadside and get it home on three if you had to.

i still remember you need to use clutch to switch to neutral then clutch again to put it in gear

Excelent!

No talking, no smoking, no drinking! Silica sand -- no problem.

My great uncle Horance Lucian Arnold built the plant for Ford. Until then Ford had only sold a few cars.

I'm struggling here....I just watched an amazing short film mesmerized by the machinery, watching brand new model A engines being built And that 'Made a Lady out of Lizzie' keeps creeping into my focus.

I suggest the Hagerty video to see how one of those engines are restored today. Video covers full tear down and rebuild, including pouring new babbits!

Wow .. they played great music in the factory. What a swell place to work!

Hard hats and other PPE existed at the time but clearly hadn't caught on yet. I wonder how many of those guys made it to retirement with all their fingers and without any serious head injuries.

Some of the actual factory workers were wearing ties.That generation definetly didn't have a shortage of hardened hard working men and women..I love the song playing on the Video to..I really think I would have like to have lived through that era..Always loved hearing old stories from my grandfather as well as my great grandfather about those times very interesting....

7:24 When Freddie "Twist" Torque invented the Torque Wrench.

Look at all the men working crazy. We need simple vehicles today. The tooling to produce it is crazy.

They say that we have come a long way but you can definitely see the same thing going on in an automotive plant today. More automation and definitely safety for sure. If any of those men were alive today they would definitely be amazed at the Rouge today!

Great soundtrack

Dedicated loyal workers.

Back before planned obsolescence. A Ford engine would be used on a farm for lots of chores from sawing logs, pumping water, processing crops, washing clothes, etc. And it would last generations! Good luck finding a car to still be in good shape after 20yrs of daily use today.

How crazy and just think about the building of the facility to produce these engines the conveyor belts Etc and the Manpower

The Model A engine looked almost exactly the same as the engines used in the Ford N series tractors. I have always wondered if they were the same basic engine.

I wouldn't want to shake hands with the guy that's lifting engine blocks all day, he would probably break my fingers

Oh WOW! This is fascinating. I also notice whites and blacks working together just fine.

The greatest women and men making America's finest trucks still today

Wow amazing production line. No gloves no masks no safety glasses all the guys wore hats all shirts tucked in roll up your sleeves and get to work. No torque wrench needed I do it all by feel. Wow

That music makes it seems making cars is allot of fun. Think i'll suggest my boss play that while we are working. Couldn't hurt and what's the worst could happen.

Nothing changes much, I work in a foundry and maybe more OSHA and electricity but the basics never change - from moulding with cores to final inspection, yep.

The start of massproduction (after the Ford type T) what is done easily once a day becomes overwhelming if it has to be repeated 1,000 a day.... at the same time what seems overwhelming to finish in a day becomes dead easy because of the machinery!!!! I can well imagine this transformation in building cars was a difficult one!!!