War Hemi: The Story Of The GAA V8 - 1,100ci of aluminum WWII Ford grunt

When I was about 12 years old I was riding my bike around my neighborhood and happened to see into my neighbors open gate that he had one of the biggest engines I had ever seen. Of course with my mechanical obsession I had to go take a look. Turns out it was a ford GAA tank engine that my neighbor Barry was building to put into a car hauler to move his show cars. became my friend for many many years god rest his soul. We never did end up finishing that project but hearing that engine start up for the first time with its coffee tin sized pistons when I must’ve been around 15 years old was an amazing experience. I learned so much getting the opportunity to work on such a specialized engine at an early age just by chance. He was a really cool dude. Also worked a lot on his stutz race car another experience I’ll never forget.

My dad now 85 years old and doing well was a tank mechanic in Korea no combat , thank God but he kept the tanks on TRACK he was an excellent automatic transmission rebuilder in the 60s and 70s retirement in the late 90 s and now we brothers and my son have a job rebuilding automatic transmissions called Edwards Brothers transmissions ROANOKE RAPIDS NC

The shaft & Gear cam drive combo just.. feels good.

GAAs were popular irrigation engines where I grew up in the Texas panhandle in the late 70s. One of our neighbors used one about a mile away and the exhaust was pointed straight at our house. That thing would shake the ground and I would fall asleep every night to the drone of that big V8.

Hey Brian, That's a picture IN MY GARAGE of the Ford Flathead V8 at the 17:56 mark in the video. I took the picture in the early 2000's and posted it to the Wikipedia Ford Flathead V8 page sometime after. I was quite surprised to stumble upon a picture from inside my garage while watching your video! But honestly, that picture (among others) has been viewed many millions of times and shown around the world in many magazine and web articles edging on 20 years now but needless to say, it sure woke me from my half slumber when I saw it during your video. Right now that same Flathead V8 engine sits in my living room fully dressed with Offenhauser Aluminum heads and a Joe Abbin Blower bolted on top. At one point I had 3 Ford Flathead V8's sitting inside my house all dressed up with different race intakes and heads. Great video by the way, Cheers, moe of the north

Wow!? WWII nerd here, but also engine building nerd. What a great, fresh and new story to watch! Well done on the content, sir.

Brian, you have managed to capture the innate curiosity of the ever wondering gear head mind combined with enthusiasm for interesting historical context translated into video form for another awesome watch.

Maybe indycar offenhauser engine should be next video. It's cool how this engine still competitive until the late 70s

10:52 was a point of the video that I knew I had to comment. Thank you for the engine sound. I absolutely loved the sound!!!

One of the best engines that almost no one has heard of! What I like best about the engine, well besides the sound it makes, is the lack of chain drive for the camshaft. Todays engines, including Ford, some of the weak points are the chain drive. This is a fantastic engine. Kids today have no idea what came out of WWII and how it is benefiting them in their rice rockets. You can definitely tell that the Merlin was the inspiration, but Ford did what Ford does best and that was to make it cheaper and faster to build. Europe today still over engineers their engines, making them costly to build and repair, however they do produce some nice machines. Great video, thank you.

Just incredible casting technology, metallurgy and engineering for even today!

Love hearing these stories. The War created a lot of great engines . Always love hearing the history of how they where created! Thanks for sharing!!!

I saw a couple of GAA's on pulling tractors in the late 70's/early 80's. People weren't modifying them for power back then, and naturally aspirated big block Chevies could beat them. I had a friend in Phoenix, AZ about 15 years ago that had one he was going to put in a street car. I visited him and he showed me the innards. It was quite an achievement of design that was far advanced from Ford's typical flathead 4's and V8's.

Heidrich Performance is the YouTube channel with the GAA Mustang, it used to be called the Locomotive Breath channel or something like that. Cool stuff.

The sound of them in unlimited tractors pulling in the old Nassau Coliseum is what i remember as a kid. Great to finally see pics of inside them.

Now that is quite a story , and very much appreciated! Your research is unbelievable and well done. Many thanks Brian.

Sounds like a beast of a engine. Thanks Brian !!

Brian, I’ve been a gear head my entire life and never knew anything about these engines. I’m 68 now and love learning from every one of your videos! The podcasts, too. I read an “alternate” reason why Ford refused to build the Merlin: supposedly he said he couldn’t produce it to Rolls-Royce’s high precision standards, and Packard said Ha! Hold my beer and watch this. This story was told by a Packard enthusiast who evidently got the story wrong. It figures Henry Ford was on the wrong side of history. I daily a restored 1931 Ford Model A Roadster, and love it, but that Henry Ford was a really bad guy. Keep it up Brian! I can’t wait for your next history lesson!

As a mechanic technician and WWII tank nut since my childhood, I enjoyed this video immensely. A real masterpiece, Brian, thank you!

Add some variable valve timing and you have a modern engine. Absolutely fantastic design, especially for the time.