Durant Motors did not build its own engines for most of its cars. Most Durant, Star, Rugby, Flint, DeVaux and Frontenac cars used engines built by Continental Motors, identified by model codes such as W-5 or 22A on the engine plate. This table, from the club’s working notes, shows which engine models were used in which cars. The model reference pages give the engine specifications for each car.
Continental engines
| Engine model | Used in (make, model and year) | Photos |
|---|---|---|
| W-4 | Star C (1922–24), CC (1923–24), F (1924); Rugby C (1923), F (1924) | |
| W-5 | Star F (1924–25), M (1925–27), M2 (1928); Durant M2 (1928), 40, M4 and S4 (1929); Rugby F (1924–25), M (1926–27), M2 (1928), 401 (1928–29), 40, M4 and S4 (1929), X (1927–29) | |
| W-8 | Durant 610 (1930–31) and 407 (1930–32), sold as Rugbys when exported; Rugby 416 (1931). There was no Durant 401. | |
| 14L | Durant 55 (1928), 60 and 66 (1929); Star L (1926) and R (1926–27); Rugby R (1926–27), L (1929), 60 (1926) |  Left side  Right side |
| 15L | Durant 65 (1928), 60, 63 and 66 (1929) |  Left side  Right side  With transmission, from a 1929 Durant 66 |
| 15U | Durant 75 (1929), 617 (1930); possibly 66 (1929) | |
| 22A | Durant 612 (1930–31), 614 (1930–32), 611 and 619 (1931), 618 (1931–32); Frontenac E (1931) and 6-70 (1932); Rugby 615 and 616 (1930–33) | |
| 32A | Durant 618 and 633 (1932); Frontenac 6-85 (1932) | |
| 6E | Flint E-55 (1924–26) |  Right side |
| 6W | Flint H-40, B-40 (1925–26) | |
| 9L | Flint Z-18 (1926) | |
| 14U | Flint B-60 (1926) |  Right side |
| 40A | DeVaux 6-75 and 6-80 (1931–32); the notes list it both as a Continental and as a Continental-Hall engine | |
| 41A | Continental Ace 81 (1933, US); Frontenac Ace 91 (1933, Canada). The 40A block with the Hall name removed. |  From a Continental Ace |
The 32A was used in the 1932 Durant 618 and 633 and the 1932 Frontenac 6-85. The 633 was a Durant, not a Frontenac. A two-page Continental engine cross reference (PDF) lists more engine models by make and year.
Other engines
- Durant: the A-22 (1922–26) used Durant’s own overhead-valve four-cylinder engine, not a Continental or Ansted engine. The 1922 fact sheet calls it a “motor designed by Durant engineers, valve in head type.”
- Ansted: the six-cylinder overhead-valve engine in the B-22 (1923); the planned Princeton was also to use an Ansted engine.
- Herschell-Spillman: the four-cylinder engine of the Mason Road King trucks.
Continental 20E
The club archive also has photographs of a Continental 20E engine. The working notes do not say which Durant family cars, if any, used it; corrections are welcome.
Related pages
- Identifying your Durant family car, including reading the engine plate
- Tech Info for tune-up data, wiring and parts
- Continental cars of 1933–34
Sources: Club working notes on engine usage; Continental engine photographs from the club archive.