Those of us living in the Williamsport area are well aware of the manufacturer Textron, and before that Avco, on Oliver Street in the city. Avco was a major employer in Lycoming County and employed over 1,000 people. But did you know that same company in 1927 employed over 2,500 people and was known as Lycoming Manufacturing Company and was owned by Auburn Automobile Company? Its origins go back to 1910 as Lycoming Motors.

Starting in 1910, Lycoming Motors began manufacturing internal combustion engines for automobiles. They contracted to build and assemble engines for Velie. Velie was a car company located in Moline, Illinois from 1909 to 1928. The engine they built for Velie was a four-cylinder L head with a 4.5-inch bore and a 5.5 bore.

In 1915 the Dort Automobile Company of Flint, Michigan used a new engine produced by Lycoming Motors, the Model L engine. This was a four-cylinder engine L head coming in two different variations: the first, a 166 cubic inch with a 5-inch bore and a 3.25-inch stroke. The second model was a 192 cubic inch with a 5-inch bore and a 3.5-inch stroke. Dort Automobile was in business from 1915 to 1924.

As Lycoming Motors production expanded, the name changed to Lycoming Motor Corp., and in 1924 the name became Lycoming Manufacturing Company. That year two new engines came online. The first being a six-cylinder engine, the Model 25. The second of the new engines was one of America’s first straight eight engines known as the Model H. Auburn first used this engine in their 1925 8-63 Model. Auburn saw the potential in Lycoming Manufacturing and purchased the company for $2 million. The payroll totaled $3 million and employed 2,500 people. This acquisition enabled Lycoming to have sales totaling $7 million. By 1929 Lycoming had manufactured 500,000 engines. They still had orders for engines to Gardner in St. Louis, Missouri and Elcar in Elkhart, Indiana but by 1931 Auburn was their exclusive customer.

Starting in 1932 Lycoming put into production a V-12 engine for use in Auburn automobiles. This was the least expensive V-12 engine ever produced in the United States. In the 1930s, even during the depression, Lycoming designed and manufactured a V-8 used in 1936 and 1937 front wheel drive Cord automobiles, Models 810 and 812. Duisenberg was also a customer in the time period. Augie and Fred Duisenberg designed the engine and built in Williamsport. It was called the Model J with a 420 cubic inch straight 8 with dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder.

The Model J engine has a 3.75-inch bore and a 4.75-inch stroke developing 265 horsepower. A modified J engine known as the SJ developed 320 horsepower at 4700 RPM came online in 1932. This was the most powerful automotive production engine built during the 1930s. Lycoming produced a total of 500 Duisenberg Model J & SJ engines.

Unfortunately, in 1937, Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg went out of business, thus ending Lycoming’s Manufacturing of engines for the automobile industry.