The History of Ingeco Engines, Part 2

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Ingeco’s horizontal hopper-cooled farm engine.

Read part one of Chris' Ingeco Engines history in the August/Aeptember 2011 issue of GEM.

As many of you out there with Ingeco engines have found out, there doesn’t seem to be a serial number list to date your engines. One can conclude close estimates as to when your engine was built, though.

If the nameplate on your engine says The International Gas Engine Company, it was built in early 1916 at the latest. And if it is an Ingeco-style engine with the Worthington nameplate, you know it was built sometime between 1916 and 1920. We can also narrow some of these numbers down a little further. We know that No. 1645 was shipped to the dealer on 8/16/1912, No. 3009 on 12/9/1912, No. 3027 on 1/31/1913,  No. 7127 on 11/26/1913,  No. 7356 on 7/27/1914, No. 10074 on 10/20/1914 and No. 11531 in 1915. With these numbers you can get a fairly accurate year for when your engine was built. With this information a good estimate for a serial number list for the International Gas Engine Company built Ingeco engines could be something like this: 1912 up to No. 3020, 1913 from numbers 3021 to 7200; 1914 from numbers 7201 to 10500; 1915 from numbers 10501 to 14500; and 1916 from numbers 14501 and up until Worthington took over.

Remember, the serial number guide is by no means 100 percent accurate and should be used only as a guide, but it should get you into the ballpark of when your engine was built.

The International Gas Engine Company had offices all over the United States, their general sales office and factory being in Cudahy, Wis., with trade centers in Minneapolis and Omaha,  Neb., as well as other sales offices in New York, Atlanta, Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, Denver, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Mo., San Francisco, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Seattle, St. Paul, Minn., and even offices in Mexico City and London.

Other details

Regarding paint colors, the dominant color for Ingeco engines is a very dark green; some say a close match would be DuPont 7594. But as we all know with these old engines, it is very hard to narrow it down to one color or one shade of paint used.

Regarding the flywheels, I have heard many people say that the flywheels date the engine, but this is not true. The 5-spoke flywheels were used on the 1-1/2 to 4 HP hopper-cooled farm engines as well as the 2 and 4 HP vertical engines. Larger engines, as well as the 1-1/2 HP air-cooled engine, used the 6-spoke design.

Ingeco engine specifics