Down on the Farm – Triumph and Ferguson

Contrary to popular belief, the ubiquitous Triumph engine powering the TR2-4A was not actually a Ferguson tractor engine. Semantics? Possibly, but the 4-cylinder wet liner engine was designed by Standard for Ferguson and incorporated many lessons the Coventry firm had learned building military engines during the war and was supplied to Ferguson for their TE20 tractor after the farm supplier was unable to source a sufficient supply of engines from other manufacturers.

It debuted in 1947 with a capacity of 1.8 liters and under square in dimension to maximize torque. For a tractor to use such a relatively modern engine was unheard of (with shell bearings and wet liners).

The wet liners allowed for better cooling and – when properly installed – offered much better sealing to the head. Compression was low as it was expected to run on the poor quality fuel (it was 5.77:1) widely available at the time but it gave very reliable service in the field and made prodigious amounts of torque.

Following Standard’s purchase of Triumph and needing a new engine for the Vanguard saloon, engineers did not have to look far for an appropriate mill. The rest as they say is history