Identify this engine/crash site?

[hagaricus]

A friend just posted this photo on facebook with the accompanying photo. I figured if anyone could help or would know, this is the bar to ask in.. so:

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Anybody have any idea what Aircraft this Engine is from? It crashed near Muir Woods in San-Fransisco just after the War?

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My apologies if this is already done to death, posted here already or whatever. I figure if anyone knows the exact answer, great, otherwise anything, including the engine type would be useful. Clearly it's a 9-cylinder supercharged radial with overhead valves and ferrous liners....

 

[mz]

The cooling fins look more like Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp style than Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9, but the single row 9 cylinder would fit better with the latter.

There is a good comparison shot here, though from the front side.
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=11991&page=2

Maybe a Wasp Junior?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Pratt_%26_Whitney_R-985_Wasp_Junior.jpg

Or is there another row peeking behind the first one?

It's a double wasp then:
http://joeidoni.smugmug.com/Aircraft-Crash-Sites/K/12936919_fzwTL/3/935212877_4ArpG#!i=935210225&k=iSuKo&lb=1&s=A

 

[hagaricus]

Thanks, mz, wasp junior is favourite in the discussions so far.. which doesn't exactly narrow down the aircraft types significantly The other angle I was hoping to check out was accident records, but as most of you probably already know, the ntsb databases only go back as a far as 1962, any idea where I might find any kind of info in the 1945 onwards timeframe?

 

[GeorgeA]

Muir Woods is not exactly in San Francisco, but nearby in Marin County. First Google hit was a description of a hike to the crash site in 2004:

http://www.mishalov.net/mt-tam-18july04/tam18july.html

"We took a short side trip to view the crash site of a U.S. Navy seaplane that slammed into Mount Tamalpais in November, 1944. The seaplane was flying from Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda, California, to Kaneohe Naval Air Station, Oahu, Hawaii, when it crashed into fog shrouded Mount Tamalpais within 20 minutes of its take-off from San Francisco Bay at 11:05 p.m. All 8 crew members were killed."

 

[aim9xray]

PBM-5 BuNo 45415, crashed 30 November 1944.
For PBM-5, the engines would be Pratt & Whitney R-2800-35

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/pbm5bu.htm

 

[hagaricus]

Thanks a lot for those excellent finds, folks, now it's a question of staring at pictures of the wright r-2600 & the picture above & trying to match them up.. I'm not yet 100% convinced this is the same crash site, particularly considering the backgound appears flatter, drier & more rocky, although from a photo, who knows, it might be deceptive..

In any case, wonderful responses, this place is such an aladdin's cave of knowledge