Can you identify this car part?

[Pinnacle-Project]

Anna's House is a local chain of restaurants. The Grandville location has two of the items shown in the picture below - one on each side of the front door. Recently, we were trying to figure out what they were. My guess was the arms on each side of a paddle wheel. There is a paddle wheel boat nearby on the Grand River so I thought this would be a reasonable guess and would have a local tie in. I e-mailed the corporate offices of the chain to see if I was right and this was their reply.

Thank you for reaching out to us. These are large pieces from an antique car. I do not know what they are called or what car they are from, as our interior designer found them. They are quite unique though!

This is certainly not the answer I was expecting. Assuming the restaurant representative is correct, what antique car would have these gone on and what would have been the purpose?

[Pinnacle-Project]

She did say "antique" car. Do you suppose it could have been off this car?

[Larommi]

Looks like a connecting rod.

EDIT Now that I am not on my phone and can guess at the scale of it, I still think it is a connecting rod but it is not from a car.

Given the proximity to the lake, I would imagine it is off a ship

[Pinnacle-Project]

Yes, despite what the person told me, I am not convinced it is off a car.

[slgrieb]

Since the bottom of the whatsit is split, connecting rod is likely, but what is the scale of this puppy? is it a foot long, two feet or what? It would be helpful to know the dimensions.

[Larommi]

Since the bottom of the whatsit is split, connecting rod is likely, but what is the scale of this puppy? is it a foot long, two feet or what? It would be helpful to know the dimensions.

It is just under 5 feet based on the brick count. Standard bricks are 2 1/4th inches tall. Plus mortar which when I googled is about 3/8 thick. So figure with the connecting rod cap if it was there, this would be about 6 foot.

[Pinnacle-Project]

Yes, the size Larommi suggested sounds right. Notice the door on the left side of the picture.

[slgrieb]

That let's out any automobile engine and most commercial vehicles. It might be from a big industrial engine like heavy earth moving equipment or a marine engine. But even by the standards of my days as a towboater, this would have been a seriously large marine engine.

[Pinnacle-Project]

Sometime this week, I think I will stop by the restaurant and take a closer look. I am curious what the tag on it says. Also, I want to double check the material. It looks like wood but that seems strange.

[Overdrv]

The thickness of the connection rod is extreme. And the large end does not seem to have any way to bolt on an end cap. To me that means the pressure is being pushed from the large end to the small end. I'm thinking extra large water pump or maybe a part from an oil pump jack