Dan Hiebert

Don't be lulled by the appearance of the cylinders from above, all of the "stuck" is below the top of the piston. I'd work on freeing up the engine before venturing into the valve train. It will be much easier to ID problem valves once the engine is turning. It's only been a week, some mentioned it took them months to free their engine. Someone also suggested getting the oil pan off - if after your patience runs out trying to free the engine from above this should be a next step, as you should get a better picture of what the cylinders look like from below. You may discover that it will be futile to try to free the engine, saving yourself some aggravation, or you could discover a slightly different approach to try next. The PO did not do you any favors removing the spark plugs - that opened the engine up to the atmosphere, our climate up here can create a lot of condensation, (the past month I've been indoors working on stuff dripping moisture from it). These L6s are not rare, MoPar used the same basic engine for 30 years, with industrial applications even beyond that. Replacements are out there and they're still reasonably priced. Although I've grenaded a few, I have never dealt with a seized engine, but I believe I would relish the challenge of getting one freed up - up to a point. I can't add any better advice on how to free up a seized engine than already given, other than don't be unwilling to cede defeat to the point it turns you off to old cars.

I've had spacers that were touted to improve performance in a couple vehicles, although not L6s. They didn't contribute anything noticeable. If you're just trying to remedy the performance issue - assuming everything else is copacetic, I'd check the accelerator pump lever link setting at the bottom of the bowl, there is a small lever there with three holes in it, one (closest to the throttle shaft) is a short stroke, one is a medium stroke, and one is a long stroke. They are for high-altitude / hot weather driving, normal summer driving, and cold weather driving (same order). There is a small linkage between the lever and the pump that you adjust along those holes. They control the amount of fuel injected into the carb throat when you push the gas pedal. If you have it on the long stroke/winter driving hole, the car's performance will be affected when it's hot out. We've been in the same general climate as you the last 20 years, I've kept mine at the medium stroke with no issues.

Those are a must have in a farrier's toolbox, but I don't know if they're specifically designed for horse shoeing or are a blacksmiths tool that just happens to fit the bill - keeping in mind one of the primary tasks of old timey blackies was shoeing horses. The Amish communities around here would barter handsomely for a set of those.

The Walter P. Chrysler auto museum is what closed.

The latch on the door post is adjustable.

70 mph may be testing the limits. These things were new on cars that generally didn't go much over 60, if that, and it's a safe bet they were/are not intended for "performance". That big honkin' sail of an outside sunvisor on the front of the windshield catches a lot of air. They're designed to let air pass, but they still catch a lot. I've driven our car at 45 to 50 mph in some pretty stout winds (sometimes up to 65-70 mph) in the southwest and the visor stayed on, but it certainly looked like it wanted to depart company with the car. I'd slow way down when that happened, and didn't purposefully drive it when I knew the winds would be over about 30-35 mph. Buzzing down the road at 70 mph and meeting a tractor-trailer going the opposite way at the same speed may spell doom for the visor and the windshield divider, if so equipped.

There's a prior thread from several years ago that touched on this, too. I'd read somewhere that Fulton "scientifically" determined that the matte sage green color was best for reducing glare. That yellow-green color on aircraft aluminum is zinc chromate, primarily to inhibit corrosion. Being aftermarket items, most Fulton SunShields were packaged in that green color, and it was up to the end user to paint the rest of the visor in the desired color. Fulton recommended leaving the underside green to help reduce glare. I didn't know that when I installed mine, it had come off a donor car and was painted one color, so I painted mine all one shiny color, so when my hood is clean and shiny, I sometimes get glare from the shiny underside of the visor, too. The aforementioned previous thread has at least one photo of the green underside from the interior of a car. I don't think I've seen very many that don't have the underside painted the body color.

Very nice, you'll enjoy having it on there, especially in that Texas sun. I've noticed these outside sunvisors get a love-hate thing going. I think they are quite practical for what they were intended for - keeping the sun out of the windshield and keeping the dash and steering wheel cooler. Our D24 did not have one when we first got it, before I installed it, if I had to use the inside visors, they really restricted my outside view, more so than with that outside visor. Since installing it, I've never used the inside ones. I have one of those "traffic light finder" dash prisms, which helps at stop lights, but it has distortion in it such that I have to stop just right and look for a sweet spot to see the light, sometimes I give up and just wait for the car behind me to honk. Otherwise, yeah, I gotta plan to stop half a block back from most traffic lights to see them without contorting myself. Not much of a problem in this dinky little town up here, but western NY was "fun". As far as aesthetics, I thought about taking it off when we moved out of the southwest, but I've gotten so used to it that I think our car looks funny without it, you know, kinda like red rims ?. Interesting what location does for such accessories, too. When we lived in Texas and New Mexico, folks knew what it was for. Up here in Maine, not so much - most think it is to keep snow off the windshield (which it does, but only when parked).

Thanks so much for posting this info and the links! I've never had exaggerated expectations for performance from the '46-'48 Dodge cars, but I enjoy reading how someone else describes it, especially from a period standpoint.

Now, THAT be nice!

And your car is black, too! (Nice ride, I really like the bidness coupes.) When we lived in the southwest, I was always a bit impressed with how our D24 was always cooler than expected when it was in the 90's and 100's with clear skies. Couldn't touch the stainless trim, (i.e., hang my arm out the window), but the interior was surprisingly "cool". Didn't even get much above 70 here yesterday. Makes for rather pleasant driving, but also gives me some motivation to actually get our heater working.

Ah, that slippery slope. I have my brother-in-law's '57 Ford 2dr sedan that I was going to "freshen-up". Take maybe a year, and that due more to him living 600 miles away than obvious stuff to do on the car. Three years later and I'm finally done - all I'm going to do, anyway. Every time I found something slightly amiss, it turned into a major project. Now comes the 600 mile return challenge, but he's getting it back in August, one way or another.

Your car is a Custom Town Sedan. The Customs have the trim spear on the rear fender and the stainless trim around the windows. Town Sedan has the "regular" opening rear doors vs. suicide. I'd look forward to following your project, I know a few folks that have done body swaps onto a Dakota chassis with other brands, but so far not a Dodge, much less a D24.

My Plymouth service manual calls for one inch below filler neck for coolant level from 1946 through 1954. When we lived in west Texas, our D24 regularly puked coolant after a drive, (never during), apparently a common enough malady. The coolant isn't being cooled by the car running / driving anymore and expands beyond the system's ability to contain it. My radiator was restricted a bit by damage repair, which probably didn't help much. Pep Boys had an off-the-shelf coolant catcher kit, I don't remember the brand. It wasn't very sexy looking, but it worked. I've since seen aftermarket stuff that doesn't look like it was cobbled together under a shade tree. I attached the reservoir on the passenger side, on the filler panel between the radiator support and the inner fender, trimmed the overflow tube, which runs along rear passenger side of the radiator, and attached the hose provided by the kit. Radiator still overflowed, but it was now contained. My concern was primarily with domestic critters, too. As the coolant cooled, it would get sucked back into the system. I removed the overflow tank when we installed the "new" radiator this spring, as the cooling system hasn't overflowed since we moved out of the southwest. As a side note to this, if you'uns are OCD level keen on originality, cutting an original overflow tube is not a good idea. The original tubes were not formed like modern tubes, they were actually made akin to how stovepipe is. New tubes made a la original are not available. Of course, that's one of those things someone who is really OCD, (or an antique auto radiator guru - which is how I discovered that pearl of wisdom), would notice.

I had an '87 S-10 Blazer with the same tranny and hydraulic clutch set up. Same issue once, too. Something may have gone awry with the hydraulic clutch release, the doo-dad on the tranny, not the reservoir. Same basic issues as with a brake system. I'd think squealing would be the throw-out bearing initially, too, but the truck kind of wanting to move and squealing with the clutch disengaged to me means it is not fully released and the squealing is the clutch slipping just enough to make noise and move the truck a little. So, the release cylinder may be jammed. (My event is going on 25 years ago, and I haven't had a Chevy since, so my vernacular may be off.) I'd check that first before dropping the tranny.

I have a fuel pump with the integral glass bowl sediment filter. But, I also had problems in the past with contaminates from the fuel pump itself making their way to the carburetor. (Probably detritus from the manufacturing process.) I had a filter installed between the pump and carburetor, initially a plastic one, but I installed a new fuel line and metal filter a few years ago. Both were just a simple splicing of the fuel filter and rubber hose onto the line. I've always been a tad nervous about the heat in that part of the engine bay, but no issues with it thus far, but I live in a milder climate than a lot of you'uns. I like the look of the glass bowl filters and will be installing one on the carb with a new fuel line later this year.

No neighbors with their own 2-cycle generators, or gas trimmers and such? If you can burn other additives (i.e., Seafoam, MMO, etc.) you can burn a little 2-cycle gas. I'm thinking it may run afoul of uber modern emissions systems, but it certainly won't hurt older vehicles without complicated (or any) emissions systems. May even help 'em out a bit.

I think the point is missed slightly with "fluid drive", I don't remember when fluid drive became an automatic, but the earlier ones front a regular manual transmission and require a retarded throttle return / dashpot so the engine doesn't return to idle too quickly and kill the car when operating it without using the clutch. When I read fluid drive, I'm thinking what our D24 has, a fluid coupling between the engine and transmission, not a transmission. There are no solenoids, switches, etc. in the earlier fluid drives. Not the Dodges, anyway. I imagine EFI can be tuned (if "tuneable") to accommodate that, but it would have to be engineered to do so in the first place(?)

A master cylinder's amount of brake fluid leaking from a wheel cylinder in four miles would be readily visible from outside the drum. Once stopped, you would see fluid coming from the bottom between the drum and backing plate. The drum would not hold the fluid once stopped. The wheel cylinder boots can't hold that much fluid without leaking, either. So, you probably have a leak somewhere else. If there is a pin hole in one of the lines, it may not be readily apparent if the leak is pointing away from any surface where it would show. Before disassembling anything, I would echo cleaning off the brake system, filling the master, and having a helper push the pedal while you observe all the lines and connections. If it is a small leak, it may be helpful to hold a light from behind what you are looking at so you can see any fine mist. Holding a sheet of paper near connections and suspected leaks may help reveal leaks, too.

Who remembers this ad line? "Only her hair dresser knows for sure." With a lot of these neat shift knobs the only person who knows they aren't original may be the owner. (Some are obviously not.) The average Joe or Jane Citizen may only think that's a nice shifter thingy the car company put in there.

Yes, the cooling systems in our cars are pressureless. But pressureless means they don't use pressure to raise the heat range of the system, it doesn't mean they won't take any pressure. Either way, filling with water, or with air while under water, works. Not as much equipment needed to fill with water, but you need a keen eye, and you can still miss tiny holes. Filling with air takes a tub of some sort, and as andyd notes, some fittings to seal up the inlet and outlet. I had a couple radiators checked at a local shop recently, they used some of those rubber freeze plugs with the bolt that tightens to seal the inlet, outlet, and filler neck. Then they ran air at low PSI into the overflow tube. Not sure how much PSI they used, but the systems in our cars can handle 4 PSI just from expansion of the coolant. Readily and quickly apparent where the leaks are via that method.

I've read horror stories that they do, but via separation from the tank, versus dissolving. I think that has more to do with proper preparation of the tank, though. I had the tank in our Terraplane sealed with that red stuff about 15 years ago, no issues thus far.

Sometimes a thorough cleaning and proper lubrication of the entire door latch mechanism will solve that drooping problem. That's what did the trick for our Terraplane and D24.

That was indeed for applications with a smaller center tube or bolt, or that require a gasket for the bolt. If your cartridge fit snug on both ends you didn't need it, as Rich noted. I put a new Carquest 84366 oil filter cartridge in our D24 yesterday, it didn't have a small gasket but the applications included farm, industrial, and timber machinery, which is probably the only reason any shop up here would have any in stock. I had bought a case of Fram C134PL filters many years ago and used the last one last year, that one had a smaller rubber gasket that went on the center tube to seal the bottom of the filter, as that filter did not have a rubber fitting at the bottom.

"Paint Details" under your car model in the "Resources" tab above lists what was painted that gray color. As for the reason, my understanding is that with the painting process back in the day, it was less expensive to paint all the non-exterior / non-visible parts of all the cars one color. That much of one standard color is far cheaper than the exterior color coats. The savings, of course, were intended to be passed on to the consumer.