TodFitch

Not quite. And it does not have to be a humid environment. tl;dr The crankcase ventilation system on these cars only works when the car is moving. When stopped the combustion by products, which include water vapor and unburned hydrocarbons and some acid forming stuff, will escape the block the easiest way they can which is usually the oil filler cap. The crankcase ventilation system consists of the road draft tube at the passenger rear of the engine and the oil filler cap. The road draft tube should extend into the airflow under the car. When the car is moving that tube will experience a slight vacuum due to venturi effect which will create a vacuum in the crank case to pull out the combustion products that make it past the piston rings and clean air to come in through the oil filler cap. To keep dirt from getting into the crankcase, there is a wire mesh air filter inside the filler cap which should be cleaned and oiled periodically to have it actually filter the incoming air. In any case, this crankcase ventilation system only works when the car is moving at a reasonable speed. If the car is not moving then the combustion byproducts (water vapor, unburned hydrocarbons, etc.) that make it past the rings will accumulate in the crankcase and slightly pressurize it. Those vapors will then come out, some through the road draft tube but a lot also through the oil filler cap. So it is not unusual to see some vapor or smoke coming out of the oil filler cap when the car is stopped. This will be more noticeable on engines that have more blow by (worn rings or cylinders) but will happen even on engines in very good condition. If this bothers you, then you can retrofit a positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) system. The military used it way back when on their engines because they did not want a road draft tube that could let water into the crankcase when fording rivers and those PCV parts are available from the people who cater to the Dodge military trucks. Or you can rig your own. It has been a while but someplace on the in this forum there were posts and threads on how to make your own.

A proper brake spring tool will work too.

Some vendors use stainless steel for sleeving, some use brass. I don’t know if one is really better or worse than the other and I don’t know if being sleeved makes a difference on the piston material. That said, when my cylinders were sleeved with brass they were built up with standard aluminum pistons. That vendor has retired with no one buying the business so I can’t recommend them. But the cylinders have been in use on my car for quite a few years now with no problems.

This is the answer. For American cars at least, high revs on the highway was the norm and you definitely heard a roar at speed. Much of that due to the fan, but other things as well. With similar gearing the '63 Plymouth I learned to drive on was quite at home on the then new freeways at 70 MPH and even when they raised the Arizona speed limit to 75 MPH in the pre-55 MPH days. But you really heard the mechanicals. After the 1973 gas fiasco manufacturers started focusing more one fuel economy with taller rear ends and over the years added a lot more sound proofing to the cabin so things got a lot quieter at speed. For what it is worth, I have driven my '33 with its stock 4.375:1 rear end all day at speeds between 60 and 65 MPH. That is 100 KPH for people who live in lands with rational measuring systems. A bit on the fast side for the '33 as its suspension and braking is designed for slower speeds. But by the time your '53 was built the suspension was greatly improved and you have larger brakes, etc. Your '53, in good mechanical condition, should have no issues at your 100 KPH speed limits. Another for what it is worth: My current daily driver is an EV. At highway speeds you hear a bit of tire noise and the faintest hint of wind noise. Even when pulling a fairly steep grade at freeway speeds. The darned thing is practically silent and absolutely no engine vibration. My guess is that drivers who are raised in the coming EV era will worry that they are beating their noisy 2020 vintage internal combustion powered collector car too hard when running it at 60 MPH.

Check that the relief port in the master cylinder isn’t blocked or clogged.

Then you know you are dealing with an engine builder who has never worked on a Chrysler product L-6 engine from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, or on industrial engines into the early 1970s.

By "front seal" do you mean the outer seal for the rear axle? That would be in parts group 3-35-01 and I believe for a 1937 Plymouth your original Chrysler part number would be 891437. I was unaware of that parts cross reference web site. Thank you for the link. For the Chrysler part 891437 it shows the following cross reference: CHRYSLER 891437 SKF 507493 MCCORD M5797 NATIONAL 5797 SKF 45121L Fel-Pro 2693 MCCORD 88011 It also has this to say: I am not sure about the 1936-42 version of this seal but for the 1933 version it is a seal assembly with a stamped metal carrier and a seal pressed into the carrier. While the whole assembly is not available for 1933 you can get a modern seal of the correct dimensions and replace the one on the carrier. I wrote up that on my web site at https://www.ply33.com/Repair/axle_seal/ You may want to go that route if you have a local to you auto supply store that can get seals by size.

On my older B&B carburetor there is a "power circuit" which handles the transition from idle up. It is actuated by manifold vacuum through a passage through the mounting flange. When it wasn't working the symptoms were similar to what you describe. If the mounting gasket for the carburetor is installed wrong then a small hole that provides the vacuum can be blocked. I don't know if your Stromberg, or even later B&B carburetors have that. But if there is a small hole in the mounting flange of the carburetor there is likely supposed to be an equivalent hole on the gasket.

Depends on which car you have. My '33 has about a 2" filler neck and it is really easy to insert a probe of some sort into the tank to measure fuel level. One of the "tools" hanging on the pegboard above my workbench is a paint mixing stick that I have marked with the depth for each gallon of fuel.

The higher the pressure in the cylinder, the more voltage it takes to make a spark. The pressure in the cylinder goes up the more the throttle is opened, so a weak ignition system can cause performance issues at higher speeds, climbing hills, etc. There was a P15 on a tour a few years back that I was convinced had a fuel pump problem. Turns out it was actually a bad coil. But the symptoms were nearly identical.

As mentioned above by @Dave72dt cutting the line and using a 6 point socket to remove the tube nut is a good way to go. One thing I didn’t notice in the other replies: conventional brake fluid absorbs water and as a result steel brake lines can rust from the inside out. If there is enough external corrosion to freeze up the tube nuts then it is very likely that the steel tubing is also unsafe due to thin spots from internal rusting. Making your own brake lines is not that difficult even with an average flaring tool and a little practice. I used the copper-nickel alloy tubing mentioned above by others, it is pretty easy to work with.

I do not see part 790226 in the numerical index of my 1936-48 Plymouth Parts List.

With a hot engine, 40 PSI will driving and 20 PSI while idling is well within normal range and nothing I would worry about.

See my page at https://www.ply33.com/Misc/vin

I had no idea borescope cameras were so cheap nowadays. Thanks for the link.

The 1936-42 Plymouth factory service manual says that for 1941 the overall length (with bumpers) is 194 3/4 inches. I don't see the other dimensions you are asking for.

I don't know if it is age or changing formulations of gasoline, but it seems to me that gas tank coatings have a pretty good chance of failing over the long run.

Back in the 1970s the manufacturer I worked at used "solder sleeves" when making some wiring harnesses. The "Solder Stick" that you linked to looks like the same type of thing but you can find a lot of other ones by searching for "solder sleeve" and you can get them at places like McMaster-Carr https://www.mcmaster.com/products/solder-sleeves/

If you want to get into the weeds then this video might be interesting.

I am not an expert on that style of water heater but my parent’s last house had one. It is my understanding that there are two temperature sensors, one for each heating element. And they are wired such that if the upper heater is on then there is no power to the bottom one. The concept is that the water at the top of the tank is heated first since hot water is drawn off the top of the tank. Then the whole tank is heated using the bottom heating element. When no water is being used the whole tank will be kept hot. When hot water is drawn off the top of the tank you have the whole tank of water, say 40 gallons. As the cold water rises the lower heater comes on for a while but it doesn't have the capacity to heat the whole tank very fast. Eventually the cold water gets up to the upper heater and temperature sensor which then turns on the upper heater. That heater has a smaller volume of water to heat so it can do a better job and it can give you another 10 or maybe 20 gallons of hot water before the cold water reaches the hot water outlet at the top of the tank. Now, during the recovery phase, once the top of the tank is hot the lower heater kicks in to warm the rest of the tank which can take a much longer time. Anyway, if the top element is burned out you will have power to it but no power to the lower element. And you won't have hot water. With the power disconnected and the wires removed from the heating elements you can use a volt-ohm meter to check for continuity on each heating element. No continuity (with low resistance) then the heating element is likely burned out. The heating elements on my parent’s unit would go out fairly regularly. Maybe one every 3 or 4 years. They would just corrode through. And it was usually the top one. They were pretty easy to replace. The only hard thing on theirs was that they had pretty hard water and Dad would insist on trying to descale the water heater any time an element needed to be replaced. For what it is worth, our cabin is just under 160 miles away and the nearest hardware store to it is about 25 miles away. When we arrived there in May and opened up the building the propane fueled hot water heater started leaking from the bottom of the tank. Expediency resulted in getting a new unit in what passes for the local area which was more expensive that if we had the time to shop around near where we live.

Interesting that they apparently don’t check their work. Looking at the 1934 Plymouth factory service manual, it appears that the power to the field coil comes from the third brush and that the voltage regulation within cutout & voltage regulator mounted on the generator is by switching a resistor into the field circuit if the voltage goes too high. Looking a this, I think you could set up the residual magnetism in the field cores (i.e. flashing the generator) by removing the brush cover and momentarily touching a hot wire to the wire coming off of the third brush. My 1933 is setup slightly differently (no external voltage regulation) but I guess I would have to flash my generator the same way if it needed it. But in the nearly 50 years I have owned the car I have never needed to do that.

Who rebuilt the generator? A reputable shop should have polarized it as part of their final testing.

Unless they radically changed how it was implemented between 1933 and 1934, I think the description of how the controls work is wrong. The cable from the control knob on the dash goes to a lever on the side of the transmission. That lever operates a dog clutch to lock or unlock the freewheeling assembly. Another cable on the lever on the side of the transmission goes forward to a spool valve on the vacuum clutch assembly. Also connecting to the vacuum clutch control spool valve is a linkage from the accelerator pedal. The control knob on the dash has three positions: All the way out: Everything locked out. Middle position: Freewheeling only. All the way in: Freewheeling and automatic clutch enabled. Aside from being scary as h*ll to use, the spool valve on the side of the automatic clutch had no air filter and the road dust quickly wore them out to the point of no repair. I agree that disabling the whole system will involve blocking the vacuum to the spool valve. The easy way to permanently lock out the freewheeling is to loosen the clamp screw on the cable coming from the dash. Then move the dash knob all the way in, move the freewheeling lockout lever on the transmission to the locked out position, and finally tightening the clamp on the control lever.

The rule of thumb is that the vast majority of carburetor problems are electrical (that is not carburetor related at all). The maximum vacuum your distributor will receive will be on deceleration. Since this seems to happen on deceleration or idling (another situation with high vacuum) and it started when you worked on the distributor, I would look closely at the wiring and conductors within the distributor especially verifying that nothing is shorting out when full vacuum is applied to the advance.

A long time ago and all the the way across the continent I was the "activities chair" for an antique car club. At that time our primary fundraiser was a "shopping center meet". It worked like this: 1. The owner of the shopping center or the merchants would decide they wanted something to drive some more sales. 2. They would contact our club and ask for five or ten cars. Owners of the cars would typically get a voucher good for lunch at some establishment in the shopping center. The club would get a donation. 3. The merchants would advertise in the local media that there would be antique cars at their shopping center. There were a few big meets that would have entrance fees, but mostly the car shows were all free for the participants. And if it was a show that was designed to get the general public into the area's shops then it was definitely free for the car owners. A minor exception would be for a show at a non-profit or for charitable organization, we would gladly pay a non-profit for admission. When I moved to California this concept of a "shopping center meet" where the participants (or their club) were paid to display their cars did not seem to exist. Nearly every event here wants the car owner to pay. Needless to say, I have never displayed my car at the local summer car show in my town because they want me to pay for the privilege of promoting the local merchants. That show is only two blocks from my house so it is not a matter of fuel or wear and tear on the car. It is simply a matter that I see no reason for me to pay for participating in an event that is designed to get people to come and spend money in for profit businesses. Interesting to me, there is a local outlet mall not too far away that has a "cars & coffee" event every Saturday. Event is free for everyong. And it appears to me that a lot of the spectators spend time, and perhaps money, in the outlet stores during and after the show. So maybe one local business has figured out that hosting a free car show pays for itself.