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I had to try it for myself. I used a 2003 D Honest Abe penny. I just show one picture, but I have another through the driver side window showing oil pressure. This is on my 49 first edition Coupe, I did have the harmonic damper rebuilt on both Coupes. I think the quietest engine I’ve been around was my wife’s 36 Hudson Terraplane 4 door sedan. It would easily pass the smooth engine coin test. Cute garage trick though. If that doesn’t work, use a nickel. Rick D.

I made the remark about cracks in Ford flathead V8s because I distinctly remember a past experience. I picked up a nice 53 Ford, flathead 8 with lots of cracks and a Fordomatic in need of a rebuild. So, off to Dad's salvage to find parts to fix, stick shift stuff, ( no fun at all the pull all those pieces from the auto and stick car and reinstall in the survivor), then the search for a block. No impact wrench then, just breaker bar, sockets and ratchet. 24 bolts per side, 48 per engine and a total of 24 blocks before finding one not cracked between valve seats or seat to cylinder wall. And that one had a scar from a slipped wrist pin that had to be sleeved. Made a really slick old Ford, but I'll never forget removing 1152 bolts in one day!

I did before I ever replied ..... I took one look at how the 75 year old drum separated ..... I'm politely saying that drum is F'd up and I would not touch it with a 10' pole. It was weak in one form or another to fail the way it did. ..... I get it was the wrong wheel, I just feel the wheel should have failed before the drum did. Since the drum was the weak link ..... I simply would not be comfortable putting it back in service. I have no idea what your car is, is it a show car .... a daily driver .... a trailer queen ..... This is where I would install a modern rear end with better gear ratio. I could do that for the price of 1 replacement brake drum ..... plus the driveline needs to be modified ..... you may be able to weld it yourself. Now I would be rid of the impossible to justify high priced brake drums, I would be rid of the poor tapered axle design with a woodruff key to apply power .... brake parts would be readily available at any parts store locally. .... The brakes would be self adjusting ...... Unless you are going for a 100 point show car .... I would kick that rear end to the curb in a heart beat. Cheaper to update it and prevent future issues, it will be user friendly, more highway friendly ..... There is simply no bad points to updating the rear end and brakes. If you are going for a show car, I think you might get dinged on welding the brake drum together. You already ordered the drum and is on it's way .... it is the easiest way to fix your problem .... Me being the cheapest guy here on the forum, I think for a little extra work I could have done a rear end swap for the same price as a new drum. I would be money ahead and troubles behind. ...... Your car do what you want.

VINTAGEPIC: saw this Dodge Skyscraper workhorse on the FB

One has to wonder if that is because, as a percentage, the MoPar 's survived the year better?

Last night I replaced the timing chain with a nice new one. I couldn't find gears but meyers early dodge had the chain. Now it's nice and tight. Old one had about .375" slop. Im so happy to find the chain, now timing will be more consistent.

Thing is the Ford flathead V8 really didn't make any more power than the Plymouth of the same year. I mean in 1951 the Ford 39 V8 made 100hp, my 51 218 made 97. A major reason the Ford V8 had cooling issues was the exhaust runner. The exhaust valve is in the lifter valley and the port has to run to the outside of the block, thru the cooling jacket to exit, all that heat gets dumped into the cooling system. Having the two center port's siamesed didn't help either. The mopar flathead exhaust valve is located right next to the block side and has a very short run out of the block. Each exhaust port is separate. Ford exhaust port cutaway

My old car has been giving me issues and locking up the front passenger wheel. I stopped driving it because of this and just had time to remove the drum to inspect if anything was broken or sticking really bad, I was thinking a broken return spring maybe. So I just cleaned it up and put it back together and drove it and thought it was fixed because it was braking normal but then after about 5 stops they went bad again and the front passenger wheel locked completely up after almost no pedal input and would not unlock until car had become completely stopped. I tested again and it kept doing it over and over no matter what speed I was going. Any ideas guys? Nothing seems mechanically wrong. Would a bad cylinder cause this problem? A bad air pocket in my lines? Nothing seems physically wrong.

Can we knock off the childish behavior? No one benefits from it