keithb7

I read these discussions about breakerless ignition upgades with intetest. My '53 is still original. It runs very well. I'm not sure I need solid state ignition but I do ponder the idea of it. Wondering when it best offers advantages? Maybe it's good for folks who aren't comfortable setting and maintaining points? If I were preparing my car for a long epic adventure? Like a tour clear across Canada. Would solid state offer better reliability for such a trip? Do folks generally just keep spare points and condensor, feeler gauge and small file in the trunk?

TimFX did you remove the lower rad hose to flush it multiple times? Or just drain it at the little rad drain petcock, then refill?

Yes thats it. Just twist it until the coolant flows out. No need to try and remove the drain assembly completely.

Yes. Look for block drain petcock on the side of the block near distributor. Open it and the block will drain.

Will do. Thanks folks. It's been at least a few decades since I think I used a double flare tool in trade school. I will be sure do a few practice runs. I am gathering the pieces for some serious brake work. Drum puller. Check. Steel lines. Double flare tool. Tube bender. Check. Mity-Vac. Master cylinder rebuild kit. Check. New brake pressure switch. New flex lines Will wait until after the big car show and Poker Run next Sat. Then I'm digging in.

Thank you @Young Ed. Tools were just purchased. Ready to go when I get home.

Did some reasearch here. Cannot find my answer. I'm away from home, no access to my manuals. I need to replace a few brake lines when I get home. I'm thinking about gathering up some tooling before I start. I have not pulled a line yet. Does my '53 Windsor utilize single or double flare lines? I want to buy the right flaring tool here soon. Thx.

Enjoying the thread. I'll offer info on the Mity-Vac. I have one and use it for one person brake bleeding. It has has a little container that attaches. You hook up a vacuum line at the brake bleeder nipple. Make sure the reservoir is full of brake fluid. Go down to the wheel. Hand pump unit with one hand and create a vacuum. Crack bleeder with other hand and draw out fluid. Closing bleeder again. Pump mity-vac again and repeat. Keep going as needed. Be sure to get up and top up the reservoir as you draw out fluid at wheel. Clear lines work great for flushing out old brown-ish fluid with new. You can visually see the fluid turn clear as the new fluid gets pulled through by the Mity-Vac. I think I have the 8,000 model. With a gauge on it, it also works great for testing vacuum pots. Such as distributor vacuum advance. http://www.mityvac.com/pages/products_hvpk.asp Speaking of young people under cars, sweating in the heat. I find myself in this situation often. I kind of wish I was 17 again, sometimes. Yet then other times not. As at 17 I'd be broke. Have scant tools and tend to break a lot of parts. Trying to take things apart impatiently and ramming them back together. Lol. We probably all had that in common early in our years.

This evening's classic car endeavors included a trip to visit my brother. He is about 3 hours away. We went to a local impromptu car meet & greet social. My Brother took us in his1966 Corvair. I left my '53 at home. I am still not ready to take it on a 400 mile return trip. More work to get through on it still. There was only one pre -1960 Mopar at the meet tonite. This 1956 Fargo truck. It had the flat head Chrysler 6 in it. I am starting to realize when someone mentioned that it's rare to see pre-1955 or so Chryslers at a show, they weren't kidding. I mentioned my Brother's Corvair. Here it is. He bought it from the original owners. It's all original. Never been restored. 42,00 miles on it today. Big, big car show around here on Sunday. I hope to see some pre-55 Mopars there. Will report back.

@Worden18 I am curious what is the engine displacement in your Meadowbrook?

Need a 218 engine? I know of one. Pulled from running car. Dates 1949.

Oil leaks over here too! No smoke. I tightened up my oil pan bolts. That helped a bit. I suspect the two o-rings between the engine block and torque are leaking on my 53 L6. Was thinking I may pull the engine. New o-rings, and new rear seal while its out. New pan gasket and cross my fingers. Yup. Cardboard under it in the garage.

Speaking of Windsors and New Yorkers, I have a question. I have the green '53 Windsor Deluxe that I plaster pics of all over the place here. I am learning more about the era Mopar products every day. I saw a You Tube video where someone had a 1953 New Yorker. It looked exactly like my Windsor D. Inside and out. Same features and trim it seemed. Even the same colour. As far as I could tell the only difference was the NY had a V8 and my WD has the L6 265. The NY had the V8 emblem on the front and rear. Am I accurate in assuming that certain models and years of NY-ers are the same as my WD? Only difference being the engine? Thx.

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. I got exactly what I needed here. I will pass on buying this engine. I would like to learn how to decipher what the engine size is from the info I supplied. Was it the C32 stamp on the block? Meaning it was for the 1949 Dodge 6 Special Deluxe car? That this car had a 218 in it? Or was it some of the markings on the cylinder head? If you could teach me, then I'd know exactly what to look for on any future L6 engines I find. Thanks, Keith

I think it would have to be pretty low priced for me to take it and store it at this point. I could pull the parts off that I could use I suppose. Based on what have learned from researching this today, I think I could use: Water Pump, Oil Pump, Intake Manifold, Exhaust Manifold, Cam Timing Gear Set & Chain. According to Bernbaum's catalog the clutch and housing in Fluid Drive and Standard Shift are the same. Maybe I can use those. Starter? Unsure. I hear about folks cracking manifolds. That might get expensive trying to find one, if that were to happen. It sure would be nice to have a spare distributor if it worked on my Windsor. I will contact the seller and see what he wants to do. The value is not there for me. I am iffy about storing it. Space is a premium here at my place. I hate to see these old engines go for scrap metal. I may save it if it's headed there.

Just so I understand what I am reading here: My 1953 is an 265 CI 25" engine. 265 is the displacement of the cylinder when the piston is at BDC. Then as the piston is moved up the air/fuel is compressed into the combustion chamber in the head. Would this combustion chamber in my 265 head, be the same size combustion chamber as in this 218 CI engine head? If so the heads are the same. If not, and the 218 combustion chamber is smaller, my 265 with the 218 head on it would end up with considerably higher compression. Right? Raising compression how much? Would I need premium gas? Not sure I want higher compression if it puts more stress on my crank and pistons, and creates more heat. If anyone has done this, I'd love to hear about the results. Thanks for the replies. Keep 'em coming please.

I did find this info: http://www.t137.com/registry/help/otherengines/dengines.html D32 block is from a 1949 Dodge 6 Deluxe and Special Deluxe.

Hi folks, Today I followed up a lead on a spare engine that I located. I was hoping to meet a fellow vintage MOPAR enthusiast here locally. I sure did, while attending my first ever car show. A nice retired gent approached me to let me know that he had a spare 1953 L6 engine at home that he'd like to sell. Upon arrival at sellers house today, I found a 1953 Plymouth convertible that he is in the middle of restoring. We chatted mopars for a while and he shared some cool things with me. He has some nice parts and service manuals. I had a good glance through his parts book. I have my sights set on acquiring my own soon. Here is the engine and ID numbers off it. The gentleman told me it was pulled from a truck and was running when removed. I would like to learn if this engine would me a good core to build up, and have ready to install in my 1953 Windsor Deluxe when needed. I could leisurely rebuilt it at will and not feel any pressure to do it quickly. Nor worry about doling out chunks of cash all at once . Here is what I found: Here is what I know: 25" long head. Same as my 1953 Windsor. Engine block SN D32C 1818C Head M108 1139403 Concerns thoughts that I have: I do not know what that activator thing is on the exhaust manifold. My Windsor does not have this. I suppose I could just swap manifolds over. I suspect this truck engine may have a different cam profile? Will my clutch housing line up with this block? I have a fluid torque drive in my Windsor. This truck engine has the clutch on it. I had a 3 speed manual tranny. Maybe I can this clutch for future use? Any help and your thoughts are appreciated. Engine as is, is priced very nicely . Included in the the price, it comes with a wheel'd proper engine stand for rebuild.

I tried that Prestone stuff at Canadian Tire. Not great. I put two bottles of it in there and ran it a couple of weeks. Flushed it out. It did very little. I recommend pulling the rad. It's easy to do. Pull all hoses and fill and flush the rad a few times in the driveway. I did it like this a few times and the gushing outflow is what you need to see. Then you know the rad is pretty clear. If you do not get a good stream, time to take to the rad shop for a professional flush. Worked for me. https://youtu.be/8J6Zy9FVLRo Your radiator is only one part of all the parts that effectively work together to cool your engine. It is a good place to start, flushing and cleaning out the rad. However this may or may not help with your overheating issues. Other cooling system items include: Hoses condition, rad cap, water distribution tube, scale and rust in your block, waterpump, clear clean air external passages in rad, thermostat, bent fan blades. An engine can also run hot if it is running lean, or has incorrect spark timing. A poorly tuned engine, and a marginally acceptable cooling system, may seem to be effective all year except when the hot days of July and Aug in the northern hemisphere are here. There comes a point where it just cant cool enough, with the increased ambient temps. You may very well have reached this point.

In summary: - fuel is present after engine stalls. Correct? - Was spark checked after engine stalls? - Measure compression in all 6 cylinders. Cold. Then again after it stalls and won't run.

5 years later. No desire for a fight. I understand. I'd do the same. Good luck in whatever you decide to do. The trade school idea sounds interesting. A sleeve might be a good fix.

Warranty might be a hard one for a builder to swallow. Another block may be needed. If that's the case a pricey rebuild is in order. OP mentioned 5,000 miles on the rebuilt engine. Was it rebuilt in 2016? If warranty was implied, I'd be looking up any fine print wording on any receipts. I agree with the others. 5,000 miles is a very low mile failure. It's very hard indeed for a circlip to come out of it's machined groove in the piston. Maybe a bad batch of circlips were made by someone, and are out there at various vendors. It happens. Scary thought.

I stampted the top of the lead posts on my battey with a + and a -. To help my sons remember what goes where, in the event they are out and need a jump. As mentioned all my cables are black. With a 6V, positive ground, and all black cables you got lots of opportunity to screw up a boost.

Today, I entered my first car show. I had a great time. 8 hours chatting up cars with other enthusiasts. There were about 100 cars. I had the only 50's Chrysler. There was a '47 (P-15 I think?) Plymouth there. I met the local owner and we shared knowledge and helped each other out a bit. We agreed to meet up again soon. He's about to start rebuilding a spare L6 to install in his P15. I'd like to be in there like a dirty shirt helping him. On his current block SN stamp I saw the P-15 letters. I had another fellow offer me a good 1953 L6 265 spare engine that he owns. Just sitting there taking up space in his garage. How cool is that? I plan to meet up with him soon as well, and follow up on that engine. If indeed it is a 53 and what model? It may have come out of a truck. We'll see. I will gather data and start a new thread on it. Here are a few pics from today. Today was a huge success, I met a fellow local vintage Mopar owner, and I got a lead on a '53 engine. 3 more weeks untill the big local car show with 450 cars. I can't wait to network some more and see what develops. Tons of interest in my'53. Especially lots of older gentlemen who either had one, or their Dad did in the '50s. This 47 Plymouth had original interior. It was pretty neat. It was converted to 12V by someone but the current owner is not too keen on it. He is thinking about converting it back to 6V. He's got low PSI in centre two jugs, so he's getting ready to rebuild.

As far as I know, according to the VIN #, it was built in Detroit.