keithb7

Not according to this tranny. Oil fill level is higher than countershaft bore.

Very nice. I can hardly wait for retirement! I might actually have time to pull off such a feat.

That appears to be the countershaft. You are looking at the end of it. It's a mild interference fit. There is no seal there. Not sure what model of tranny you have there. Looks like a 3 spd manual. The tranny could be disassembled. A sealant applied to the countershaft where it enters into your tranny housing. It would hopefully seal it. While out, study the countershaft for wear, where it fits into the housing. It may be damaged, nicked, from poor handling by someone. Countershaft does not turn so this is not an area that normally sees much wear.

Today I rounded up some steel and hardware. I went to see my hobby-machinist friend. We tag-teamed a bit to build this con-rod vise. It should allow me to install, torque and crush the rod bearings. Then measure bearing to crank journal clearances. Fairly accurately I think. Better than plasti-gauge I think? It was a fun project. Bonus working with my buddy too.

Someone forwarded a few pics from the Easter Cruise. On a related note my '38 block is looking good. 2 more weeks they tell me!

Wondering if a mechanical stethoscope help nail down where the knock is coming from? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/lil-52500?seid=srese1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1PSDBhDbARIsAPeTqrdH41efySqXjt6IIZThpWmVWjClMXPYJKo86ZgqgfLjpHhxT466KPcaAohYEALw_wcB

@ChrisMinelliif you are still looking...I found a guy in NY state looking to give away free, a pulled engine and tranny. Zip 10927 haverstraw. NY. ‘48 Plymouth if I recall. Not sure if that’s within a reasonable area to you. If interested send me a message. Keith

Cool old stuff folks. Thanks for sharing.

Your work gave me incentive to dig out my pressure washer and do some spring cleaning. I used my Mity-Vac vacuum, oil extractor to suck out the engine oil in the Honda engine and refill with new 10W30. Cleaned the plug and now she's good for the season. Spent some time cleaning up oil drips on my asphalt driveway from my old Mopars. A comment about POR 15. I used it on the backside of my 4 wheel rims. Looked good. Yet, brake fluid destroys it. Any brake fluid leaks, the POR bubbles up and flakes off quickly. Just be aware and careful when topping up your master cylinder. Keep an eye out for wheel cylinder leaks over the winter and get on them.

A fuse! Perfect. A simple fix. I tend to go straight to advanced troubleshooting. I do tend to jump past all the simple things, assuming folks have addressed them. My bad. Glad its fixed. Enjoy that car. It looks fantastic.

American built 23” long 218? Or Canadian built 25” long 218? Big difference between the two. If Canadian you can fit upto a 265 ci engine in there. 23” long? I believe the 230 ci 23” will drop in pretty easily. If you want to upsize to a 25” engine, it may be able to fit with some modifications. My ‘38 had a 23” 201 in it when new. It now houses a 25” long engine. Rad was moved forward.

I like participating in electrical discussions but its pretty hard to supplement what’s been said above. Great info. If you don’t have a digital multi-meter it’ll really be worth the purchase price to fix your issues. Do you have a shop manual with the electrical layout diagram? Also extremely beneficial to trace wires and electron flow.

What is cool though, is my 25” long 228 ci Canadian engine, bored 0.060 over will become a standard bore 237 engine. Looking forward to it.

These sorts of new projects are great for learning new things. Push yourself beyond of your comfort level. Then you’ll develop yourself. When you succeed you’ll feel very proud. When you pry on the flywheel ring gear you’ll get great mechanical advantage. This can be helpful. I’ve never worked on a straight 8. On my 6, there is a lower pan that you can remove to expose a good lower portion of the ring gear. Anything that moves with the engine might be contributing to the seizure. Stuck valves. Stuck tappets. Cam bushings possibly frozen to the cam. Timing chain. Piston rings. Rusted main and rod bearings too, in extreme corrosion examples. Likely just the rings, but it all adds up. I tried for a couple weeks, using your soaking method. Then I gave up and dug in, tearing it down. Others have had success, so keep trying. You’ll know when you’ve had enough. Is the rad still in the car? The engine too it sounds like? Is there room to get a large socket and breaker bar on the crank front pulley nut? ¾” drive would be nice. Then a decent sized piece of pipe to really get some torque on that crank to spin it. I look at it like this. People spend money to get an education in auto repairs. People also spend money on hobbies that make them happy. People pay mechanics to fix their old cars. Whatever you learn from all this straight 8 work, will be valuable to you. Spending some money, investing in yourself to gain experience and build confidence.

I feel your pain. I won’t go into details but I had a goal to have my engine rebuild completed for 2021 summer cruising....I now realize that has evolved into a pipe dream.

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like you are getting a bit of a run-around. The good news is you got your .002 bearings quickly. Lots of us would be delayed a month or longer waiting for parts to arrive. Then to find they don’t fit. You wanna talk about frustration? That’s when tools may fly, and the rye starts pouring. Lol.

Funny how us men with old Mopars are tickled fancy when someone stalks us for miles down an old quiet country road. ?

Whoa boy! Those valves are clean! Might not have run long after it was last rebuilt? FYI some valves there appear to be stuck open.

She was a grocery getter today. Then I realized, I don’t think I’ve parked her underground before. Photo op time.

See here:http://www.1948plymouth.info/1948p15/DocumentWeb/36-48PartsBook.php The password is "password"

Seen here is a 201 (23" long block) crank beside a 237 (25" long block) crank.

You shouldn't give up due to the lack of a local person to perform a valve grind. You can do it yourself, in engine in frame, by hand, and get good results. I've done it. Cylinder taper and wear are something to consider. How's the ridge at the top? New piston rings are generally a little larger than needed. Which is why we often have to file the ends down to get the proper ring gap. Not by coincidence, this allows us to use new cylinder rings in worn cylinders. My understanding is rings can fit to work in cylinders worn to .009 over the machining spec when the engine was rebuilt. Cutting 0.010 out of the bore at the next rebuild means the next official up-sized 0.010 over, rings. If you have a cylinder top ridge, I believe you have to ream it off. Measure your cylinder and go from there. A cylinder hone and new rings could do very well for a typical fair weather, Sunday, local cruiser vintage car. I guess before going that far pull the engine, roll it over, and pasti-gauge the mains and rods. Mic all the crank journals. If they look ok with some wear, could a person put .001 or 0.002 over sized bearings in there and leave the crank alone? A little taper, and not too scored up...Not perfect, but good? New valves, new guides, new timing chain and gears. All new gaskets and seals. She might just be darn fine., Depends how it all measured up, how bad its all worn? How you want to use the car when done? Driving long distances at and hi-way speeds? Probably not ideal. Local cruising and the odd 200 mile trip? You might net many years from a refreshed engine. As opposed to full machining and thorough professional type engine rebuild. There are options. You may not need to spend $7K dropping the engine off at a machine shop and ordering the super sized full meal deal. As mentioned, depends on what you want from the car. These old engines take a lot of abuse. Get 'er free'd up. She may run. Plan on lots of elbow grease. Good cleaning. Seal things up. I bet she'd go. I bought a frozen 218 (Canadian 25") for very cheap. I tried tranny oil and soaking for weeks. I gave up. I flipped it over pulled the pan off and rod caps. I pounded the cylinders out with a 1x1 piece of wood and a 5 lb sledge. They finally broke free. Took a lot more effort than I expected. Here you can see what I was fighting.

The 201 engine is a pretty mild engine . The crank would be a weak point. I don't think I'd want a 201 crank in a 3 7/16 bore 237 engine. I'm imagining the 201 crank not lasting long with a 237 bore engine. FYI the 201 engine is 3 ⅛ bore x 4 ⅜ stroke. 237 ci engine is 3 7/16 x 4 ¼" stroke,

Yes I agree your crank is in spec. However, the ID measurement on the bearing halves, after the cap is mounted, torqued, bearing crushed is the one you also need. A trickier number to measure. I found NOS 0.001 bearings on E-Bay. See here. Maybe contact the seller. I see he has lots more engine bearings for sale including a .002 set. Might be perfect for you. https://www.ebay.com/sch/73revordnal/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

For what it's worth, recently I could not source .010 rod bearings. My crank surfaces looked pretty darn good. I found .001 bearings to be used for a crank polish. So I went with those and am only having my crank polished. I have been informed a way to measure clearances is to first mic the crank journal. Then Install the bearings in the rod end and cap. Install cap and torque to spec, (with the rod properly secured in a rod vice). Then a snap-T gauge and a micrometer, or better yet a dial bore gauge is used to measure the ID of the assembled, crushed bearing, when not installed on to the crank. Compare measurements of torqued, crushed rod bearing ID to crank journal OD.