Sam Buchanan

Redline MTL is formulated and intended for trannys like ours with brass components.

Thank you for the suggestion. I suspect our fuel is higher octane than what they had in the 40's, but the timing was a little retarded. I advanced it and initial test drive is promising.

The flattie in my '48 P15 runs strong and smooth. Except.....sometimes at ~50mph on level road under light throttle I can feel (not hear) a slight miss or hesitation. This only happens when the engine is under light load. When I push down the go pedal the engine runs smooth and strong or the hesitation is so slight I can't detect it. Before I start poking around I'm wondering if anyone has seen something similar and has ideas. I've wondered if the carb throttle shaft may be worn enough to allow air to be sucked in under high vacuum. The manifold bolts are tight and I haven't seen evidence of any vacuum leaks. Just trying to ponder this before I mess up by trying to fix something that ain't broke.... ?

A lubricant that works great in our trannys is Redline MTL or MT-90. These oils will make a cold transmission shift as nicely as one that is warmed up. My P-15 had a persistent crunch going from first to second until I went with Redline, now it is smooth all the time. Don't let the price spook you, after driving with Redline you will consider it a bargain.

The mechanical pump will allow fuel to flow through it even with the engine off, the electric pump will simply push fuel through the mechanical pump check valves. But.......the question begs to be asked.....if you have a good electric pump, why would you want to continue to drag that leak-prone mechanical pump along for the ride? It is easy to make a mechanical pump block-off plate. ?

The doodad is a filter, put it on the tank side of the pump. Put an ohmmeter across the each wire and the pump housing, no continuity indicates the wires are floating free of the housing. If this is for either polarity I'm sure that will be the case.

I think this is one instance where I prefer to be uneducated....... ? On our aircraft engines we use solid copper plug washers but we are dealing with BIG bore air-cooled engines with aluminum heads running constantly at ~75% rated power, and heat transfer is important. I suspect our over-built and under-stressed old Mopar flatties would be content with washers made out of.....whatever.

May be poor practice but during the course of fine tuning fuel mixture by reading plugs I have reused the same gasket several times and never had a problem.

My Local Walmart has Castrol GTX 50W on the shelf.

A whole lot of over-thinkin' going on here. ? In regard to the tire rubbing on the brake line bracket....I had the same problem....until I checked clearance with the tires on the ground. What was rubbing with the car on jacks wasn't a problem with the suspension compressed with vehicle weight. Tire nomenclature has changed a lot over the decades. When 'vintage' tires are manufactured from old molds the old numbers are carried over to new stock. If you purchase tires that are pretty close to standard size you will have satisfactory results. I bought Coker Classic bias tires (H78, but a little narrower would work great) and have been happy with them considering the characteristics of the bias design. Many have Coker radials and they also seem to be a good choice. Speedo error will be small as long as your tires are pretty close to original diameter.

Here are two threads I started about my experience with engine mounts, maybe there will be some useful info for you. https://p15-d24.com/topic/50844-engine-mounts-p15-caution/

I believe if you carefully seal the bearing retainer housing with a good gasket and make sure it is modified to drain properly that you won't have any oil leaking in this area. Downhill isn't an issue because the oil level in the tranny will be well below the mainshaft (unless you are driving down a cliff then you will have more serious issues than tranny leaks.....). No need to overthink this, just make sure it is sealed up the same way those smart Mopar engineers intended.

The tool doesn't need to be made out of heavy-gauge stock, it is just used as a guide. I used a piece of 0.020" aluminum that was handy. Anything stiff enough to hold the shape should work fine.

Here is the template for making a clutch over-center spring adjustment tool: https://p15-d24.com/files/file/5-overspring_toolpdf/

Yes, the piston speed calculator I posted is mean (average) piston speed. Max piston speed will be higher at mid-stroke. This is a little too technical for our flatties but is probably useful for establishing reasonable guidelines. In other words.......don't push these engines beyond what they were designed for if you want long, reliable service life. Speed limits were customarily 45-50mph in the late-1940's---my '48 P15 (no overdrive, 3.91) is in it's sweet spot at 55mph. That's about all the brakes I have, too. ?

Max continuous rpm is usually a function of maximum safe piston speed. As a general rule, 2500 ft/min is a good number to use for max piston speed. With my 218, piston speed of 2500 ft/min works out to 2548 rpm. This doesn't mean the engine can't be wound tighter on the highway, but doing so reduces the margins and and puts it in a corner of the performance envelope that most likely the Mopar engineers didn't like. Here is a piston speed calculator: http://www.hotrodmath.com/pistonspeed-calculator.php You can them use final drive ratio and tire diameter to calculate road speed at 2500 ft/min piston speed: https://spicerparts.com/calculators/transmission-ratio-rpm-calculator And a tire calculator: https://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp Have a good....relaxed.....trip!

The heat shield I fabbed: Does it work? Don’t know.....

Silencer?

I have a box of these el cheapo harbor Freight meters that I accumulated when they used to give them away: https://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-63759.html But even if you must pay the princely sum of $6.79 for one of these puppies it will still do all the basic diagnostic tasks. I have them scattered all over the place in various vehicles and tool boxes, even give one away when someone needs a meter.

I'm a bit perplexed as to why anyone would dump coolant on the ground. And why wouldn't everyone want to run anti-freeze year round?

I tried the HF vacuum bleeder but never got the results I wanted. I think air was being pulled into the bleeder past the brake bleeder threads on the drums. I might be a good idea to use some teflon tape or other thread sealer on the brake bleeders if intending to pull a vacuum on the system.

A quart should be enough. As mentioned above I have an old rear cap from a master cylinder that added a barb to for the pressure bleeder.

Save yourself a LOT of aggravation and use a power bleeder: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O6FZJFG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Put fluid in the tank, connect the hose to the barb you installed in the master cylinder cap, pressurize the tank, then go around to each bleeder and bleed until no bubbles. One person can bleed all four wheels in less than ten minutes.

If you saw the inside of my original tank you would have a different opinion about filters. And.......you don't want the cruddy scale from the inside of old rusty fuel lines making it to your pump or carb. We need filtration in these cars.

Might be this one: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1124845&jsn=3