Cpt.Fred

I had the greatest time this weekend, thought i'd share some pics here! perfect autumn sun, no clouds at all, 600miles, 18mpg and an average speed of 50. happy happy happy! photos made by a friend:

cunning setup, robert we did the same to my radiator last year, a big bathtub full of water, some plugs and a compressor. this was preceeded by a treatment with industrial acetic acid. helped a lot!

it's up and down with him, i'd say. they're really hard to talk to sometimes, sometimes they're just straight impertinent, but the last time i got a new guy and he was really polite... so what can i say, you don't have too many options when you live overseas from them all. whatever keeps the car running. 80% of his stuff was good IF they could deliver. AND they have a good website, which is very helpful sometimes if you deal with long distance calls and time shift. and pekka, you're right about NOS. last time i bout wiper arms i wanted new but got NOS. just guess how long they lasted...

if get there soon enough to take some, i will for sure! i'm really curious what happened in there, believe me... best, fred

i never received any NOS parts from them, and i ordered plenty. some parts work, others don't

as far as i know, he actually did burn some oil ever since. his compression readings after repairing the head and head gasket are well, however, so my guess would be either wrist pin or connecting rod bearing. we'll see!

if i remember correctly, someone here said that cutting more than 1 1/2 coils should be avoided... maybe someone who was down that road will chime in. i have 3" blocks in the back, but i have the scrape line probem and will get the leafs dropped instead. other than that it rides fine, though my tailpipes hit the ground regulary when i leave the yard or go over speedbumps, but i can live with that and like the sound when the plaque scrapes... it would be nice to get the nose down about 2", so i'll be cutting some coils soon, too. i have 39 dodge springs on the shelf so if i screw up i still have the old ones.

thanks! a friend just told me he built something very similar for his motorcycle, now i know where to borrow one if it fits in size

i just got a call, he pulled the plug wires one after another and the rapping stops when he pulls #4. thanks a lot for your help, that narrows things down. i'm curious what will be found when the pan is pulled. he plans to pull piston and connecting rod on #4 and have a good look at them. thanks again!

Looks great, Tom! Homemade stuff is always cool! Besure to add this to the "Show your tools" thread!

Thanks, Rusty. I'll email you about gauges and some of your thoughts. I haven't put more washers on beacuse i didn't think it would be necessary with the .040 we had taken off, but now that you mention it... well, i guess i was lucky, so far it works very well. The car behaves quite nice, regarding that i haven't spent too much time with adjusting it, and i think it will get even better. the idle you can see and hear in the video above isn't that bad, i just think there's more potential. Furthermore i might choose to put a 230 in there one of these days, and then it will be a better match. right now it's a turn key car and i drive it a lot, of course there is still much work left in it, but that's part of the fun. if the weather doesn't let me down i'll do a 1000km round trip next weekend, i'm curious how the car will take it. best, fred

don't use the knife on the 40, it's a beauty

don, the radiator must have had several leaks around soldered parts when he refilled it that weren't there before, so he told me he thinks the solder must have partially melted. i don't know how he hooked his temp gauge, but i know he has at least one more feeler he uses for oil temp and another one for controlling the electric fan he put in. unfortunately i can only tell here what he tells me, but he is an experienced metalworker and so i have no reason to doubt his words. if his english was a little better he'd be posting here himself. joe, thanks, i already called him and told him to do the spark plug test you and greg suggested.

congratulations, rodney! do you have a picture?

thanks! the noise started with the overheating and it is my understanding that he stopped when he could first heard it. when he checked the gauges he saw the temp way up, and the radiator got so hot the solder melted in some places. there wasn't any water left in it, so i guess it must have been REAL hot. when the head was off there was no damage to be seen on the inside of the cylinder walls, pistons looked fine. he's currently checking if he can take the pan off without removing the engine. what about wrist pins? i remember reading something about them being a weak spot...

yep, i took the photo when he was just at it. another one:

Some of you might remember the pictures of my friend's russian GAZ M20 Pobieda which is powered by 30s Mopar technology. The engine is said to originate from the Dodge D5 L-head and was on duty in a russian scout tank. notice the changes that where made to the ports! or is that the same on the early l-heads? the D5 was a 36 model with a 218, right? on a trip a few weeks ago he overheated the engine on the motorway, he was travelling in the dark and didn't pay attention to the temp gauge which is illuminated quite poorly. he noticed a tapping noise from the engine bay, stopped the car immediately and found he had blown the head gasket and warped the aluminium head. he has fixed that by now, but when he restarted the engine after the head repairs the tapping noise was still there. he says it's heard best from the underside, near the rear main seal. does anyone have an idea what he could be dealing with? i know it's always difficult to say, but any help is greatly appreciated... best, fred

i don't get it, of course, but.... is it your car? the purple one, if recall correctly? if not... consider it "never been written"

looks like a great project, keep us posted!

i don't think it makes a difference... but electricity has never been my favorite field of activity. when i changed mine i just put the wires back on randomly and it works fine.

wow! super nice, clean car. love it!

in fact yes, now i have... i didn't visit the thread lately, so i didn't see your question. sorry for that. video: it's still a little high in idle and i will fiddle some more with the jets and pump stroke, but basically it runs great now, stable at 15-16mpg at 65 miles an hour. the valves are a little noisy because i gave them some extra clearance when i adjusted them cold. the dual horns still wait to be put back in, but since there isn't any room left for them i was thinking of maybe putting them in front of the radiator, like on the P15. still have to get the hand brake done as well. the car got a little painting last week, and the next steps are cutting the front coils and get the rear springs refreshed and lowered. 15" chrysler rims are in the shelf, steel bubble skirts are already on their way. i was thinking of dark green rims with golden striping and small bullet centers? getting painted: if anyone can give me directions on how to do the coil cutting (which side of the lower a-arm did you release, how much do i cut to get 2" lower) i would be very glad! fall is coming, so i have to do some things before i put it away for the winter. best, fred

Yep, no Mopar, so of course i marked it as OT, but i really, really would love to hear it cackle... The interiour is outrageous! One should fix it up very carefully and drive it as is. I really like gassers, but i have never seen a 32 sedan of any kind turned into one and still look cool. don, nice bedroom alright, but a picture of your 63 dodge "easy gasser" would be even better...

someone just brought this up in a german hot rod forum, thought i'd post it here as well in case someone's interested... i've never seen such a cool old gasser! hope the link works: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1932-Ford-Vicky-Victoria-Gasser-Barn-Find-Hot-Rod-327-/160659702484?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item25681082d4#ht_3347wt_962

after the last sunday cruise