John-T-53

Plus, the nylock nuts are usually grade 2 (weak). I'd get grade 5 nuts and heat treated lock washers and attach the pumpkin with those.

Jeff, Very true about the 'B' pillar needing reinforcement - the sheet metal (trim piece) on the inside of the cab (that some have affixed their shoulder belt anchor to) is very inadequate without a lot of reinforcing. It's only held to the cab with a couple spot welds and #8 sheet metal screws. Plus, it's very thin. Do you have any photos of the work you did here? This is on my list. Thanks,

Deal, knowing you've got plenty of rebuildable flatties scattered 'round the ranch I can have after you're done with it!

Why cram everyone in the cab when you have a bed....?

As in lock nuts? Or are there copper washers there too? I'd at least get new copper washers. Nuts should be ok to reuse. Use just RTV for the pumpkin to housing seal. no gasket - gaskets always leak in this case!

Thanks Tim! That was the previous version of the engine too, might have to let you take it out on a Brandt-88-Clements Road loop for comparison this spring!

Pics of the crankshaft. Armando took his time, but he got the journals perfect. Look at those radii at the edges... .010" / .010" I paid extra attention to getting the right clearances on all the bearings. These engines were assembled "tight" from the factory, and tight rod clearances are especially critical for longevity due to the offset.

Here's mine. A slightly hopped up 230 intended for performance and a daily driver. I drive this thing almost daily, and on the freeway all the time. about 10k miles on it so far, and very dependable. Big increase in power over the previous version, especially on the low end. I can climb hills in OD now. Originally a 218 rebuilt in 2009, but kept eating the rod bearings. Turned out the rods were not honed properly, the crank had a bad grind on it, and the crank was cracked on top of that. Was a 1941 crank. So got a 230 crank and new rods, and had a very nice grind job done on it by Armando of Custom Crankshaft Repair. Bored .060" over. Coated pistons 3-angle valve seat cut Ported intake/exhaust passages Chevy valves ARP studs and nuts on everything Blueprinted and balanced everything Align honed mains George Asche intake, carbs, and linkage Tom Langdon's Air cleaners Pertronix ignition Future plans are to install Langdon's cast iron headers with dual exhaust, along with electric fuel pump. Also better ignition wires.

I remember reading about disassembling the carrier in the shop manual and recalling it looked like a biotch! I think there's a special spanner tool or something needed to unscrew the cover plate...? Plus, it's probably torqued on there like an SOB... Any situation like this where you have a large diameter screw-in cap ain't easy. My father in law recently had a hell of a time getting the "cap" off a hydraulic ram for his tractor flail mower attachment, just to replace the seal.

HAHAHA!

bolts....

They are behind the backing plates. The look like thin wheel spacers. The bolts that hold the backing plates to the housing go through the shims.

The backing plates are easy - remove the brakes with them. Keep note of the shims on each site. While you're doing that, might as well replace the inner and outer seals on each side too, and repack the axle bearings. I think this is where Ed's PVC pipe trick comes into play, for getting the axles out?

Excellent! I could see many other places where that'd look good too - mantle, above garage door, bed headboard, etc....

Ah, that makes sense. Did you do this in-block? As far as performance, bronze guides are an important part. Cooler running valves, very little wear, and reduced friction.

Hey Marty, Did you make the bronze guides out of blanks? Or start with something similar? I'd like to eventually make a set. The iron guides available these days come with too big ID's so you're boowin' oil from the start. Plus iron/stainless ain't the best combo.

Aluminum conducts electricity better than steel. It was probably the interface between the light bracket and bed, and/or the bed to frame/positive battery terminal that was hindering the path. But a tail light ground wire to the frame is a good idea anyway. Corrosion will always be a problem on those exposed tail lights. On my to-do list here.

Bigger is better!! Great photos, thanks for sharing!

Locked and loaded!

Ditto on VPW. I got all my engine rebuild parts from them. And plan on getting a new 10" clutch from them also.

Hagen's has a truck page...it's a little hard to navigate to though (link below). They seem to have all the right stuff in stock. For 53, They list the front cyls as 1-3/8" straight bore which is what I recall from rebuilding them on my truck. If you look for a pre-1953 truck they show stepped cyls 1-1/4" x 1-3/8". http://hagensautoparts.com/dodge-truck/

I can't remember an exact figure, but it didn't break the bank. The bigger issue was the fuss of packaging and sending. Didn't take much time, though, and didn't delay the rebuild as the crank guy was the holdup.

At least on these engines, there's no dang push rod! Last time changing the pump on my Chevy 283 I screwed up big time and tightened the pump misaligned with the rod, and bent the rod. I finally realized my flub when the motor wouldn't start... :-/

I had mine coated with the thin coating on the recommendation of my machinist. Here's some photos. It'll be interesting to see what they look like next time I have it apart (hopefully not in a long time). These are Badger Pistons sourced from VPW. .002" clearance to walls, installed.

I hereby claim responsibility for the E-Z-out attempt. Since it's broken off on both sides, it would screw out either direction, IF it turned that is. Yep, drilling it the answer from here on out...