John-T-53

Wow - those steel dollies are legit! Nice shop!

I recently made one for my motor too. Pictures of it with the motor on it can be seen in this thread, at the bottom: http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=17954 The sides were 2x12, with notches for the dipstick and oil pump. The bottom frame was made from 1x4 pine. The two lessons I learned were (1) It needed to be a couple inches wider on each side, and (2) Use steel casters, not rubber...the bigger the better.

Oh, I see. You're missing the road draft tube, so you have no crankcase ventilation. What's the hole plugged with? The crankcase needs the draft tube or a PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) system for it to breathe correctly (and avoid milky oil - yikes!).

There's a wall heater in my bathroom in the 1930s cottage I rent. I always thought it was electric, but when my curiosity made me finally turn the knob, natural gas spewed out! Not leaving well enough alone, I had to take it apart, clean it, and reinstall it. I fired that baby up - and man, does it put out some heat!!! Its kinda cool, but very dangerous - open flame, no vent, no pilot or safety valve. If it were to be left on without lighting it....10 to 15 minutes...and BOOM! The roof needs to be replaced anyway.... In no way do intend to use this as a heater. I'll see if the property owners want to have me cap the line.

Almost as nuts as the extreme base jumpers in the flying squirrel suits!

Is it this one? The spring serves as a shock absorber between the choke cable and butterfly, preventing the cable from being pulled out of the adjusting block. It allows movement in the cable if the choke is all the way closed and the driver is still pulling on it.

I'm good I promise! The girlfriend is only good with mall type shopping (clothes, shoes, etc)...I might have to get it as a gift to myself.

I didn't seen one of those in my shop manual for the carbs covered. It's probably a choke rod, something more common with an automatic choke. These usually connect to a fast idle cam at the throttle, and also act as an unloader linkage during acceleration while the choke is on.

Are you talking about the linkage from the pedal to the bellcrank? Or the linkage from the bellcrank to the carb throttle arm? Trucks have the linkage in picture #1 below. The linkage from the bellcrank to the carb is a single rod. The other line running behind the carb is the PCV system. Where there's usually a plug in the manifold, I ran a 3/8" steel line to the back of the block. Where the road draft tube exits the block in the rear, I removed it and used a PCV grommet with a combo of brass fittings and a PCV valve, and connected it to the steel line with rubber hose. As you can see, it's a very tight spot, and the hose kinked a bit. This is heater hose pictured here. I recently bought some fuel hose with the thought it would be less prone to kink, but haven't installed it yet. No problems yet for the first 1200 miles. I like to run steel lines as much as possible. They look better and last longer. For the fuel line from the pump to carb, it's important to leave a lot of clearance between it and the manifolds to prevent vapor lock, and with a steel line, you never have to worry about it moving out of place. I plan to install an inline glass bowl filter next to the carb because there's no filter designed to fit the pump sediment bowl - it was intended just for sediment. I rigged one for now with a flter and some washers to hold it in place, but for ease of maintenance, a filter up at carb level would be better. PCV valve is Standard p/n V100

I'd like to see some pics too...I'd want to get one of them kits and install it in my truck. I'd guess they're pretty hard to find these days, right? Some o' that "grime banishing liquid" would do me good on the nights driving up the coast highway when I can't see beyond the hood.

For this reason, I only drive old cars. I depend on my job-rated truck every day! I had an '85 Eldorado for a while, and it was cool, but even for what most considered to be an old car, it was a tough son of a gun to work on!

I agree if your truck is going to be a fair-weather driver, the heat riser is not needed. Mine never existed when I took it apart. The guts were 86'd long ago and the shaft holes plugged. There's a metal plate sanwiched between the manifolds, with a gasket, that seals the opening.

Wow Clements is only about 500 miles away...might have to get the ol' gal (the truck) ready for a road trip! I might bring some lookers along in case the one in the photo below turns out to be...well, a little more wrinkly than expected.

The engine is back in the truck, and has been running for a week now. I finally finished doing the last round of tuning it today, and tomorrow driving the truck 300 miles north to the central coast for work. It's been a very intensive, tedious, but rewarding project. I'm confident the ol' gal will give me plenty more years o' service from here on. Job rated!!!

I have two classics insured with State Farm, and so far I have no complaints. The premiums have been very reasonable. Up front, I had to state a value of the vehicle, and if I drove it more or less than 7,000 miles annually. My agent made sure we got everything taken care of. I had a claim on one car a couple years ago and they let me run the show as far as getting it fixed. No complaints here.

Do what Merle says and check the crank journal for roundness. If its round and can be cleaned up sufficiently, you may be able to put in a new bearing to get you on the road for now. Check the crank counterweights for any machining stampings or machine shop paint marks in case it's been ground. Check the bearing clearance with plastigage. If the journal is even moderately grooved or burred, I'd be skeptical about putting it into service again without taking it to a machine shop. Usually engine bearings are resizable. The resized rod bearings on my flathead were stamped in ink ".010". Fm = Federal Mogul

I left them together for removal, with front clip on, and it was tough! There was a hangup with getting the brake pedal off, clearing the firewall at the back of the bellhousing, and clearing the front sheet metal with the crankshaft pulley and oil pan. We had to raise the whole thing up at a sharp angle so the tranny had room to move around. If I were to do it again, I'd remove the front clip. If you choose to leave the clip on, make some extra room by removing as much from the engine as possible - generator, manifolds, etc. Remove the throttle linkage bracket from the top two bellhousing bolts. Remove the radiator core support and the sheet metal shroud that's between it and the grill panel. Might want to remove the steering column as well so its easier to get the brake pedal off. I'd take the tranny off too. Four bolts and it should slide right out - just have a helper under there to catch it. Also, a two-ton hoist is a must, since these have a longer reach and lift height.

Wow, that truck sure has a nice patina to it. Something you can only get after 50+ years. Those are some nice photographs! I don't think anybody sells made-to-fit oil filter lines, especially since filter setups on these trucks tend to vary with each vehicle. I'd invest in a good flare tool, tube cutter, and bender. Then you can make new lines for everything - brake, fuel, oil, vacuum. New steel line is relatively inexpensive at the auto parts store too. I bought $50 worth of tools and made new lines for my whole truck. It also gives you the opportunity to customize your plumbing a little and make it look cool.

I think there's a threaded block tacked to the inside of the tank, just like an oil pan. If it broke free then there's probably some serious rust inside. Do you hear a scraping sound as you turn the plug? If that's not the case, the threads on the plug might have stripped, and you could drill it out. Might want to remove the tank and empty the gas before doing anythig that will cause sparks.

That's a good question...I have seen the parking light bezels body color, black, and chrome. The grill emblem I believe was painted silver with red in the recessed areas, however I've seen several with body color here too and others with chrome. I'd use the picture below as a guide. I could be wrong, though....perhaps someone with a copy of Don Bunn's B-series book could chime in here.

Jim, I never had a heat riser on my manifold. The engine always started right away without it, and I never had to let it warm up much before driving. Long ago someone took it out. There's a piece of sheet metal sandwiched between the manifolds that seals the chamber off, and the shaft holes are sealed with expansion plugs. A thick layer of carbon deposit kept the sheet metal protected on the inside. I don't have any current plans for moving to North Dakota, so I elected to keep it as-is. The PCV system is home made. The goal was to make it as clean as possible. I used 3/8" steel tubing, several brass fittings, a pcv grommet for the draft tube hole, and a valve with a threaded end. Unfortunately, it hit the firewall and got all messed up back there, so today I have to see if I can fix it. I'll have to see if the valve works right when I start it up too. If so, I'll post the part#.

Thanks for the plaudits, guys. I thought about trying to start it outside the truck, but I'm under a deadline right now to get the ol' gal back on the road. It would definitely be cool thing to do, though! The Engine is already in the truck...hopefully running by Friday. At Reg's request, here's some pics of the truck. It was originally painted dark green, including the bed, but was repainted in the two-tone "A&W Root Beer" combo 30 years ago or more. Somebody fixed this truck up in the early 70s and rebuilt the motor then as well. Now it's my turn! I'm not sure if I'll eventually repaint it green or leave it as-is. It has a slight patina that I like, and I'm trying to keep it in a preserved state of decay. There are several rust areas that keep worsening, though.

Well, after 7 months, I finally finished the the 230 rebuild project. I did a complete mockup on the crate before putting her back in the truck. More pics to come as the job progresses...