greg g

I did a make due deal to fit the 46 bulb into the 56 head. Just got a bunch of plumbing bits that accept the larger bulb. The caveat is that the gauge reads about 10 degrees cooler than coolant temp because it is out of the direct flow current. Gauge says 160 thermometer shows 172 in the top of the radiator. Your results may differ but it's easy to check.

My 56 230 was rated at the factory at 125 fly wheel hp at 3600 rpm. It was bored .030 adding 5 cubic inches. The head was milled .040,the block was cut .010. It runs a 3mm thick solid copper head gasket. Dual carbs in a Fenton intake. Stock cam single exhaust 2 inch I'd from manifold to rear. Muffler is single in, single out dynamax turbo flow. Stock ignition at 6 degrees btc. Flywheel lightened and balanced. The machinist calculated the compression ratio at 8.6 to 1. The car was mounted on a chassis dynometer when it had about 3000 miles on it. In third gear at 3300 rpm, it put 127 hp to the rear wheels. I did not go to 3600 where the factory did peak hp as the speedo was at apx 64 mph at 3300. The printout shows 219 lbft of torque at 1820 rpm. This pull was done on a Mustang rolling dyno in the automotive facility on the campus of the college where I worked. The set up, pull and results were done by students under faculty, and Mustang dyno representative supervision. Accurate? Who knows, it is what it was. The run was done inside at around 75 degrees running on 87 octane 10% ethanol gasoline with air filter in place. I think member Robin Wheathersbe and maybe one other did dyno runs recently before they participated in the Penndine Sands timed speed runs in Wales. Both are running setups similar to mine. Be interested in seeing their numbers.

Some old timers will tell you to put a thin coat of AP grease on the upper side to facilitate head movement during the torquing procedure. I did.

I have seen a slant 6 in a 50s f100, and in a 52 plumouth. The thing you need to deal with is length. I believe the slant is 33 or 34 inches long from fan to bell housing. The stock setup is around 28. So some radiator recounting is needed as well as maybe some firewall clearance surgery in addition to motor and trans mounts and cross member fabrication. Some careful measurements and even making up a facsimile engine template with slant 6 dimensions. This is a measure three time deal. But anything is possible with tools, talent and money.

Unless the carbs are sequential you only need one signal source. Do the carbs have anti stall that are wired? They both would need that connected. But one wire would power both carbs.

There was an idea years ago that cities should have bus fleets powered by flywheels. That is the bus would have a heavy flywheel and transmission similar to the friction disc of a snowblower or some riding mowers. The fly wheel would be spun up while the bus was stationary at its stop. Since the bus would only go a block or two between stops, the energy stored by the mass of the fly wheel would be more than sufficient to cover one or two shops. In the case of the fluid drives mass upon deceleration it acts similarly imparting inertia into the drive line, hence the free wheeling aspect.

There is a template for the rubber part in the down loads section. The pieces are mirror image, so on the trmplate was made by tracing the one original piece that was on my car. For material I used some thin walk off mat that was lying around in the garage. The one shape fits both sides. Mine were stapled on with the staples piercing the sheet metal bits. When I redid mine I cut short lengths of mechanics wire to recreate the look of the staples. If your radiator is stock, don't pressure test it above 3 or 4 psi. If there isn't a leak you don't want a careless tech to make one or more. The location of the overflow tube generally indicates whether the radiator was designed for pressure. If it has the dome o n the tank its a zero pressure system.. if the overflow tube is below the cap gasket in the filler tube it is zero pressure. If the relief tube is above the gasket in the filler neck it is a pressure system, the amount of pressure will be determined by the stiffness of the spring pushing the gasket down onto the seat in the filler neck. So do make sure you identify your radiator before the guy puts his tool on it and blows it up.

Single choke on rear carb. Works well in cold miserable weather of central NY. Had both for 5 years or so. No discernible difference in cold startes down to mid 20's, or cold damp in the 30's. Donthave idle step up linkage on front carb.

Trucks did get fluid drive and also the Truck o matic semi auto trans as options. Seen both in the flesh at our local Mopar clubs show.

17 around town. 19 to 21 on highway with od. 46 business coupe with modified 56 230. 27.75 in. Diameter rear tires 4.11 rear gears.

Is the power flow pre rinse a spring only option.

Seems the pull in circuit should be momentary, it should open when the hold in points get closed when that circuit takes over. It should disconnect the high Amp circuit when the lower amp hold in circuit is engaged. I have never noticed any big fluctuations on the Amp gauge during OD operation. I do not have a kick down switch, but that shouldn't effect the internal works within the solenoid.

Take a look at allpar.com use search word transmissions. There is a good article describing the care and feeding of hydrives. One give away on the later modele hydrives was a shift quadrant on the steering column. Good luck and welcome. The Canadian Dodges were rebadged and retried Plymouth bodies. While you are on allpar, search exports for some interesting reading on various ways Chrysler Corp. handled different brands in different country's. Somefolks refer to the Canadian cars as Plodges.

Boy, Walter P et al sure got their money's worth out of those stamping tools. Didn't realize they got 6 years out of them. Especially with all the longer, wider, lower styling of the period.

Had excellent results with ac 45r. The same set has been in my 56 plymouth 230 since the rebuild 45000 miles ago. I have checked the gap 3 or 4 times. When I last gapped them they still looked like they did at 5000 miles. I set my timing by vacuum gauge, according to the timing marks it running 5 or 6 degrees btc. My compression ratio.is 8.7 to 1 with milling the head and decking the block. My last set of champions in the 218 were j10. They put on a neat light show after dark. Spark traveled down carbon tracks on the outside of the porcelain caused by carbon blowby from leaking when they partially fires on power stroke. Never tried autolite in the Plymouth, but have spoken to others that run and like them.

Which would explain the French on the tags as French is one of Belgium's three recognized languages. Most exports seem to have 25 inch long heads so that would be helpful to know. I think that is a 53 plymouth body though. Some subtle changes were made on US cars between 53 and 54 but don't think the exports got them. That body style was used in Austrailia and sold as a 56. I believe Chryslet sent the bodystamping tools down under in 55. And after stamping out the basic sheet metal for two years they were pretty worn out. Doubt that Antwerp was a full manufacturing facility. More likely it was a "knockdown assembly facility where imported parts became Belgian Dodges. As mentioned the Allpar.com website has a large section covering exports, knockdowns, over seas production facilities. You might want to visit there and use exports as the search word. Chrysler had facilities in Central and South America, Britain, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, and a couple others, where determined by Customs taxes and our duties the arrived as full cars, knockdown, or parts to be assembled into cars. Looks like a neat start to a project. As you are in the Netherlands, one of this Forums members and a partner have a business sourcing cars and parts for European customers. Checkout their website RDUSACLASSICS.COM. Marcel is the fellow in Rotterdam, they would be a good resource for you when you need to get parts.

Sad news. I will miss Frank's insights and comments. Condolences to his family and friends.

If you are l9oking for specific details from owners of other 56 mopars, you might want to register on the forward look website and forum. Not another of use have much experience with v8s and other fancy new stuff. But hey, it's a Plymouth.

You need to post up some pictures of the transmission from both sides and not too close. We need to see where the cable attaches, and what if any iassemblies are attached and what wiring exists going to the transmission.

The guy who rebuiltmy 56 230 sited what he called rhe 80% rule. This was what he defined as being found long stroke engines, those of 4 1/2 inch and more. This states that sustained cruising rpm that is near 80% of factory peak horsepower rpm is OK. So if you go to an online gearing calculator, put in your tire overall diameter, your final drive ratio, and check for rpm, you can get close to 80% of 3600, you are good to go. My car has 4:11 rear-end, 27.75 diameter tires. The calculator puts that at 3300 rpm, which is 65 indicated, 62 on gps. Operating temp is170, oil pressure is 42 psi. At that speed, I can drive all day, but I am more concerned with brakes and idiots than I am about wind noise, fan noise and tire noise. Your experience may vary... We have taken several 500 mile plus road trips over the years with no mechanical issues except for a broken fan belt. Chrysler engineers used to pull random engines from the assembly line, hook them to a waterbrake dyno and run them at 4000 rpm for 24 hours against a load as quality control process. So you can judge for yourself what strain you want to go up against. I have often wondered what happened to those dynoed engines, did they get retruned to be rebuilt, or did they go back to the assembly line? Conventional wisdom seems to indicate that operation above 3600, leads to expensive noises from the engine lower rotating parts. The oiling route is cam centric rather than main and rod bearing centric. You may be the exception, but most would recommend against steady state 70 mph operation. Keep us posted.

Puppy house breaking pads in addition to the cookie sheet works well for both main seal and transmission seal leaks. When first deployed they need some scrap wood or metal weights to keep the fan from blowing them around. When I had a problem with my 46 p15 engine, I took it to a shop who's owner is a collector. He employed a fellow who was a mechanic at the shop when it was a Desoto dealership. He was 88 when he worked on the engine. He removed the crank, sent it across country. It was turned, spraywelded, turned to stock spec. Installed with fresh rope seals. Still leaked. My current 56 motor was checked, specd stock, installed with new style neoprene seals. Leaks slightly. This engine needs a pint of oil at 500 to 600 miles. Needs trans lube topped up once a season. This when we put 3 to 4 thousand miles a year. So I calling that as good as it gets, and turning a blind eye on leaks till they get worse. Except from containing drippage in the garage. Like old Harleys and British cars, if they aren't leaking, they may be empty...check fluid levels prior to start up.

Tech sez if you havent signed up yet,you might need to check and advance yer timing. Get ready for September. Consult yer manual, do the trouble shooting, and get yer reservations taken care of. You don't want to stumble or hesitate. Power up. Register now.

They handled well to a point, then they didn't and were nearly impossible to recover. I have seen the later ones turned into great autocross cars. I had a friend in college who drove an 80 horse cheapest model 1963. One day he asked me to help him do a drive train swap from the 80 horse three speed to a 150 horse turbo 4 speed. While doing that we added the spring thing and a rear sway bar to the early simple swing axel. It became a very quick and readable car. Another friend had a later 66 corsa with the fixed rear suspension. That car was a joy to drive. It still had a snap out oversteer problem at the limit from the rear weight bias, but if you knew where it was it was easy to avoid even in spirited driving. I think on the 63 suspension we added some limiting straps that mostly cured the tuck under in the simple swing axle. I remember Triumph spitfire had the same rear suspension tuck under with the swing axle set up. They solve theirs by adding outer u joints and tevised lower control arms. If operated reasonably at moderate speed or out on the highway it should serve her well. I believe the purpose was to prevent or limit the unloaded axle drop down so it didn't tuck under during emergency maneuvers, it didn't do any thing to reduce the weight bias over steer deal so you still need to be aware of that.

Good reason to be excited. I swapped to an od. 3300 rpm at 60 is now 2400. Much less strain the engine and still plenty of torque for most highway hills. Goodluck on refreshing it. Member Mark Duggan refreshed one a few years ago, he probably can steer you towards parts sources and maybe some tips and things to look out for.

Bob double check the step up valves. If they aren't getting proper vacuum signal they are likely hanging open. Remember the engine is pumping the same amount od air as it did breathing through one carb, with duals each carb is not flowing about half the flow. This also supplies to the vacuum signal developed by that flow. Years back member Bob vanbuskirk was having issues with black smoke, and poor mileage. He found his step up valve was stuck wide open. Freed up and provided with the correct vacuum signal the problem resolved. I think normal vacuum with one carb is 20 to 21 inches, dual carbs will drop that to 17 to 19, so your step ups have less pull on their springs