Pete

I've never seen an ad on this site. But then I don't use Google search (I use duck duck go for privacy & it works well), and I would never use Facebook. I don't like what either one does with user data. My 2 cents. Pete

I have two old Mopars -- a 1939 Plymouth and a 1938 Dodge pickup. I have the build card for both vehicles. Both have their original engines that were installed at the factory. The Plymouth has the 23" head and the Dodge truck has the 25" head. (All '37 & '38 half tons have the long block.) Both engines have the ID stamped on left side of the engine near the top front (where a previous poster put the arrow in his pic). If it's stamped somewhere in addition I've never seen it. Pete

I have a 1938 Dodge RC half ton. I have the build card. It has the original 25" 218 engine installed at the factory. I did some research and found the all '37 and '38 Dodge trucks used the 25" engine in half ton, three quarter ton, and one ton trucks. I believe these engines were made in Canada. In 1939 they went back to the 23" engine. The Plymouth trucks used different engines than the Dodges. Pete

When I got my 1939 Plymouth the oil filter lines were reversed. It still had oil pressure at the gauge. It ran fine, it just wasn't filtering the oil. Check the filter to see if the inlet and outlet are marked on the case. Some filters had the outlet on the bottom, some had the inlet on the bottom. Pete

I recently had a local shop make a new floor access panel for my '39 Plymouth. The panel that was in there was a crappy hack of a job. I used rubber to seal around the edges. It has worked well. Pete

DJK, Yep, that was me. A very fine tour. Pete

My shop reused all the valve guides and replaced only one burned exhaust valve. Pete

My original P8 engine was rebuilt about a year and a half ago. I recently took it on two tours that totaled about 1,800 miles. The engine had about 2,000 miles on the rebuild when I started. The tours included a lot of mountain driving. I used about 5 ounces of oil total on the two tours. Pete

Busy Coupe - you are correct. The point gap is too wide. That's what I get for responding before I've had my coffee. Pete

Your point gap is too small. Dwell measures the time the points are closed. Pete

Deleted.

I spray the gasket between the air horn and the carb body with a bit of silicone spray on both sides when assembling. This enables reusing the same gasket many times when making float and other adjustments. Also, I recommend cleaning carb parts in an ultrasonic cleaner if you have access to one. Most carb cleaners will take off the original manufacturer's plating on the exterior of the carbs. Pete

Back in the '80's I moved to Minnesota. I worked in a big computer facility that had about 9K employees, so a lot of cars in the parking lots. One summer day on a walk during lunch, a newly arrived guy from the South asked why, if the town was supposed to have such a low crime rate, did everyone have alarms on their cars. We pointed out that those plugs sticking out were for the block heaters. In the winter a lot of folks ate lunch in their cars in order to warm up the engines so they would start for the drive home. Pete

Just a note to my post above: The battery sizes on that chart include the height of the battery posts. Pete

Hi all, I've been shopping for a group 2 6v battery. NAPA has them, and O'Reilly's has them. Both are house brands. Interstate Battery also makes one, and my local NAPA can order it. All were about the same price. The group 2s have higher cranking amps and cold cranking amps than the group 1s. I have a NOS battery box for my 1939 Plymouth. Original called for a group 1. I test fit a NAPA group 2 battery and it fit in the box with a bit of room to spare. Below is a max size chart for 6v batteries. As shown, group 1 and 2 have the same dimensions for height & width. The length is a bit longer. Passenger Car and Light Commercial Batteries (6 Volt / 3 Cells): BCI Group Number L (inches) W (inches) H (inches) L (mm) W (mm) H (mm) 1 9-1/8 7-1/8 9-3/8 232 181 238 2 10-3/8 7-1/8 9-3/8 264 181 238 2E 19-7/16 4-1/8 9-1/8 492 105 232 2N 10 5-9/16 8-15/16 254 141 227 17HF 7-3/8 6-7/8 9 187 175 229 19L 8-1/4 6-3/4 7-1/2 209 171 190 https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BAT7204?impressionRank=1 https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/fleet-heavy-duty/super-start-fleet-heavy-duty-battery-group-size-2/ssb5/2?q=group+2+6v+battery&pos=0 https://www.interstatebatteries.com/products/2-XHD Pete

I bought my 1939 Plymouth in North Carolina. The NC DMV retitled the car with a number starting with N. They did this because a PO had used a replacement hand stamped plate number in place of the original one. The replacement plate had the original number, but the NC DMV did not care and issued a new one. Pete

"I'm honestly surprised at the number of people posting that build their own machines on here. I wouldn't have guessed that many did so." Being a computer nerd and a Mopar nerd is not mutually exclusive...

I replaced MS Office with LibreOffice. It's free, it's good, and I've never looked back. https://www.libreoffice.org/ A friend who worked as an engineer at MS told me the profit margin on Office was above 90%. I just retired from a career in software development and support. I build my own computers which I've done since the early 1990s. I'm currently running Windows 10 on 5 computers and am not experiencing issues. (I know -- heresy.) I highly recommend Bitdefender's antivirus and VPN. It's not cheap and it's not free, but it has great protection, even against ransomware. Pete

Marcel, I love those Hupmobile Aeros. A guy in my local club has one. It's currently not running, but all there and the sheet metal and glass are beautiful. The photos I've seen don't do them justice. Another guy in the club has a 1913 Hup Torpedo, but that's a different story. Pete

Hi all, I've gone through two Optima 6v batteries. One mechanic jumped it with a 12v charger, and another mechanic switched the + and - terminals. Neither would then take a charge. Had both batteries gone over by a local auto electric shop. Neither could be saved even using the detailed instructions on Optima's website. I've had both of these scenarios happen on lead acid batteries which apparently are more robust as they handled it well and continued in service for a decent lifetime. Both my old Mopars have alternators. Lesson learned: take very good care of those Optima batteries even when they are out of your sight. Second lesson learned: never but another Optima product. The cars work great with a lead acid battery. I've read that Optima used to make very good batteries. Then they were bought by a conglomerate that move production to Mexico and quality has suffered. Pete

I miss telephones with a REAL dial! I love the click-click-click sound they make as they return after each number is dialed. I also like the old movies where someone runs into a phone booth and dials a call. Usually after "dropping a nickle." I found a guy online who restores old dial phones. We got a wall dial phone from him in our kitchen. Works great when the power is out. (We don't have cell coverage at our rural Vermont house. That's a good thing.) Until a couple of years ago there was a local road sign indicating there was a pay phone up ahead. Do kids still say "dial" when they call someone on their smart phone? Do they even know where "dial" comes from? Pete

Hi Keith, I had a similar problem. My '39 ran great except when starting up a very steep hill. It would want to choke and die. I disassembled the carb. All looked good except the accelerator pump leather seal was eaten away at the bottom. On the theory that extra fuel was spilling through there from the fuel bowl at a high angle I replaced the pump with a new one. I don't know if my theory was correct, but it solved the problem. Pete

If you have an oil bath air cleaner it could be filled too high. Pete

Yep. My '38 Dodge 1/2 ton has its original steel floor.

Hey, Blue. That's exactly the same setup I use on my '39 Plymouth, and I use it the same as you do. #E8902 Airtex 6v electric pump for brief priming if it's been sitting for a while or after heat soak. Turn if off and use mechanical pump for driving. I bought an NOS Mopar mechanical pump and had it rebuilt by Then & Now. Never had a problem with it. Pete