Dan Hiebert

Yep! Not many people know that. I've always liked that quote, I used to sign off with it in my work emails.

Yep, and this'll be the end of this saga. One thing neat about these old cars, I had the head off, the valve job done, valves readjusted, engine back together and plug wires corrected in a day. Saying it fired right up would be a bit of a stretch, but it didn't take long to get running. Peened some marks for the correct TDC on the flywheel, and still wondering whether or not it has been apart in the past - car "only" has 78K miles on it, lowest mileage of any car in our fleet. Endeavor to persevere.

Things that make you go "hmm". Still haven't got the T-plane running. Did a compression test and was not impressed, so I decided to at least lap the valves. And discovered why this has been a challenge. Once I got the head off, I could see that the timing mark on the flywheel is not where it is supposed to be. I can only assume that at some time in the distant past, a PO had the flywheel off for some reason, and it looks like there is not an "only one way" to put the flywheel back on. I hate to think the drivetrain was assembled incorrectly at the factory. The timing mark is at #4 TDC! When I put new spark plug cables on, I had just pulled the old ones off without paying attention where they were plugged in to the distributor, assuming the timing mark would be OK to show where #1 went. I had replaced the cables when I first got the car, but I did those one at a time. So, I had the #1 cable plugged in based on the flywheel timing mark, but it was actually plugged in to #2 in the firing order. No wonder it wouldn't start. Once I get the valves done and the head back on, I bet it fires right up. I should be annoyed, but I'll most likely giggle like a little girl when it does. I'll just need to put a timing mark in the correct location.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting!

Roger that. But at least you can do a static adjustment to get started with just two turns of the motor, which is what I was hoping for with the Terraplane. There may be a shortcut for the T-plane, but I haven't found it yet. I did what Hudson calls the timing adjustment one cylinder at a time. Which is an adventure because the timing mark is on the flywheel on the opposite side of the engine from the distributor, which is mounted low and to the rear of the engine. I can bump the engine with a switch on the starter solenoid, the starter button, a wrench on the crankshaft nut, or with the auxiliary hand crank, which sounds great having that many options, but I can't see the distributor or valve tappets from any of those locations. Would have been significantly easier if I could have done the #1 and #6 at TDC thing. Just one of those pearls of antique car ownership. And no, I don't have it running yet. I ordered new spark plug cables for it, which came with 15 feet of wire, plenty for normal I6 engines, but about 4 inches too short for the Hudson-Terraplane engine because of that distributor location. Oh, well. More wire on the way.

Using the good ol' Dodge, longest trip was around 75 miles, one way, from Horizon City, TX (near El Paso) to Salt Flat when we had the car in the 90's remake of "Lolita". Salt Flat was one of the filming locations. Since then, the furthest she's been driven has been up here - 30 miles one way to Island Falls, ME. This year we're gonna take the D24 on our club's annual leaf peeping tour in a couple weeks, that's between 120 and 180 miles, depending on which route we take. Otherwise, we drive from northern ME to NM every couple of years. Our daughter and her husband and my dad live a tad over 2.5K miles from us. A year after graduating high school, just before I joined the Army, I drove a Pinto station wagon from Presidio, TX to Blaine, WA when I helped my dad move - my first iron-butt road trip. After I joined the Border Patrol we would travel from south or far west Texas to NJ every couple of years, that was right around 2K miles. I've driven from the southern border to the northern border a few times, but haven't done a coast to coast road trip...yet.

Thanks.

I got to this sooner than anticipated and found the answer to my own question. The short answer being "no". I could launch into a long diatribe about my reasoning, but that point would be moot. I was looking for a similar tappet adjustment shortcut to what we have with the MoPar flat sixes, but the MoPar application won't work on the Terraplane engine. The procedure on the Terraplane engine is two-fold, first adjust for timing (what the manufacturer calls it) when the engine is cold - get each cylinder to TDC and adjust that respective cylinder's valves, one cylinder at a time. I won't say difficult for one person to do, but it does require flexibility, endurance, and patience. Secondly, the manufacturer's authorized adjustment is to make the final adjustment of the valves when the engine is hot...and running. So...static (cold timing) adjustment is done, now I've gotta get it started and running. Waiting on some high-speed-low-drag ignition components. Finally working in earnest on my retirement project after six years, although we've had the car for twenty or so. So far I've been able to rely on you'uns for general advice and information that still applies to the Terraplane. I'll probably bite the bullet and sign back up with the HET Club, and keep my brain picking of the Forum to the Ol' Dodge.

I'm still working on getting our '37 Terraplane to start. It is a process of elimination that I have not completed yet, (I'm not in any kind of rush, plenty of other projects pending), while waiting for some parts I am going to adjust the valves. This question may fall into the realm of a stupid one, but I'm checking my reasoning and here goes; the engine is the stock 212.2 ci flathead six, same firing order as MoPar engines. The order of exhaust and intake valves is different from MoPar flathead sixes. I am going off of information from the P15-D24 Forum for adjusting the valves, which is that two stage method with #1 at TDC then #6 at TDC. The information herein for the MoPar engines plainly states to adjust both, exhaust, or intake valves, for certain cylinders at these two stages, without specifying the number in line of the valve (1-12). I'm good with that. Q: Even though the valve order is different between the engines, since the firing order is the same, which valve(s) to adjust at the two TDCs would remain the same, wouldn't it? Background - I have all the Terraplane manuals. The information for adjusting the valves (tappets) is to adjust them according to the valve adjustment measurements given elsewhere. That's it. I had to go back to '33 to even find the valve order. I am not in the HET Club (no reason, I'm just not.) Says a lot for MoPar service information when compared to other makes.

The ol' D24 weighs just shy of 3K lbs. I had a 2013 VW Beetle that weighed just over 5K lbs.!

Air cooled VW engine blocks have always contained some percentage of magnesium. Whether new aftermarket blocks still do or not, I don't know. Yeah, metal fires not good. In high school, (Presidio, TX), for the homecoming bonfire one year, we put a VW engine block at the top of a pole in the middle of the pyre. At some point that thing finally caught fire, and it lit up the whole valley. It was like a white flare at the top of the pyre, and we weren't quite expecting it. The block didn't burn all that long, but it couldn't be extinguished. The town only had a rag-tag VFD at the time, with nothing to even try to extinguish that kind of fire. So that bright (sorry) idea didn't carry over. The M113 armored personnel carriers we had when I was in the Army were made of an aluminum magnesium alloy, with a high magnesium content to make it harder. We were trained to abandon them if hit with a HEAT round...assuming we survived that...because there was no saving it once it caught fire. They had/have an internal fire suppression system that is only intended to give the crew time to get out, not save the vehicle.

How your car was originally registered would depend on the State(s) it has been titled and registered in. How it would be done now is still up to the State you're in. Most will allow a registration with the engine number to carry forward, as long as that same engine is still in the car, but if you're starting from scratch, they will want the serial number. If registering as an antique auto, they may give you the option. Either one will come up in their system as a non-compliant VIN, which they can override. Whichever is used will be entered in the State's system as the VIN. If you are seeking to title/register your '47, it would be best to ask your State's DMV. If you're just curious - Vehicle identification numbers were not standardized until 1981, at which time the number was statutorily called the Vehicle Identification Number by Federal legislation. Until then, it was up to the individual States to decide whether to use the serial number of the engine, or the serial number of the car for its titling / registration requirements. The legislation mandating VINs also mandated the States to use the VIN for titling and registration for 1981 and later cars.

Could have something to do with it, we've actually had normal rainfall this year...which may have indeed been the perfect conditions for mild peppers. What we have also had this year are consistent temperatures, it's been in the 70's and 80's during the day and 50's and 60's at night all summer, and I think it got to 90 once, for maybe five or ten minutes. I know the media was forecasting "unheard of" and "record temperatures" for Maine a few weeks ago, but that was all heat index, not true temps, and didn't come to pass. Temps the last few summers were all over the place. I'm sure there's some agricultural science to it, but it doesn't keep us up at night. Come to think of it, my stomach is rather thankful for the mild peppers this year.

Our gardening is doing quite well this year, really good weather this season for growing everything. By July I'm usually down to needing to mow once every two weeks or so, this year I'm still mowing every week. Slightly annoying, but the yard sure looks nice. We can hardly keep up with the cherry tomatoes and jalapenos. For some reason we have good flavor in the jalapenos, but they aren't very spicy. I'd say it's a soil issue, but this is the first year we've grown dull ones here. More likely we got "bad" seeds, which is a funny notion, since they're beautiful plants, just no kick in the peppers. A matter of perspective, I guess. No apples this year, though. We have 10 trees and not a one even bloomed this year, the ancient orchard on the adjoining property barely even bloomed. The regular orchards in the State are supposed to do well, though. I'm mildly surprised we aren't having critter issues worth noting, so far. Even the red squirrels are minding their own business, just fussing at us when I take the dog into their turf.

Ditto positive responses. It is not the preferred method, it will indeed work, but you do have to be careful. When we were looking at our D24 before we bought it, it was in the back of a used car lot. The proprietors weren't car guys, (that's a longer, slightly amusing, but unnecessary story), and when we wanted to see and hear the car run, they jumped it with 12v - several times over a week. Not because it would work, but the car having a 6v system went right over their heads. They went directly pole to pole on the battery. I wasn't as suave on old cars then, but I still questioned what they were doing. They were so anxious to get rid of the car that I talked them into a short warranty on the charging system. Thankfully it didn't seem to hurt the system, I have all the same electrical components in it now.

I've got a period aftermarket Fram AF-2 dry filter on our D24. Originally intended as a direct replacement for oil bath filters, so no mods necessary. I've never had the / an original oil bath filter for our car and found this one the owner was willing to part with on a '48 or so Ford F4 farm truck. Originally orange, painted it black and no-one is the wiser...so far. Oil bath filters are relatively easy to find, but this could be an option. Only "if" would be availability of the filter element, I bought a case of them 30 years ago and haven't bothered to see if I can still get them.

Reads like you want to replace that twist lock buss fuse with a circuit breaker. I'm assuming someone makes an inline circuit breaker, in which case I would just remove the buss fuse holder altogether (cut the wires) and splice in that breaker in the same place. What is suggested above will certainly work, but that just adds another potential point of failure to that circuit.

Same "problem" I've ever had with Walmart batteries - limited selection, at least at our location. I was a bit surprised they had the right group for my BIL's '57 Ford (don't remember what that was, now, though). This location has whatever battery you may need for your zero-turn mower, lawn tractor, or riding mower, anything else it's more likely you'll have to order on line and pick it up in a few days. That, or go to one of the four franchise places.

Red squirrels up here are the bane of buildings and vehicles, and they're annoying little buggers when trying to take a peaceful walk. If they keep to themselves, I leave them alone, as soon as they point themselves at our house or shop, their days are numbered. I've got one of those Gamo high velocity pellet rifles that works wonders, not quite a nail driver, but I think that's more me than the rifle. So far, nothing bigger than those little red rats with fluffy tails that I've had to deal with, I've got the armaments to deal with bigger critters but haven't needed it. Everything else just seems to sashay through, usually only leaving poop. Previous owner of our house had a problem with porcupines munching on the shop siding, so I keep an extra sharp eye out for them, just one juvenile that wandered through many years ago...so far. I've heard they can be pretty rugged and hard to kill, too.

I recently bought two carburetor kits from The Carburetor Doctor in Tulsa, OK. One for the slightly different BXUV-3 carb in the D24, which had the correct parts for a fluid drive, and one for the Carter W1 in the Terraplane. Initially, I couldn't find a kit for the BXUV, but I sent the numbers on the carb to the Carburetor Doctor, and they identified a kit with the right parts. I imagine they'd do the same for your S-11. They were both Daytona kits. I'm certainly not dissing on Mikes Carb kits, I've heard nothing but good about them, and I bet they'd do the same, I just found the Carb Doctor first.

I've got the distributor out and am rebuilding it right now, not that difficult, it's uber simple. Mainly just cleaning and painting as appropriate. Delayed slightly by putting a new roof on the garage but I should have it back in the car by the end of the week, and see what happens. I kinda like the idea of the ray gun, the car has a sexy red acrylic "zeppelin" hood ornament that looks amazingly similar to how artists portrayed ray guns back then...gotta be for more than just looks! Can't see them very well, but the ornament has slick little chrome fins on the sides and top.

I had one of those banners from the '80's. It came in a box of stuff with our Terraplane, apparently because the Terraplane did a lap around the Indy 500 track when a PO had it. The car was sold new in Indianapolis and spent most of its life in Terre Haute, IN. I don't remember the circumstances, whether the Hudson Essex Terraplane Club did a foray there, or they had an open track day, but it's apparently something Indy at least used to do. Couldn't stop your old car on the track for a photo (they didn't want patches of oil), but you could do a lap and they'd take a photo. I think I still have a photo, but it's from a club magazine article and not very good. I may still have the banner, too. I only suspect where they are, I don't know for sure, forgot all about them until this thread posted.

Someone's got a strange sense of "vintage"...and money on the brain. You can get those at the Indy Speedway swag shop for significantly less.

Since you've already got the stuff, I would go with the "quicker" option with the hot rod parts. While I'm certainly not opposed to a V8 swap, I find them kind of ho-hum. A good running flathead with all the bells-and-whistles on the other hand, will get my attention every time. I like the flat sixes in our D24 and Terraplane, and I'll do whatever I can to keep them going, but if I grenade either engine beyond repair, my first thought will be something else to swap in.

I'll also suggest that the squeaking alternator and water pump may be the belt, since the car was sitting for so long. They make stethoscopes for mechanical use that would help narrow down the source of engine noise. A much less expensive alternative is to use a piece of garden hose, hold one end to your ear, move the other around the suspected noise locations. I keep a short piece handy for such adventures - handy tip - blow the spiders out before you use it.