knuckleharley

Yup. That is exactly what it means. BTW,everybody thinks the early FOM's were two speed transmissions,but they are really 3 speed transmissions that start off in second gear unless you put the selector in the "L" position. Early Studebakers used the same auto transmission. They were made by Borg-Warner,not Ford.

Lots of 51's had FOM transmissions. I have and drive a 51 Victoria with the V-8 flathead and FOM transmission. I plan on selling it once I get my 51 Business coupe with the flat 6 on the road with the FOM transmission. I just like the lines of the business coupes better,and I love the sound of a modified flat 6 with duals and glasspacks. BTW,don't feel lonesome about never seeing a flat 6 Ford with a FOM transmission. I called the Dearborn Museum several years ago to see if they could help me track down the parts I need for the conversion,and they told me THEY had never seen one,either. I finally got lucky by sending emails to everybody on ebay I saw advertising shoebox Ford parts for sale,and after maybe 5 years,one guy answered and said "Yeah,I have it all. I pulled it out of a 51 flat 6 Ford I used to drive and wrecked." He even had the unique driveshaft which really made me feel lucky. After all,who the hell saves driveshafts when they are stripping a car for the crusher? IF you want to see photos of this stuff,send me a PM with your email address. I don't want to clutter up a Mopar site with photos of Ford stuff.

I somehow missed that one. Doesn't sound like I missed much,though. Been on the HAMB for years and mostly just read posts and look at the photos instead of posting. I got a "thing" for shoebox Fords though,and posted there for a few years and never had any real problems until I started posting about a FOM in a flat 6 Ford from the factory. How the HELL people can deny it when I posted photos,factory literature,and factory photos of parts numbers unique to flathead Ford 6's with FOM will forever remain a mystery to me.

I got bounced from the HAMB "Shoebox Ford" forum for claiming Ford offered 6 cylinder Fords with FOM transmissions in 1951. Several of the old-time "shoebox experts" flat claimed I was wrong,and a few suggested I was lying,so I posted photos there of the 6 cylinder FOM trans along with the driveshaft,which are both different that the FOM in the V-8 51 Fords. They weren't about to believe what their lying eyes were seeing,and a few came close to calling me a liar. Even after I posted Ford literature and a Ford Parts list from 1951 showing the differences between the V-8 and the flat 6 FOM transmissions,including unique parts numbers. I finally got mad enough to tell one of the big mouths that insinuated that I had been lying on the board for years and wasn't to be taken seriously to ESAD. Where upon he whined to the board monitor and got me banned. He even posted,"I am beginning to to remember why you and I didn't get along the last time you were posting here."which came as a surprise to me because I don't remember butting heads with anyone when I was posting there before. Some people just seem to have too much ego tied up in their hobby,and the HAMB is famous for that. I doubt I will be going back even though it was a temporary bounce because you just KNOW the same asshats will be waiting to pounce again at the first opportunity. This DESPITE other posters even asking on the board why people were insinuating I was a liar after I had posted photos,parts literature,and parts numbers.

l'm loving it!

I had forgotten all about that.

Have you checked your timing and distributor?

I gotta admit,I am a fan of your approach to rebuilding your car. Do it once,do it right,and then spend years enjoying driving it.

I used to weld up cast iron all the time back when I was gunsmithing. No big deal as long as you run your torch a little "smokey" and take your time. Too much oxygen in the mixture will make it brittle. Pre-heating the whole damn thing is also mandatory before you even start welding. How much is dependent on the size and thickness of the cast iron you are welding. Which is an excellent reason to have a pro do it. Still,given the rarity and cost of cast iron exhaust manifolds these days,I'd rather pay a pro to do it.

Ya might want to rethink that plan. Once you unbolt it from the block,the two sections are no longer inline. Yeah,a machine shop can bolt it to a thick steel plate and then weld it so you can never tell it was ever welded,but in MY opinion it is best to contact a farm equipment dealer and get his welder to bring the mobile unit to your home and tack it together before unbolting it. Providing of course that it isn't cracked because the nuts came loose at the rear of the exhaust manifold,and that is what caused it to crack. Or it could have been cracked when a former owner tried to tighten it down too tightly due to an exhaust leak,rather than just replacing the damn gasket. He can then take it back to the John Deere/whatever shop and finish off the work correctly. Sounds like a lot of grief and money,but these old cast iron exhaust manifolds are staring to get hard to find,and pricey when you do find them, But truthfully,the best plan is to have him come and look and let HIM make that determination. If you have a trailer and want to save some bucks,make an appointment to tow the car to the farm implement dealer on your trailer and let him do whatever needs to be done right there. I am not a big fan of spending a lot of money,but I AM a big fan of spending what it takes to fix something correctly the first time.

That exhaust manifold looks to be VERY repairable to me. The only drawback is that welding cast iron can be a little tricky if you don't know what you are doing,so pay a pro to weld it up. To do it right is a lot more involved than hitting it up with a wire wheel and using a brass rod to tack it together.

Doesn't work with Outlook,either

I gotta be honest. 5,000 rpms for 500 miles in a flat 6 Plymouth scares the hell out of me. 50 miles at those rpms scares me. Then again,you can bet your bippy the Petty crew had the bottom end balanced to the point that friction was just a rumor.

I see a lot of splicing and electrical tape wrapping. What you REALLY need is a brand new wiring harness. It could keep your car from burning to the ground one day.

I had a local friend in his early 40's that had one of those grinding machines and was still using it when he died a couple of years ago. Brain cancer.

Try using a Dremel tool with a small grinding tip to grind down those welds so you can put a socket or wrench on them. Do no more grinding than absolutely neccessary,though. As for the machine shops "not having a jig to hold it so they can machine/grind the surface" goes,they are blowing smoke up you ass by telling you in a polite way "We just don't want to do it." Or even worse,and in YOUR favor,"Weeze jist two stoopid to figger out stuff like dat.",and you are lucky they aren't willing to try/. Here is the reality of machine shops. Their surface grinders and every other machine in their shop is level,so ALL they have to do is level whatever they are grinding in both dimensions,and let the machine tool do the work. Just how freaking difficult CAN it be to figure out how to level a freaking cast iron exhaust manifold? After all,the damn thing ain't what anyone would call flexible.

No. In fact,nothing else makes sense with your setup because it is NOT a "split" ehaust. It is just a regular exhaust manifold with an extra outlet welded to it. I have no idea why you had a tough time finding anyone to resurface it. Maybe you should ask about getting it surface ground instead of milled?

Engines are NOT "geared lower". Differentials are. Military vehicles generally had lower compression so they could run on lower octane gasoline without knocking. IIRC,maximum speed on military vehicles is 45 MPH while driving in convoy's on the open road. Engines that make high horsepower are not needed.

Shipping fees ain't all that has gone up. I had to buy a new battery for my 2016 pu a couple of days ago,and it was $160 plus a core charge if you didn't have one to turn in. This was a nothing special regular battery with posts.

i am no authority on this,but I SUSPECT you could change the camshaft and up the compression ratio and have car specs out of the military truck engine. If you had ever been in the military you would know everthing is geared superlow and most convoys move at 45 mph on the open road due to the low gearing more than the lower horsepower. The military is more concerned with pulling weight up hills and through mud than freeway speeds. Even the trucks that will run 65-70 mph have governors on. The old GMC 6X6 2.5 TON trucks are a good example of this. We had one in our camp in VN that had the governor removed or tinkered with,and it would almost run 70 mph wide open. A feature that came in handy on PX runs from Kontum to Pleiku and back.

Unless I have miscounted the spark plugs in my 31 coupe,the Plymouths were all still 4 cylinder cars in 1931. Even thought it is a lowly Plymouth,it is still wider and longer than the Model A Fords,and it has hydraulic brakes and pressurized oil. The Plymouths were one hell of a buy back in 1931!

I'm going to suggest you join the DeSoto Club.

And when you consider that today the typical fast food worker gets paid more than that, 20 grand ain't really all that much money anymore. I just had to buy a "nothing special" 12 volt battery last Friday,and the damn thing cost 160 bucks! Money just ain't what it used to be.

If you are already running high-detergent oil in your system and the oil galleries and oil filter are not clogging up,keep running it. It is better oil by far. If you buy an antique car and don't know much/anything about the maintenence history,don't take a chance on running high detergent oil until you have owned it a while and know it has no problems. It is probably safe them to drop the pan and take off the side plates,to clean them out. Don't forget to clean out the oil cannster and blow out the lines if you have an optional oil filter. The danger of modern oil in old cars comes with the chance of the detergent oil breaking loose decades of sludge and clogging your oil lines,causing your engine to fail,and maybe even throw a rod. If you have been using it for a while and none of this has happened,there is no reason to switch back to non-detergent,and a couple of good reasons to keep using it.