DLK

What you say is encouraging. I have owned a lot of Mopars over the years and those from the 70's and 80's all leaked oil so I am not looking for perfection just avoiding the pool of oil I leave now. It sounds like a new bottom half of the seal and new oil pan gasket would significantly reduce my problem.

It's a good thing my wife does not access this forum. At the least I would like to reduce the smoking and the size of the leakage. Everytime I visit a friend I have to park on the street because of the large amount of oil that drops out the rear of the engine. I think my 50 has the neoprene rear seal rather than the rope seal so apparently it can't be fixed without dropping the crank.

I drove the car long enough to get it up to operating temp before taking the readings. I am surprised to hear that my compression readings aren't that bad. In some other posts I have seen readings of 125-145 lbs.

I have only put 300 miles on the car this year and have gone through 2 1/2 quarts. Now some of that is coming out the rear seal - I have a nice puddle on the garage floor after very drive.

Reading some recent posts by Barabbas, Greg_g and some others it looks like readings under 100 are a good sign the rings and possibly valves in my engine are showing serious wear. I finally tested my compression and got 90/95/100/110/95/90. So no really dead cylinders but some pretty weak ones. For the most part it runs smoothly and has decent oil pressure, although after driving 50 miles Saturday the idle pressure was down around 15-20 which doesn't seem that bad. If it weren't for the increasing smoke clouds at stoplights and on deceleration I would live with this but I guess I better prepare the wife for a hefty 2012 investment in the Wayfarer. As Rockwood said in an old 2008 post I too was surprised to see the plugs after two years looked fine - the light brown color and not fouled at all. I would have thought that with bad rings and an engine burning a lot of oil it would show up on the plugs.

You sure have some nice scenery to go along with the car!

My 50 Dodge in front of the country church we attended from 1980-1986, hard to believe it was that long ago.

Ed I fully intended to join you but my Dodge was starting to sputter Sat morn when I got to Rush City on old Hwy 61 so I decided to turn back with a pass through Kost Dam Park in North Branch. It's looking like 2012 I will need to face an overhaul if I want to take 200+ mile trips with my car. The smoking issue just seems to get worse.

You sound like me. I would never enter my Dodge in a show with real competition, it's got plenty of grease and oil underneath, and looks every bit the driver that it is. I don't have to worry about a rock chip or getting it dirty and greasy but can enjoy driving it.

I agree especially if you intend to keep the car stock.

Just thought I'd look for the heck of it. Figured $200 was probably more than I want to spend. Needless to say $479.40 for two-door sill rubber was a bit of a shock. I guess I will drive with my cracked sills - I do not have a trailer queen.

So Ed have you or your Dad had any leaks with the rebuilt pumps? Mine works fine but leaks and after a drive the garage has a strong gasoline odor. The biggest problem is that in my 50 the wheel wells are so close to the pump that it is very difficult to get it out.

I have learned even with the family to avoid them. I am sure my family isn't like any of yours with half on one extreme and the other half on the other. Not much room for those somewhere in the middle. That has been one great thing my Wayfarer has added to the family - a noncontroversial subject for discussion. Until someone suggests I put a Chev 350 and a Mustang front end in it...

If money was not an issue you are right, but like others have said here since I plan to put maybe 1,000 miles a year on the car I can buy a lot of STP and oil and kill a lot of mosquitoes for the cost of a rebuild. Of course one added benefit of the rebuild would be getting rid of the cat litter and cardboard on my garage floor to pick up all that oil from the bad rear main seal leak. I will do the compression check - I have avoided that because if a cylinder comes up real low it would force me in the direction of a rebuild.

Due to health issues I have been pretty inactive this summer - I haven't put 100 miles on my Dodge. However yesterday I decided to take a 40 mile r/t to visit my brother on the St. Croix. The car ran fine, temp 160, 45-50 lb oil pressure and didn't miss a beat as far as I could tell. However as I neared my destination after cruising at 50 for about 5 miles when I slowed for a four way stop there was a cloud of blue smoke behind the car and I mean a big cloud. I continued to his house and three hours later drove home but did not notice any similar tailpipe emissions. Does anyone have an idea what this was? The car has never even had the heads off as far as I can tell at 60K. I realize the rings and bearings are probably worn and I do have some smoke in normal driving but nothing like that.

It's your money but I echo the suggestion you drive it rather than rod it since it seems to be in such good original condition and is such a rare find. But this hobby is so expensive it's hard to try to tell anyone what they should do. Either way is better than having the car collect dust somewhere under a tarp.

Seeing these pitcures reminds me why I am hooked on this hobby. These old cars are meant to be driven not just looked at.

Two amazing ladies - the woman and the car!

I am sure the overdrive alone is worth a good portion of the $2000.

Looks like between them you could come up with a complete car. They even seem to have glass in them.

Ed - My Dad had me purchase a car for him in 1969. I ended up getting him a 63 Belvedere 4 door with slant 6 and auto with 68,000 miles. I think when the car left the family it had about 150K with no engine or transmission problems. It was reliable and nice to drive. Other than the dash and grille the 63 wasn't much different than your Dad's 64.

I'd be scared to drive some of those cars and put a scratch or dimple in them. What great looking cars.