martybose

Probably built by someone who really doesn't like their inlaws .......... Marty

I am happy to see that if I ever put a rod through the side of my block and decide to go with a V-8, I can probably pay for the V-8 just by selling my Edmunds head and intake manifold, and pay for an automatic by selling my exhaust headers and my OD transmission! Marty

I've never seen one loose in the wild. I was lucky; I bought a complete in the box factory turn signal kit, and the ring was included. Marty

My machinist found a metric ring set for a Toyota that worked out to be a 0.072" oversize, then I sent one set of rings and one of the old pistons to Venolia. They made me a set of forged pistons that matched the stock piston but used the new rings. We then bolted on a honing plate and bored the block to fit the pistons. This was about a decade ago, but I would bet they can still make them! Marty

When the 230 that I bought turned out to be a worn out 0.060" over motor, my machinist ultrasound-checked all of the cylinders. He said that the bores were nicely centered in the casting and could easily go 0.100" over if we needed to. We had a set of custom pistons made up for a modern ring set and went 0.072" over. Marty

Absolutely correct! You should also add a used headgasket so the torque plate is stressing the block the same way a head would. I'll have to ask my machinist if he took the 230 torqueplate with him when he retired; I'll bet he did! Marty

My favorite theft story is in three parts, and involves a Saab 900 Turbo, which came from the factory with a nice Sony stereo. The first time the thief tried to use a slimjim on the door, and set off the alarm. Minor door damage, nothing else. Three nights later he came back, removed the rear hatch window (which is BIG), set it down on the lawn, crawled in over the tops of the seats, started to remove the radio, AND SET OFF THE ALARM AGAIN! This time I was up like a shot and chased him down the street where he jumped into his car and took off. Several months later someone parked next to the car in a raquetball club parking lot, smashed the side window, took a crowbar to the dash and got the radio. The funny part is that we sent the car to the dealer to repair, only to find out that 3 nights before the dealership had been broken into and they had lost 25 of the Sony's; we had to wait until they got a new shipment! Marty

I've used a FelPro kit from Rock Auto on my 47 for several years with no problem. When I took the top end of the motor apart this year all the gaskets were in perfect condition. Marty

Or unless you were enrolled in higher education in California. I was carrying 18 units as a second year Physics major when Uncle Sam informed me that my expertise was needed in-country in Vietnam. Luckily for me I joined the Navy instead. It turned out that there were so many draft-age men in college that there wasn't enough to fill the draft quotas, so they canceled all of the California college deferments! Marty

Unless you have a pretty radical cam installed I'd say it's time to check the basics. (1) Make sure that the throttle plates and the linkage are synced up well; If one plate is more open than the other idling can get a little weird. Generally you want to disconnect the linkage and adjust the idle speed screw until they are the same (I used feeler gauges on the primary throttle plate clearance). Then make all adjustments to idle speed equally on both carbs. Reconnect and adjust the linkage, and make sure that it doesn't move one of the carb shafts first! (2) Turn both idle mixture screws in all of the way (gently!!) and turn them back out 1-1/2 turns. Any further adjustments should be made equally to both idle jets. My motor idles smooth as silk, and yours probably should too! Marty

You need to find a tuning hill. I've got one a couple of miles away that has a long fairly steep road going over it that I run up at about 50 MPH. I'll bet that you'll find yourself backing down the initial timing quite a bit after that! Marty

The RV industry has adopted a recommendation of 8 years for tire life before recommending replacement. The reason they have done so is that RV's typically run at 90-95% of rated load continuously, unlike car tires that are more like 50%. Marty

Now that's a grill! Marty

When it was last running (a long story I won't bore you with) I was running 4 degrees BTDC with manifold vacuum advance. My motor is a 230 with 9 to 1 compression, a mild cam, dual Carter-Webers and cast iron headers to full 2" dual exhausts. I played around with carb jetting and eventually came back to the original jets. Marty

A looooong time ago, while I was in high school, a buddy of mine bought an ex-meter reader Harley trike. It had a nice plexiglass windshield mounted to the handlebars, and the left hand grip twisted to retard the ignition so it was easier to start. I went over to my buddy's house to see his purchase, and he decided to show me how easy it started. But he forgot to twist the left grip to retard it, and tried to kick it over. Just as he hit the bottom of the kick starter travel it backfired, and tossed him over the windshield onto his front lawn. We laughed about that for a long time ....... Marty

I had been thinking more in terms of a license plate topper, but hadn't thought about a plaque in the rear window. On one hand it would limit the already limited rear view vision, but maybe on my business coupe it would work in the side window ..... I'll have to check that! Marty

I'll bet that he's perfectly capable of going by himself, but there might be an issue with him coming back! Marty

It should work okay that way, but you might want to consider getting a vacuum reservoir so that your brake booster can take a big gulp with being limited by the small connection. Many of us have them for the wiper motors, and I found a nice place to hide mine at the back right corner of the engine compartment behind the body brace; it's actually under the passenger toe board. Marty

You can get a 6V 55/60W halogen headlight, but it requires relays to avoid smoking the stock headlight switch and dimmer switch. And I wouldn't recommend running them with the stock generator unless you have a really good battery, and maybe not even then! Marty

For the last 20 years or more I had been associated with a business that was emphatically Mopar oriented; they manufactured parts and built engines for 60's and 70's vintage Mopars. I'd been thinking about a hotrod, maybe a 37 Ford, but with a Mopar drivetrain? Then one day the owner took me to a friends shop to show me his 47 Plymouth, and I thought it was kind of neat. Well built, all stock, but definitely not your basic Ford. I had already started building my hotrod motor, an aluminum-headed 505 ci Chrysler wedge torque monster, and I bought the 47 with the idea of putting the monster motor in it. So I bought the 47, and was driving it around as a stocker. Compared to what I was used to, it didn't accelerate, stop, or corner very well, so you had no option but to chill out and be calm. I decided I liked that, and I'd been concerned about the mods to install a 550 HP motor anyway, so I sold the V-8 and started collecting flathead parts. Now I have a bored out 230 with an aluminum head, dual carbs, cast iron headers, and an overdrive transmission, and I still think that driving it is kind of cool. I'm finally breaking down and installing front disk brakes and a dual master cylinder after scaring myself a few times because I'm used to the extremely good brakes in my commute car, and I've lowered it a little, but that's as far as I'm going with mods. Hope to have it running again soon so that I can go for a nice, relaxing weekend drive again. Marty

My speedo is dead accurate at 60 MPH, but it is a mile off at 30 MPH (an indicated 30 MPH is actually almost 37 MPH; definite ticket country!) I'd have to find an oldtimer to overhaul the speedo head to fix it across the board. Marty

Sorry Randy, but this post has absolutely nothing to do with our Mopars, and I don't think we should get into this kind of crud (self-censored). Marty

Looks like I'm the odd man out again. When we put my flathead together with 9 to 1 compression, my mechanic said that all flatheads with relatively high compression have detonation issues, so I have always run Chevron 91 octane. Marty

If you are switching to a 12V negative ground, you would need to switch the wires on the ammeter to read correctly. I used an 80 amp alternator, but rarely see the needle all of the way to 30 amp charge. Marty

You should also have the carb blocked open so that you aren't pulling a vacuum; you want free air flow. Marty