martybose

You can't just add a later overdrive unit to your existing tranny, as the electric OD's require a modified transmission that extends a shaft so that the OD is locked out mechanically when you shift into reverse. I had an OD unit out of a later Dodge in my 47 for a lot of years before I got around to figuring out how to wire up a 12V system to operate it, and all I can say is I should have done it a lot sooner. Where before I used to run at 55 in the slow lane with the engine screaming, now I can cruise at 65-70. A good addition for our cars. Marty

I guess it must be heading your way now; it's a hour after my first posting, and the temperature has gone down 10 degrees, it clouded over, and it's sprinkling! Maybe I'll leave the 47 in the garage after all! Marty

I've no idea how well my heater works, because I've never turned it on. It is plumbed, but between the heat I get through the floorboards and the fact that I live in California (at just past Noon it is a sunny 61 degrees outside), I've never needed the heater! I'll go for a ride this afternoon to get my "feel-good" fix. Marty

Atlas Motor Parts in Temecula - 562-594-5560 Marty

I believe that with no pluger installed you would have no (or not much) oil pressure, because the oil from the cam gallery would be using the block passages to dump back into the pan. Not a good idea! Marty

One serious concern about a boat motor is the state of the block cooling passages. Most such motors use raw water cooling, which means that either straight water without antifreeze (or even worse, salt water) would be left standing for long periods of time, basically rotting the block from the inside out. You may want to consider having all of the bores checked with an ultrasound meter to see if the block is worth having. Marty

This would be cool, because I could by a Fiat 500 Abarth and has it serviced at my local Chrysler dealer! Marty, thinking of the possibilities ........

I just went and measured the inset in my clock location, and I don't think this is for a P15. My insert is shorter than 2-3/4" and wider than 2". Marty

True, and isn't it a shame ....... Marty

I went to Bonneville a lot of years ago with a car that set a record in the 160 range. I learned two things on that trip: 1. The altitude really affects speed, you won't run like you can anywhere else. If possible, put a lot more compression in the motor. Ours was 14:1, just about killed itself on the sea-level dyno, ran fine at altitude. 2. Think of it as the world's longest dragstrip. Just because you can put in a gear that will have you running 230 at redline doesn't mean you be able to accelerate to that speed in the available space. There's also the issue of RPM drop between gears; if it is too much, you might drop off of the power curve when you shift and slow down! It's a fun experience, you'll love it! Marty

I'm the Manpower Coordinator for a medium size shipyard on San Francisco Bay that does the maintenance and upgrades on most of the ferries, tugboats and barges in the Bay Area. We have a drydock that can lift up to a 378 ft Coast Guard cutter, and a Syncrolift that can lift pretty much anything up to an Army LCU. We typically have 5 or more vessels out of the water working on them at any one time. I schedule over 200 people daily, including painters, welders, electricians and machinists. Marty, honking my own horn ...........

I bought my wide alternator pulley from Fifth Avenue Auto Parts 415 Court St. Clay Center, KS 67432 phone 913-632-3450 This was many years ago, but I think they are still there. No web presence that I could find. Marty

I also originally used teflon tape on my ARP studs, and they leaked. Someone else here had mentioned Permatex aviation form-a-gasket liquid sealant, which I found on the shelf at the local auto parts store. It's a dark brown liquid, and sealed everything perfectly this time. I also converted the waterpump to studs, and sealed them with this stuff as well. So far so good! Marty

I am using vacuum advance with the hose hooked to the intake manifold, so the vacuum signal represents engine load. I'm currently running 4 degrees initial advance, set with the vacuum advance hose disconnected and plugged. Marty

Not necessarily. My 230 block was a worn out .060" over when we took it apart. We took ultrasonic readings of all of the cylinders at 12 points per cylinder, and found good thickness, so we wound up boring it .072" over (after we found a Toyota metric ring set the right size). I had Venolia make me a set of custom pistons for the metric ring set. Marty

I drive mine every weekend that it isn't raining. But I suspect that most of you would say that we don't have a winter in the San Francisco area! Marty

They're totally different products, although the claimed benefits are similar. The water wetter products are intended for standard antifreeze/water mix products; Evans NPG+ can NOT have any water present, as water is a contaminant for it. You actually have to go through a process to get the water out of the engine before you can use it (unless you start with a freshly built engine, like I did!). And you can't ever let anyone top off your radiator for you! They claim that it is a good corrosion preventer, but interestingly I couldn't find anything about freeze protection. As you know, I have been running Evans NPG+ for years, and like the fact that I don't worry about boiling coolant out in hot conditions. But if your cooling system is in good shape and you don't have any problems with it in really hot weather. I wouldn't bother. You have to be prepared to do a lot of work sealing up all of the head, water pump, and any and every other bolt that go into a water passage, like the ones on the drivers side of the head. It took me 4 tries before I managed to stop the leaking at the thermostat housing, which had never leaked with a normal antifreeze mix. YMMV. Marty

The clever thing that the Mopar engineers did was set up the distributor with too much centrifugal advance because they knew that you would need more throttle to go faster (say above 40 MPH) and the more throttle you used the less vacuum you would have, so as you went faster the vacuum advance would be reducing. The net effect was more advance overall at low speeds and reduced advance at higher speeds. Marty

Nope, my car's 12 volt. Marty

I just went to my local Pep Boys and bought an electronic flasher that matched my original pinout. I don't remember the cost, but I guarantee you it was more like $15 than $50! Marty

I tiewrapped the weights around the circumference using a standard size tiewrap (as opposed to the cute minature ones). I had to slide it around a bit until I found a location that would clear the rotor. I've been running it that way for almost a year, but I don't put a lot of miles on the car. I'm not worried about the tiewrap breaking, you should see what we have used them for on the race cars! My long term fix will probably be to limit the amount of centrifugal advance, probably by putting a stop in that moves the starting position farther out, then putting a stronger spring so that the advance doesn't start until a higher RPM. As a guess, the goal would be about half of the total advance, with it starting at maybe 2000 RPM and all in by say 3000 RPM. That would be a starting point, to be finetuned on my favorite test hill. Marty

It sure seems to me that there would be a market with this group for a PCV conversion system that used new material instead of WW2 Power Wagon stuff. Anyone willing to take this on? I'll put in my order now! Marty

There are lots of possibilities for this problem, most likely related to sitting for 30 years. Check for issues like clogged filter socks on the intake tube in the tank. Did you rebuild/replace the fuel pump? Marty

Nah, you just use a solenoid that puts the batteries in parallel until you hit the starter button, then it switches the leads so they are in series to produce 12 volts. It would charge on 6 volts. I had a setup like this back in the late 60's in a 6V Volvo that had a later motor in it with a 12V starter. The solenoid was built into the battery itself. Marty

Heavy emphasis on a LITTLE pressure, like maybe 1 or 2 pounds. More than that can have spectacularly bad side effects! Marty