martybose

It's a Non-aqueous Propylene Glycol mix that has boiling point of something like 350 degrees in an unpressurized cooling system. I switched to it after getting tired of boiling water out of the radiator while idling around town in hot weather. It's also non-poisonous to animals. While the switch wasn't exactly painless or quick, I'm still happy with it. It does cost $32.50 a gallon, however. http:// www.evanscooling.com Marty

Pistons shouldn't be a big deal. I looked back through my old records, and found that in September of 1996 Venolia made me a custom set of forged pistons for my 230 with an uncommon size and a metric ring package (a long story) for just $412.51, including shipping. I sure wouldn't want to twist those rods to 6K RPM unless the 265 rods are a lot stronger than my 230 rods (and bolts) were. There are people who will make rods for anything, and they're good insurance. Of course if it were mine I wouldn't buzz it, I'd put a small supercharger with maybe 6-8 lbs of boost, which would probably make 300 HP without high RPM. But it's your nickel, so spend it as you wish! Marty

Son of a gun, another Evans convert! My only warning about Evans is that it will find places to leak out of that didn't leak with conventional antifreeze, so make sure that all of the bolts into the block are well sealed! Marty

I had a similar problem in my commute car recently. It was slow to heat up, then would suddenly spike to a high temp, then return to normal. It turned out that I had a pinhole leak in a small water hose that would leak under pressure and vibration but close when the engine cooled. The symptoms with the gauge were caused by being extremely low on water in the radiator. I didn't figure it out until went through a sequence where I topped off the radiator and watched the temp gauge carefully for about a week. Most of the week the temps were normal, then it started acting up again due to low water. I finally found the leak by driving the car for a while, then parking it in my garage with the engine running and going under the hood to wiggle all of the water hoses. One of them squirted when I wiggled it, but didn't leak if it was stationary. Replaced the offending hose, everything has been fine for a week, and the water level hasn't changed either. Marty

You definitely have a fuel supply issue. I run the same carbs on my motor with less than 3 pounds of pressure, and it runs just fine! Marty

Well, Don, I sure hope that you've already fixed the fuel leak at the rear carb inlet that is leaving stains all the way down onto the intake manifold! Marty

In my 47 Plymouth I remove the knobs and the two nuts behind them, then remove the bolt that goes through the center dash brace into the bracket fastened to the back of the radio. Unplug the single connection at the speaker, as well as the power and antenna wires, and it drops right out. Marty

I'm guessing, but I think he is referring to the center piece at the top after you take the cap and the rotor off, which is what the springs connect to for the advance weights. I'm at work, so can't check to see if there are numbers on the parts in my distributor. Marty

Your HEI should have had springs installed. As for alternate springs, every spring kit I found had lighter springs in them for a faster advance, which you don't need. I will eventually go back to fiddling with my HEI, as I would like to figure out how to get a few degrees of mechanical advance at higher engine speeds, but for now the tiewrap stays on. Marty

I've got another one of the you-wouldn't-believe-it stories. I was driving home from work in my Honda commute car, and saw a large plastic trash bag floating along in front of me on the freeway. I ran over it and didn't think much of it. Ten miles down the road the freeway slammed to a halt; I hit the brakes and ran into the truck ahead of me. It turned out that the plastic bag had wrapped around the front hub, where the heat from the brakes melted it so that it flowed into the caliper, then hardened up, effectively locking the caliper solid. It took almost 3 hours to get all of the melted plastic out of the brakes. I am much more careful about avoiding plastic trash now! Marty

I've pretty much settled on Rotella-T 15W40 for mine. It seems a good compromise compared to the other choices, and being a truck oil it has slightly more zinc than some of the others (although maybe not for much longer!). Marty

When I bought my 47 I had originally intended to put in a Mopar 400 stroker (502ci) aluminum-headed wedge that I already had, but changed my mind. The main problem I foresaw was how much reinforcing I would have to do to keep the frame from being twisted into wreckage by over 600 lbft of torque. It's easy enough to put in a transmission and rearend to stand up to the stress, but what are you planning for the frame? Marty PS Comparing the photos I see that you can get an elephant in with the original firewall in place, which is convenient, but you will have to completely remove the OEM heater assembly and fan system. Not an insurmountable problem, but it means an expen$ive aftermarket under-dash system. I would also question how well the engine cools with that small radiator, especially since he stood it up to make the shroud work without bothering to seal the sides to force the air through the radiator.

No way, that's a late model 426 hemi! Definitely serious overkill! Marty

That's one of the benefits that new workers haven't been eligible for in recent years. Marty

I'm no fan of the UAW (I belonged to it for 7 years right after I got out of the Navy; cured me of any interest in union work), but it should be noted that the UAW already has a two tier salary structure where new hires start at much lower wages and aren't eligible for the benefits that older members get. I don't know if the new wage structure is similar to the captive foreign employees, but I'll bet it's not too far off. Having been involved in manufacturing scenarios for several decades, I can't see anyone wanting their kids to become assembly line workers anymore. Marty

I don't have the info at work, but you can buy ARP studs and hardware if it's high quality you're after. Marty

It's actually pretty easy if you remove the radio first. Yesterday I removed the wiper motor and both of the wiper pivots and arms as a unit so that I could swap out my rebuilt wiper motor and lubricate everything. The hardest part was getting myself under the dash, everything else was pretty easy. Marty

Polarity is not an issue with the starters, as they aren't permanent magnet motors, they use coils. So you are reversing the polarity of both the coils and the stator, so it turns the same direction. The only addition I'd make to your list is to switch the wires on the amp gauge. Marty

True, but a dual master cylinder is still a good idea! ECI makes a good kit, for use both with and without the clutch pedal. Marty

They also tend to have rose-colored glasses on when they describe the condition of the parts they have. Marty

No surprise to me. A long time ago I worked for a service station owner who had a large station on one end of town. If he got bored he would drop his price a few cents per gallon, wait about 10 minutes, then drive down the main drag to the other side of town to see how many stations had copied his move. He knew where they started because he drove through town every morning to check the other stations prices. Marty

Be careful what fuel hoses you buy for the manifold. A lot of the nice vintage-looking clear red fuel hoses don't stand up to the modern formulations of gasoline that we use. I spent 3 weeks trying to get some to seal; everytime I got it sealed up it would only take a day or two to swell up enough to leak again. Then I switched to a modern fuel-rated hose, not a leak since. Marty

Sorry to say, but my 6V bulbs are 6 inch, so won't help you. Marty

The speaker doesn't care if the car is 6V or 12V, but the radio does! My original 6V 802 radio worked fine on 6V, but will not work at all off of any 12V to 6V convertor that I can find. I gather this is a common problem without a known fix, so I've bought another 802 and will have it converted to 12V via the internal solid state conversion process. Not period correct, but then neither is the alternator! Marty