martybose

I don't have any extras, but I know that you can get them from the Vintage Power Wagon folks (whose URL I've gone blank on at the moment .....), they even have a complete stud kit for the intake/exhaust that has the studs and all of the hardware. Marty

The rear springs on my P15 are 1-3/4" wide; a 2 inch block wouldn't work. My lowering blocks are 1-3/4" wide, and work fine. Marty

The only reference I had was a photo that referenced a FluidDrive transmission. I called Moore Salvage and told him that I wanted an oil pump off of a FluidDrive engine, one with the pump-mounted pressure regulator, and he sent me one! (This was maybe 7 or 8 years ago). Marty

The 23" block doesn't have anything like Don's 25" block. My setup is a rather elaborate affair that uses a modified fluid drive oil pump. It eliminates the crossover pipe in the pan, and goes from the OEM external pump directly to a filter, then a pressure regulator with a drain back into the pan, and returns into the block when the OEM in-block regulator usually resides. There's more to it, but you get the idea. After mine was working, one of the other folks (wish I could remember who to give proper credit!) came up with a much simpler way to add an external full flow filter. It does require some minor machine work on the oil pump mount on the block. What he did was figure out which of the two passages in the oil pump mount goes to the crossover pipe (the other comes from the pickup). He then got a welsh plug that was slightly larger than the cast bore of that passage. He figured out where in that passage he could drill and tap a pair of holes from the top of the oil pump mount to feed to and from an external oil filter. Then he drilled the passageway just far enough past the first hole that he could drive in the plug so that it bottoms out in a location that doesn't interfere with either of the drilled and tapped holes. The oil flow is then out of the discharge port of the pump, into the passage where it is diverted by the plug into the hose leading to the external oil filter, then back into the return hose that goes back into the passage beyond the plug, and on into the engine as normal. A clever solution; wish I'd thought of it! Marty

Plumbing changes yes, high volume pump, no. I've converted mine to an external full flow oil filter with an external oil pressure regulator, and was surprised when I got over 100 lbs. of pressure cold with the stock oil pump the first time I fired it up! I turned down the regulator so that it is now 70 lbs. cold with 10-40 oil. With the stock in-block regulator, maybe some fine tuning of the spring tension or preload will give you any pressure you want. Marty

I didn't see any mention of a 6 Volt flasher in this thread; a 12 Volt one wouldn't do anything. Marty

It sounds right, but I can't remember if my old block had a machined surface there that a gasket would seal against. If it does, it will work. Marty

No, because the rest of the water path for the internal bypass is a moon-shaped cutout at the top front of the block that lines up (through a gasket) to a similar hole in the later water pump. Marty

When I rewired my car, I just carefully disconnected the front and left side of the headliner, then had an upholstery shop put it back in place. Wasn't expensive at all. Marty

Personally I wouldn't worry about leaks from the gasket, it should be fine. If you decide to pressure test it, DO NOT PUT A LOT OF PRESSURE INTO THE TANK!!!! We pressure test a lot of fuel tanks in the shipyard, and we never use more than 2 pounds of pressure; more than that will usually start to balloon any tank that isn't designed as a pressure tank. Marty

A number of people have convinced me that the combination of a Ficken wiper service rebuild and an additional vacuum tank make for a nicely operating vacuum wiper system. Marty

Neil is also a good source for the OD cable; I bought one from him several years ago. One unique thing about the correct cable is that it has a twist to lock feature so that you can lock the OD out. Marty

There isn't enough info in the URL to be valid. Marty

With my Edmunds aluminum head, which requires 1/2" reach plugs (unlike the OEM head, which uses 3/8" reach plugs), I'm currently running Autolite AP425 plugs, which is a platinum plug. They aren't ideal, however, because they were designed for a .032" gap, and are bent out of shape to get to a .060" gap. Since my head was damaged by running 3/8" plugs previously, I was researching how to fix the sparkplug threads. My mechanic recommended timeserts as the best fix, and stated that as part of the repair he could change it to a 3/4" reach plug, since there is a much greater choice of plugs in 3/4" reach. When he does this, I will contact Autolite to find a plug that has the same heatrange and tip style as the AP425, but has a 3/4" reach AND is designed for 0.060"-0.080" plug gaps. Marty

Actually you do get a much hotter spark. When I first put in my Langdon HEI it didn't run real well. Then I opened up the plug gap to .060" and it now starts and runs much better than original. I am having somewhat of an issue with the advance curves on my unit. I'm running 5 degrees initial, and finding that the centrifugal advance is too much too soon for my flathead. I looked into advance curve kits for this unit, but they are all about bring the curve in faster, which isn't what I need. I'm now considering just locking the centrifugal advance down so that it doesn't work at all, then running 5-10 degrees initial and leaving the vaccuum advance working. Time will tell, as I'm pulling the head off for some other changes right now. Marty

PlyDo sells the Fatman lowered spindles. I've got them on my car, and they work fine, with one caveat. You can't use the stock drum brakes with them, they are intended for use with disk brakes. I ignored this advice and used the stock drums, and wound up with almost no turning ability due to the backing plates hitting the spindle. I wound up taking a grinder to everything so that it was drivable, but that is not a recommended solution! Marty, going to disk brakes soon ......

They have two versions of the master cylinder kit; one for automatics and the other for use with the OEM clutch pivot. Marty

My favorite dumb move story, and a postscript. A number of years ago the shop that I hung out at had a customer that had a 32 Ford that we put a 440 Mopar in as a bracket racer. We built it with a mild 4 barrel engine, my Mother could drive it. Well, it wasn't fast enough for him, so we put in a bigger cam and a tunnel ram. Now he can't get it started. The car is at the shop, the distributor was taken out and worked on, now it's time to start it up again. Since it is inclined to backfire through the carbs when not timed right, I get some clean rags and put them on the fender where I can grab them to snuff out a carb fire. The phone rings, I go to answer it, come back a while later. We try to start it, it backfires, the rear carb catches on fire, no big deal, I grab the rags and go to snuff out the flames. Imagine my surprise when instead of snuffing out the flames, my hand immediately disappears in a big ball of fire! Much cursing ensues, finally get it all out, didn't lose more than all of the hair on the back of my hand. It turned out that while I was on the phone, one of the other guys decided to change the jets in the carb, and he used my nice clean rags to catch all of the fuel in the fuel bowls when he took them off the change the jets. Then he just left the rags where he found them. We had a big talk about that!! As a postscript, the guys said it was still too slow, wouldn't run out of the 12's. The shop owner and I took the car to the dragstrip, fiddled with a few things, then he took it up to the starting line. Did a good burnout, staged, and launched the car with the front end about 18" off of the ground. When he shifted the Torqueflite into second, it actually ripped the ends off of a pair of Strange axles that we had in the rearend. It would have been a mid 10 second run if it hadn't broke. We told the driver he needed to learn how to drive it! That was the last time he complained about it. Marty

I've got one of the factory U-joint conversion driveshafts in my 47, and I still get some clutch chatter in reverse, so I don't think that is the cure ..... Marty

I'm not sure that it really matters. On my P15 the supply hose goes to the right hand fitting, and the left fitting is the return to the waterpump. Marty

I've been looking at the Hushpower II mufflers, which is a smaller muffler made by Flowmaster, but all of the installations I've found have been on V-8-powered cars. I'd be interested to find out if they would work for our 6's. www.hushpower.com Marty

The problem has nothing to do with the positive ground, it's because you can only have one of the batteries set up as the ground reference for the 6V system, but you are using a 12V alternator to charge both batteries in series. There isn't any way to charge the load battery without going through the other battery. I'd say that sooner or later you are going to have to switch to a complete 12V system. If you wanted to stay 6V all you needed to do was install a 6V alternator. Marty

Actually, the Fatman upright is exactly the same height as the stocker, but the pivot point for the spindle is relocated about 2-1/2" higher up. Marty

Getting custom pistons made is not that difficult. When my Dodge 230 core turned out to be a worn out .060" over motor, we started by researching a Speed Pro ring catalog. We found a metric 3 ring set made for a Toyota that measured out as a .072" overbore for my 230. If memory serves, I contacted Jahns and told them what I was doing; they checked their piston cores and found they had one that would work. I sent them a 230 piston and pin, and one set of the metric rings, and they made me a forged set of pistons with pins that used the metric ring set. I don't remember what they cost, just that I didn't think they were unreasonable. Of course, this was 7 or 8 years ago! Marty