Stev

Thanks. It'll be a lot of work to get it right but it's doable. She might be a mess but she's an honest mess.

Seems to be the case, yeah.

Yeah they did strip and dip it for the quote, i'm assuming they looked at all that. They did confirm in the email that the crank is out of round at least, i'll have to speak to them about the rest. Vintage power wagon does list NOS pistons at 75 bucks for a set, which is more or less what i was expecting, i'll have to speak to them I suppose. Also if you're the Keith I'm thinking of, I believe you're familiar with this particular car. Good runner indeed. No the engine is the least remarkable part of an Airflow. The unique parts on the airflow motors are clutches (unique year to year), the head/thermostat housings (as they come off the side of the head not the top) and, according to the shop manual, elliptical pistons. And probably the cam, not sure. Everything else should be interchangable with any other floating power era six. I've been asking everyone I know about this and the opinions come in two flavors, either "that's perfectly reasonable" or "that's highway robbery". I think I'm going to talk to the shop and just make sure it actually needs everything they're prescribing, and I might even have to be that guy and shop around other shops. Already talked to Magnem and their prices per operation were at worst equal, at best up to half the price of the one it's currently sitting in. I don't like burning bridges but If it saves a few grand I might have to. I had intended to reassemble it myself but currently I have my Jaguar's IRS scattered across the shop and it's blocking anything from getting to the engine hut in the corner. Guess that's imperative to sort out now too. The link to vintage power wagons was very helpful, they have a gasket set for 108 bucks and NOS pistons for 75, so that's a solid lead for sure. Thanks for that. Also, I know there's two block lengths for a chrysler six. When buying parts, what interchanges between the two, and is there a handy reference as to which engine is which? I don't want to be a chump and get stuck buying the wrong parts.

Howdy First time posting here as I'm looking for more experienced advice with the chrysler flathead. I bought a 1935 DeSoto Airflow, and pretty quickly after I bought it, it developed a piston slap noise. Took the head off and found #6 pitted with rust. I had not owned it long enough for this to be my doing, and the car had sat for 50 years from 1966-2008, and I suspect condensation got in and did it dirty. I'm just the chump left holding the bag of confetti. I knew it had to come out anyway, as it needed a new clutch, mounts and main seal, so if it needed a freshening up, no real problem there. So I pulled it and took it to a machine shop. My thinking was it could just be bored 1/16th up from 3-3/8 to 3-7/16, which a significant amount of the flatheads had. Cheap NOS pistons, do whatever needs doing, back together. Simple. Skip a year and change later and they finally opened it up, tanked it and gave a quote to me, and it's about double what I was expecting. Including 500 dollars for a set of pistons, and 500 dollars in gaskets. These motors were made in the millions up to 1970something, and the only unique gasket on here is the thermostat housing gasket, which on the airflow was on the side of the head, not top. I also have the original copper gasket which is re-usable if annealed, and even then is only 90 dollars for a new one. Everything else would just be oilpan, manifolds, timing chain cover etc. Which i imagine are common to all these motors, of ready supply and not worth approaching 100 dollars per gasket. Or easily replaced with 35 cents of RTV, if need be. With labor and tax they're quoting about 6500 bucks for a bore out and parts. Am I being unreasonable here or am I right in thinking this is way too much for what needs doing? I'm competent enough to reassemble the motor myself, so i can take that chunk off it. I was told by a member of the airflow club that the non unique parts are available and relatively cheap, if someone could put me on to a source for those I'd love to take that chunk off it as well. Let me know what you think.