Mark D

The oldmotor site says he built it from scrap during the war to beat the post war car shortages... but I thought all scrap was suppose to be devoted to war-time efforts. The Popular Mechanics article refers to it as a "luxury car"... Hey honey, let's take the two-seater-front drive-rear-steer-open-air-roadster-trike to the opera tonight.

Check it out. She sounds as good as she looks. Ready for a great summer of cruisin' and destination tours.

Thanks Greg, that'll get me in the right direction.

Second spin of the starter... Vroom! Ran her up to temp (now 180), then retorqued to 70ftlbs. Now off for a road test.

Good idea, consider it done.

My mistake, just checked my notes now that im down at the garage... It is IGS.

For those of you that have not been following my head gasket replacement saga, I took the opportunity to clean and detail most of the parts that where on my engine while I had the head torn off. Last to come off was the distributor. In the process of brushing off 63 years of crud and gunk I noticed that the ID tag had been removed at some point long ago, only a stub of it remained. Hoping a few of you might recognize the stampings on the bottom of the casting, ideally I'd like to order replacement guts. The casting stamps I beleive are marked as follows: "IDS" "1158" "4/21"

So here it is after a week of evenings and a couple Saturdays. She's back together and ready to be fired. Installed new plugs and wires, refilled coolant, topped off the oil. Turned her over last night, but had honey-do's to take care of, so I had to stop there. Today, fingers crossed, she'll come back to life. My lower most ribs are a little sore today. Truth be told I am actually bruised. It so happens that the ridge where the fender meets the hoods is perfectly alinged with these two ribs. Got a distributor question, but will post that as a seperate thread. Thanks for the all the help and cheering gents. PS, Greg - Allagash brewery helped me greatly this week.

As mentioned prior, I attacked the broken head bolt with some heat and an ez-out. This stubborn yankee is going to make the following statement for anyone that reads this in the future... DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, EVEN IF GOD TELLS YOU HE'S GOING TO GIVE YOU ONE MADE FROM THE STRONGEST STEEL ON THE EARTH, I REPEAT DO NOT USE AN EZ-OUT. TAKE THEM TO THE NEAREST BRIDGE AND DROP THEM INTO THE OCEAN. OK now with that said I've learned my lesson and with tail between my legs offer the rest of the story. I went to Lowes thursday night and bought a $45 dremel and $65 worth of diamond bits and titanium cutters. After four hours and going thru almost all of the bits I was able to grind away 60% of the bolt and ez-out with touching the threads. Then I used a steel punch to pop the rest of the ez-out into the water jacket. This and lots of other shavings and gunk was fished out simply with a magnet. Then I proceded to slot down the sides of the bolt until I touched the threads using the titanium cutter. (The head bolts are substantially softer than the ez-out, thats for sure.) With an ice pick and some persusions was able to pull out the rest of the bolt as seen in the photos. After that I was able to start reassembly. At 11pm last night I had the head back on, oil filter mounted, and the linkage back in place. Moral of the story; I learned a lot from the project, and as stated it was my first head gasket replacement. I am not a mechanic, and own sears tools for the most part, but was able to do all of this myself. So don't be afraid if you run up against a wall, some ingenuity and time between tasks is all that is needed. I used the time in between obstacles to clean and repaint anything that I took off the car, including repainting parts of the block I couldn't reach prior. Today I am heading to grab a new set of plug wires and plugs. I am also going to pull the generator and give it a coat of black just to spiff it up. I think I may also pull the dizzy and clean that up and reinstall. Fingers crossed she starts without issue. (Photo 1, broken headbolt that has been center drilled. Photo 2, Neodinium Magnet placed on block next to hole to attract shavings from dremel. Photo 3, Block and gasket prepped with copper spray. Photo 4, head in place. Photo 5, Oil filter mounted, tstat housing in place, carb linkage in place.)

Provided the weather is good and Ruby is running, I'll give it a go. Spent the evening reassembling... Fingers crossed.

There is no greater fortune than to be blessed with the potential of a new day. Congratulations on your good news and God speed with your healing.

The sellers name on ebay "sat1966", you should be able to search under sellers with that name. The name of the company is "Classic Car Exhaust". I beleive they are located in western PA or eastern OH. I was very happy with the quality of the system. Note you will need to provide your own front pipe to exhaust manifold gasket as well as three additional exhaust pipe clamps.

Yeah I drilled straight through the bolt, but my jig didn't stay as centered as I'd thought it would. Raiding my facilities shop at lunch today yielded a much higher grade EZ-out set with a greater variety of sizes. I'm hoping that the heat from the torch will make be the convincer to get it out. If it still wont turn, I'll regroup with another corvousier and then have her towed to the nearest welder. I can hear my stubborn yankee grandfather over my shoulder rooting me on, I only hope he's sitting with Saint Christopher while he's cheering me on.

Here's quick video clip of the mail order "stock" exhaust I bought off ebay and installed last month. The sound from the muffler surprised me. Too my ear it's plenty throaty when I want it to be and quiet for cruising with the bride by my side.

Yes Don, but I don't think my propane was getting it hot enough. Found a friend in town with an oxy/acetylene set late last night. He's coming by tonight to lend a hand.

After visiting Lowes for some 2" 7/16"-14 & washers, Sears for the drilling jig, Berbaums for a t-stat gasket and some head bolts, (just had to see what that was all about), and Northern tool for some reverse drill bits, I managed to anchor the jig to the block, and drill sucessively larger holes right through what remains of the head bolt stuck in my block. I stopped at the recommended size for an ez-out and gave it a try.... no movement at all. So I cleaned up, put my tools away, shut out the lights and went home for the night. After 2 fingers of Corvousier, I feel better, but the stud remains... tomorrow is another day. My thought for the day; Look for the opportunity in every challenge instead of being paralyzed at the thought of the challenge in every opportunity...

I was born in '65, and I was fortunate to have parents that loved music. My ears where exposed to everything. My grandparents all grew up in the depression years, and I spent many years picking their brains before they passed on for the life experiences that they had in the 30's and 40's. I have a strong affinity for those two decades and would almost swear that I've lived it. If reincarnation exists, I could explain the affinity I guess. I spent the day in the garage working on my car. My iPod was playing loudly all day. The ink-spots and any thing else vintage. Neighbors think I'm insane I guess.

Had dinner with my wife's dad tonight. I updated him with the trials and tribulations of the weekend and my plan to have the car towed to a shop with a welder. He laughed and told me about the flathead ford he had as a kid and how he overcame this exact same problem. His dad was a machinist (a broacher to be exact) and had access to a portable drill press. Pops used it, and some reverse drill bits of increasing diameter to drill out the stud. The drill press gets mounted to a jig of plywood or steel plate and then gets bolted to the block using the head bolt holes. I found a portable jig at sears and he's going to give me a hand tomorrow night. I think this is very do-able for an amateur such as I, so I'm going to give it a go tomorrow night. http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00967173000P?mv=rr

Ralph - that's the method I am going to employ. Or, better stated.. will have my mechaic employ. I haven't welded since the mid 80's and am a little out of practice. Heard from an old friend last night that has offer me an old hobart stick welder for cheap so I'll likely have that in my arsenal in the future, but schedules wont allow me to get it for a few weeks. So I'm acting on my AAA gold membership and will have the car flat-bedded over to the mechanic this week for stud removal. Greg - I searched thoroughly read the head bolt posts over the past few nights. I've got a few options to explore tomorrow. Headbolt.com: http://headbolts.com/mopar-l6-fastener.html for about $2.75ea. Summitracing.com: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PIO-PG-362-25/?rtype=10 Cost there is $24.95 Oldmoparts.com: (Bernbaum) http://www.oldmoparts.com/l.htm $3.00 each (only a 10 minute ride from my office too...) Roberts Motor Parts: I've got a email in to to see if he has some on the shelf. I like doing business with small vendors even if they cost a couple extra bucks. There is also a fella here in Aubrun MA that Ebays alot of p15 parts, I might call him as well. Spent most of the afternoon yesterday detailing all of the stuff I tore off the engine the night before. Stripping years of paint and gunk really cleaned up alot of the messy stuff and should make it a little more presentable this summer. Heading back down the garage now to finish cleaning and painting the block while I have access to it.

Moose, after screwing with this broken bolt for the past five hours, I am in total agreement. I'm going to order a complete set from summit today. It doesn't seem I'll have this thing back together this weekend, so I've got the time to wait for them to arrive. Checked last night and found that they are back ordered, so may end up going to VPW and spending this weeks gas & grocery money for some oem bolts. Picked up a stud extractor this am and tried, but my torch is propane and I don't think it's giving me enuough heat, then there's the fact that the valve assemblies are so cloe to the stud that I cant get the extractor to bite enough of it to hold on. So I think I have two choices; drill it and take my chances or get her towed to a garage that has a welder... Slightly discouraged this morning... And its too early for a beer.

Thanks Don - A much easier approach to try first. Hopefully the 1/4" of stud sticking up is enough to grab hold of.

I've got a buddy telling me all about the "ez-brokes" as I write. Seems I need to find a welder tomorrow.

Forgot to mention the good part, all cylinder walls are in great shape. #4 has a slight score in one spot, but not really what I would call bad. Also wanted to mention that I had a great visit with Gary Roberts this afternoon. Highlight of my day was getting to see his dads car collection! Amazing, just amazing. Photo of their '41 Plymouth Pickup attached, the rest are still stuck in my phone.

Well gents the majority was correct on this one. Pictures show that this was something thats been going on for some time now. I am amazed that she had drove so well. Seems as thought my trip with the wife last weekend put her over the edge. Looks like the exhaust valves at 5&6 will need to be replaced. There's tons of scale built up on the tops of the valves, but the seats and the edges of the valves seem to be in good shape. Rather than tear into that now I will defer it to the fall. I've descaled the head and the block, vacuumed out the crap and wiped everything down with a degreaser. My biggest issue now is that 20 out of 21 head bolts came out fine. Some needed to be muscled, others turned out with no issue. The third to the last snapped off just above the block. So thats my challenge for tomorrow. I tried to get a nut to twist onto what remains, but no success. I guess my plan tomorrow is to purchase a decent set of drill bit and an easy out. Start small and work up the size. Am I on track with that strategy? Here's the photos of the damage.

Thanks Bob & Steve - I'll have your notes handy on my I-pad when I start this project later this afternoon. Moose - Would have been great to have you looking over my shoulder just for the confidence factor, but understand the drive. I got your cell number so if there's complications I'll drop a call. Just praying that the bolts all come out without any issue. I had all of my literature out last night "cramming" for this. I think I am well prepared. One question I do have is how to break the head away from the block. I assume with 63 years of compression it is not going to be loose when I pull the head-bolts. Is there a proper way to free the head from the block if its stuck? Perhaps a little bump on the side of the head with a rubber mallet? Do I dare pry it up? I don't want to damage the surfaces at all. A little guidance would be great.