new_castle_j

Fascinating, I'm going to switch to Autolite! Excellent advice.

PT-81, I was also at wits end with my car, in my case everything was traceable back to the Pertronix ignitor. If your distributor shaft is worn/wobbly/bent strange things can also happen. My distributor received new bushings during the rebuild. I also found that when I used NGK spark plugs it ran noticeably poor. I now use Champion brand.

It was the cars & coffee monthly meet at Canterbury Park in Shakopee (free). Jeff was there as a spectator, not a vendor.

The manual I have says to set the initial timing at 4 degrees BTDC. I'll probably play around with it (since that's somewhat why I own this car) and also try setting the carburetor again. Since I had previously set the carburetor with a bad ignition system, I'm thinking that there's potential to tweak it again.

That's a good question, if I do have pre-ignition, I wouldn't know how to tell. I'm familiar with what pinging sounds like on a Toyota Corolla, don't know if that same sound translates to this engine. I guess 14 degrees seems like a lot since it's right up to the end of the scale on the crank pulley. What do you normally set the initial timing to? Maybe I'll go half way between what you have and what I have and see what happens.

Hello Everyone, I am pleased to be reporting back that my car troubles have been solved! I am so happy with how my engine runs now, hot or cold it's a pleasure to drive. I ran into a very knowledgeable gentleman at a car show (Jeff). I explained my symptoms and he instantly diagnosed, didn't even have to see the car. Recall in my earlier post that I had attempted to check the timing with a timing light and never got any sensible readings. This is because I was using the Pertronix ignitor, In addition to the Pertronix sensing the magnet wheel that gets installed on the distributor shaft, it also picks up interference from the EMF that is put out by the spark plug wires. All that "noise" sets the Pertronix off at random times, indeed that was what I was seeing with the timing light! I brought my distributor to Jeff at advanceddistributors.com and he re-built it and installed a set of iginiton points, he also re-curved it to be compatible with modern fuel. My initial timing is now set to 14 degrees BTDC as he suggested. The difference was dramatic, the car starts almost instantly now, previously I had to crank for 10 - 15 seconds to get it running, The engine revs much quicker and the car will sustain 50 - 60 mph. I can let the clutch out from a stop at idle and not kill the engine. I've had this car for 7 years, and it's like I'm driving it for the first time, I never knew that this was how it's supposed to feel, I had no prior experience with cars from this era. I hope this post helps someone else!

There have been some very good suggestions made so far, thank you for all the replies! I will be looking into them. I will do my best to describe the vehicle's changes from stock condition, I was reluctant to do so in the beginning because in the past I have incited much disapproval for attempting to ask for help on something that was not all original. My previous experience was not on this forum so we'll see how it goes. The car has 6volt positive ground with a generator and regulator. The Distributor is a IAT 4102 from a 1953 Chrysler Windsor. The original distributor shaft was transplanted into the IAT 4102 housing so that it would fit in the engine. The distributor was calibrated on a SUN tester and set for the curve of a 1936 Plymouth. The points were replaced with the Pertronix ignitor and also the flamethrower coil from pertronix. The road draft tube was removed and replaced with a PCV system from military surplus. It has a rebult fuel pump with modern diaphragm material. I am running non-oxygenated gas in the tank. It has a Fish carburator which also means that there's no choke. I have attempted to check the timing with a timing gun, but never succeeded in making sense out of the readings, to me it appeared that at idle the timing would jump all over the place, even though the car was running fine and had snappy throttle response. So we just set the timing farmer style, drove around the neighborhood with the hood off and fiddled with it until we were satisfied. Anyways, I'm very pleased with the car's performance when it's cold, after 15 minutes though it won't rev, loses power, cuts out, and will backfire if you're not gentle. Pictures attached for additional reference. Thank you everyone!

I am running 6 volts and the coil I ordered from Pertronix was also for 6 volts. I will double check it though, thank you for the reply!

Hello Everyone, Anyone here in the Minneapolis area, I've got a 1936 Plymouth with a rebuilt motor, I can't get it to run well and am perplexed. I should say that it actually runs beautifully for the first start of the day and until the engine warms up. Once it's warm, the engine won't rev past a certain point anymore and it will cut out and surge, if I bring it up to the RPMs where this starts happening and sustain for a little ways, then it will backfire. None of these symptoms occur when cold. I've messed with everything trying to figure it out, would like to know if there are any experts in my area. Thank You! Jonathan

I'm in Richfield. I was at Back to the 50s this weekend checking out the old mopars, but wasn't lucky enough to find anyone standing by their vehicle so I could gather advice. Thanks for the lead on the engine rebuilder local here. I'm motivated to do the work myself, it was part of the reason I got this old car. I've done a lot of my own auto maintenance, but never an overhaul.

Last year I bought a 1936 P2 Deluxe 4 door, I keep regular license plates on it and drive it all around. I rebuilt the brakes this spring and would like to do some engine work. I've read about a whole bunch of things other people have done to their flathead motors, but don't know which things would give me what I'm looking for. I would appreciate very much if I could get some advice on a few points. Right now the motor has quite a rattle in it at a certain RPM and I am getting enough blowby to make it unpleasant to ride in unless the windows are down. I have 40 LB oil pressure when it first starts up, but that goes down to 5 lb or so after it warms up. What I want is to have the engine run strong and smooth and last a long time, 55 MPH on the top end is good enough for me. So I was thinking I would just get an engine rebuild kit from Kanter for my 201 CID. Then I started reading different forums and saw how many other things were being done to these old motors. A lot of things I read were dealing with making flatheads go fast, but I just want it to be smooth and durable. For anyone who’s gone through an engine rebuild before, should I be putting some modifications on my to do list? Things like: Cross drilling the crankshaft for better oiling Adding a pcv valve Shave the head or mill the block Grind the camshaft 3 way valve job One final thing, I've been told by some that Chrysler products used babbit bearings and others said that they used insert bearings in 1936. Has anyone had a 1936 engine apart and know what's inside?