Rusty O'Toole

Well it is 38 years old which is 266 in dog years. It passed its best before date with the Bee Gees. For a car, it has already had a very very long life. Having made that crack, all is not lost. There is a possibility you can fix the motor in an hour or less for no money. It is possible the bypass valve on the oil pump went wide open and got stuck. The oil pump is on the outside of the motor and the valve is on the outside of the oil pump. There is a screw in plug that gives access to the valve. It is like a small piston with a spring behind it. Take it out and clean off the sludge and you may get your oil pressure back. Or, take a look at the oil filter. If the valve stuck closed it can blow the oil filter wide open. This is too obvious but did you check the oil?

They didn't use urine to tan leather, they used it to clean wool before soap was invented (true). Some fine leather for kid gloves was tanned with dog turds (true). The part about below the salt is (true) the beyond the pail thing I made up for a joke.

According to my 1954 Motor repair manual on a flathead Dodge car 1940 -54 you should have 45 pounds oil pressure @ 30 MPH except 1949 and 50 models 40 pounds @ 30 MPH???

In medieval times in the lord's manor, everyone ate at one long table. The lord at the head of the table with his family, then honored guests and everyone else according to rank with the servants at the far end. They used to put the salt cellar in the middle of the table so if you were above average in ranking you were "above the salt" if you were one of the lowly ones you were "below the salt". The higher class drank wine, a bottle of wine was placed at their end of the table. The servants drank beer, a pail of beer was placed at their end. If you were the lowest of the low you were "beyond the pail".

Slant sixes get good mileage, for their times, and have adequate power if tuned up right. By that I mean you could tour the United States at the legal speed limit with a full load of passengers and baggage and climb any main road hill. When the slant six was designed it was for an economy car. Even in 1960, hydraulic lifters were the norm so I don't know why they were not included. Eventually they did go to hydraulics but this was just a few years before they went out of production. Solid lifters are not a problem. In fact I prefer them. You only have to adjust them every few years, it is not hard to do, and they will be perfectly silent for the life of the car which is more than you can say for hydraulics. Remember to get a new valve cover gasket and follow the instructions in the manual. I find it best to loosen all the jam nuts and adjusters before starting the engine then adjusting the valves with the engine idling, just like the book says. Do not disturb the grease and sludge, or try to clean it off. It sounds like your car needs a complete tuneup. This is not hard to do if you go by the book and do one step at a time. Ignition first, then valve adjustment, adjust the carburetor last. Get it running nice and leave it alone, it will run great for 10,000 to 20,000 miles without further attention except oil changes. By the way if your engine really had 25,000 miles on it you would not be able to hear it run. If it sounds like a diesel it has 125,000 with no valve adjustments. Do the valves and it will be quieter but not totally quiet. Some years ago I bought a Dodge farm truck with 160,000 miles on it. The engine was dead silent. The truck had led a hard life and the outside was beat up but it had always been maintained, oil changed, engine tuned and the valves adjusted. It was as quiet as a brand new Cadillac. I have had many old slant sixes but this was the first one that was totally silent, also the first one that had been maintained by the book. With a few hours work and a few parts you should be able to have your car running like new. Those motors are very simple to fix, and long lived if you give them a chance.

You might want to consult a local auto machine shop, they should be able to help with the lifter bores and valve guides. In fact if the rest of the engine was done like the valve train you might want to take the engine out and check everything.

Have seen a "car radio" installation done by a radio enthusiast about 1920. The radio was the size of a small suitcase and resided in the trunk. In order to use it you had to stop the car and string up a wire antenna. But it was handy for picnics lol.

It might be stuck, then again it might not. I have seen them stick when stored for 2 years, others are not stuck after being stored in a dirt floor garage for 30 years. If it is stuck it is not hard to get it loose if you can get access to the clutch. Is there a removable plate on the bottom of the bellhousing? This is not recommended but I cut a hole in the bottom of a Toyota pickup bellhousing to get access once. This was on a 4 wheel drive pickup, it would have been necessary to take out the whole transfer case and transmission otherwise. If you can't get at the clutch it will be necessary to take out the transmission. Anyway, if you can get at the clutch have someone step on the clutch pedal or prop it down with a stick between the pedal and the dashboard. Then take a knife blade and slip it between the clutch plate and flywheel and between the clutch plate and pressure plate. Turn the engine over and do this 2 or 3 times. It is surprising how little rust will glue a clutch together. Once you get it free the rust will be polished off as soon as you drive the car. To prevent this happening when a car is stored for long periods you can prop the clutch pedal down with a stick while in storage. No damage to the clutch will result.

How many miles on it? Did you adjust the valves? The diesel sound is an indication that the car has 100,000 miles on it and the valves have never been adjusted. If they were adjusted every 20,000 miles the car would be as quiet as a Cadillac. Not a 1974 Cadillac with 100,000 mile on it, a brand new Cadillac. If the valves have not been adjusted the rocker arms and valve stems are pounded and peened over. This will not prevent adjusting them but it will mean they will never be totally silent. And, if it has that kind of miles on it you should buy a rebuilt carb.If there is any wear in the throttle shaft replace the carb. While you are at it check the automatic choke, and heat stove on the exhaust manifold if there is one, and the carb heat pipe and control valve. If all these things are in place and working right it will start and run like a car with fuel injection. You say you did a tuneup so I assume the plugs are new, properly gapped and of the right heat range. But did you test the plug wires and inspect the cap and rotor? If the engine has good compression and in tune, you should get over 20 MPG. I used to get 22 with a similar car. If you got 20 with a 318 powered 4X4 you should get 30 with the Valiant.

Some years back a guy in an 84 Pontiac skidded one rainy night and hit my 1970 Dodge pickup truck at about 50 MPH while going BACKWARDS. The accident bunted my pickup into a 4 foot deep ditch. The Pontiac stayed on the road. The back of the Pontiac was folded up until the rear bumper was in the back window. They towed it away to the junk yard. The Dodge had a broken tail light lense. I drove it home and continued driving it for the next 5 years (after putting in a new lense).

The glove compartment lock is easy to remove, my 49 was held by 2 small screws. You can take the lock to a locksmith if you can find one who knows his job. The glove compartment takes the same key as the trunk. Just as the door key and the ignition key are one and the same.

59 Chevy pfffft. They should have used a 51 Chrysler New Yorker, they would be sweeping up the new car in a shoe box.

The oil may have value to a collector. There are collectors of garage memorabilia. If you do not care to save it for them go ahead and use it. The oil will not be up to the latest specs but should be fine for your old flathead. Possibly better than new oil. The part about thickening permanently in the cold sounds like hooey. Maybe it will thicken in the cold but it will thin out again when it warms up. This reminds me of something I read a few days ago in an old Chrysler manual about Fluid Drive. They said it is NEVER necessary to change the oil in the fluid drive unit, because it is a sealed unit and dirt never gets in, and there is so little air inside that the oil does not even oxidize. In other words if the oil was stable and did not change while sitting under the ground for 1,000,000 years sitting in a sealed can for 30 years or 50 years is not going to affect it. Oil does not wear out but the additives do. This is why oil companies recommend changing oil regularly. The anti wear and anti acid additives wear out over time due to contamination even if you do not drive much. In fact the less you drive the faster your oil gets gummed up and contaminated with sludge. This has nothing to do with oil in a sealed can on a shelf.

On the subject of flathead Dodges not starting when it is cold or damp... right after WW2 my father lived in Kapuskasing Ontario where he drove his 34 Dodge to work at the Kimberly Clark paper mill. In Kapuskasing 40 below zero is normal winter temperature and 60 below is not unknown. His Dodge started every day without fail. He even boosted his neighbors Fords and Chevs. He had a few secrets. One was a rebuilt engine with good compression. Another was he kept the engine tuned to the teeth (no dirty points or plugs) and having the factory Everdry spark plug caps. Another was using the thinnest oil available. Finally he had 2 6 volt batteries, on real cold nights he would bring the car battery in the house and keep both batteries behind the wood stove in the kitchen. In the morning he would put the 2 warm batteries in the car and start on 12 volts, then quickly switch the battery cables to stock position. Let the engine warm up for a few minutes and be ready to go. Chrysler products WILL start under any conditions if you service them properly and keep everything the way the factory intended.

In the old days you used the carb the car came with and bought another to match it. This is good sense, as the carb is already jetted for your engine. These days a lot depends on what is available and what you want to do. If you are not into the whole nostalgia thing you can buy brand new Holley/Weber progressive 2 barrels and have the equivalent of a 4 barrel carb.

"I had to get my drive shaft lengthened but I had converted to a modern ujoint prior to the rear end swap. That required a flange to be bolted on the old pinion and since it wasn't needed for the new rear end my drive shaft was a bit short. So I am not sure if you would. " If your driveshaft is a bit too short you can usually find a longer front yoke that will make up the difference, up to 3 or 4 inches maybe more.

All the best deals are in California. Or Washington, Oregon, Texas. Some place at least 2000 miles from me.

The factory recommends dropping the transmission and pulling the engine with fluid drive and clutch attached. They also recommend removing the radiator and hood before pulling the engine.

Look under the truck, if it has a standard 3 speed you will know it. If it seems to have a double size bellhousing it is fluid drive. On fluid drive models, there was a fluid drive unit like a torque converter behind the engine then a clutch and 3 speed. So the bellhousing area was kind of bulky. Or, if you can start the engine shift into gear release the clutch and just sit there with the brakes on not moving, without stalling then you have fluid drive. Or your clutch is burned out. If you take your foot off the brake, step on the gas and the truck moves you have fluid drive.

Why do you want to "alter the wiring to 12 volt"?

My manuals say nothing about draining the fluid drive or changing the fluid. Just check and top up every 10,000 miles. If you change yours, before you remove or replace the plug (when it is in the up position) stuff a rag around the hole so you can't accidentally drop the plug down into the bellhousing. Use thin oil, it will work better. # 10 motor oil or ISO 22 or 32 TDH tractor fluid.

I don't see the sense in installing a 45 year old rear axle no matter how cheap. You can buy a much newer Jeep or Dakota rear axle at the Pik a part for a few bucks more.

Figure 12 MPG maybe more if you baby it. In my experience Chevs get the worst mileage Dodge best, Ford 302 usually very good but 351s lousy. The van looks like awfully good value for the money if you want that kind of vehicle. As far as mileage goes you have to be philosophical. If you want the room and comfort it is going to cost you. People put too much emphasis on gas cost anyway. If you bought a new 4 cylinder car the payments and insurance would cost you way more than the gas for the old van. But somehow they forget depreciation and insurance that cost $$$$$$ and concentrate on saving pennies at the gas pump.

How could they? Detergent oils have been the standard choice for 60 years. Every car on the road either used detergent oil all its life or, if it is a prewar car, has used it since its last rebuild. The only exception would be a car that predated WW2, has never been rebuilt, and has either been in storage for 60 years or whose owner has always changed his own oil and went to the trouble of buying nothing but non detergent. Such cars may exist but must be as scarce as hen's teeth. There could also be cars that used detergent oil for the first 50 years of their life but changed to the sludgy stuff because Gomer down at the filling station told him all old cars have to use good ol' non detergent 50 weight. Such cars have probably had the oil changed often enough that little or no damage has been done and can change back to detergent oil without problems.

Your local spring shop should be able to fix you up for around $200 installed. If that is too much hit the junkyards and find a spring with leaves the same width. Leave the main leaf and cabbage the rest (the main leaf is too hard to get off). Replace the busted leaf with the closest one in size.