Rusty O'Toole

Old MoPars use circuit breakers not fuses. Ignition is usually not fused. Check if power is getting to the coil with your multimeter or test light. If not back track till you find where the problem is. If power is getting to coil but no spark, take off the distributor cap and see if it is dry inside. If not, wipe it dry with a clean rag. If ignition wires are wet spray them with WD40 for temporary cure. Also spray the distributor cap after you put it back on.

"The side valve design of the flat-head engines greatly impede the flow of the air-fuel mixture where-as the overhead design allows a more even unrestricted air flow. Buick, Chevrolet and Nash realized this early on." You should examine some actual engines of prewar design. The OHV engines had very restricted valve sizes, restricted by the diameter of the cylinder. The flatheads had no such restriction, their valves were larger and the valve chamber was wider than the cylinder. Compare size for size, Buick Chev or Nash to their leading competitors and you will find the OHV had little or no advantage, in many cases a good flathead had more developed horsepower and torque than the OHV. In postwar, big bore, short stroke engines there was room for larger valves and they took advantage of it. That is a completely different design philosophy. The postwar engines were the ones that overshadowed the best flatheads, which were by that time 20 years old or more. The OHV engines did eventually prove superior but not in the 1920s to early 50s time period.

A low compression engine will run better on low octane than high octane gas.

Friend of mine drove a 52 Ford V8 that had been in his family for years. Sometimes in real cold weather it was the only car that would start, so he would drive it to work. A lot of people crabbed about him driving a nice old car in winter but it didn't seem to hurt. He only sold the car 2 years ago.

A little smoke is normal, too much indicates blowby from bad rings. Try a compression test.

To adjust the steering box follow the directions in the factory manual. Do not get ideas of your own. It is possible to do a quick adjustment of the box and remove a lot of play but the box will wear out in a month or 2. O ya don't forget to fill it with lube.

Even easier and cheaper to plate them yourself. Caswell Plating has everything you need. I have dealt with them and found them reliable and their products of good quality. I know other old car restorers who use their plating kits. http://www.caswellplating.com/

Years ago they designed rings to allow a controlled amount of oil past them to lubricate the rings and pistons. You can do as you please. A small amount of oil in the gas can't hurt anything.

The toilet tissue filters are well known. They have been around since the fifties. Frantz is the oldest and best known brand. They are still in production. Today there are other brands including a king size version for transport trucks and big stationary engines that use a roll of paper towels. I did some research on the net a while ago. Everyone who uses one swears by it. All the criticism comes from people who know nothing about them, or who heard their barber's cousin's grandfather tried one and it ruined his motor. The oil goes thru the tissue lengthways for in depth filtration. The oil comes out perfectly clean. This is a partial flow in addition to the regular full flow filter. One guy uses a Frantz filter and synthetic oil in his Dodge diesel truck. He changes the filter and tops up the oil every 1000 miles. Every 5000 or 10000 he has the oil tested. It always comes back good as new. So far he has gone 50,000 miles without changing the oil. The filters are also used in industry to filter hydraulic oil.

With all your experience of Dodge flatheads you should know they wear the rings and taper the cylinders faster than a modern engine. I put this down to the type of rings they used and the high piston speeds of the long stroke engine. On your car this may not apply as you have modern rings and have rebored the cylinders. But if I had an original engine I would consider it cheap insurance. Or, if you want to add something to the gas, Redex or MMM makes more sense than octane booster.

They usually did scream in the lower gears. Does not necessarily mean anything is wrong. The easiest thing is to keep everything stock. Parts are available. Most from your local NAPA or other parts store. The hard part is finding a parts man who can find a good part number, the parts can be ordered if you have the part number, but they change them every few years. Why do you think it need a rear end? Did you try filling the trans and rear end with lube?

You can't hurt the ammeter by hooking it up wrong. It will read backwards, that is all. So go by the diagram and try it. If you turn the key on the needle should go to negative, if it goes the other way uh oh better swap the wires. The regulator can go bad 2 ways. One way is, it does not cut out when the car is stopped and the battery slowly discharges thru the generator. The other way is it does not energize the gen and your battery does not charge. A good auto electric shop can test and adjust it for you. On the headlight thing, either the switch is faulty or you wired it wrong. First test the switch and if it is working correctly recheck the wires one at a time. I find with wiring, it is too confusing to try to do everything at once. I prefer to break it down and examine one system at a time, or even break it down farther and do one circuit at a time. Other Mopars I have worked on had a ground cable from the battery to engine block and a smaller body ground from the back of the engine to the firewall. This was a small braided wire with eyelets at each end but any kind of wire will do. You should have a body ground on any car. Newer cars have the body ground right on the battery cable. A ground to the frame can't hurt as well.

If the car was made before 1955 it was made for low octane low lead or no lead gas. Chrysler product flathead engines came with hardened valve seats from new. The general rule is, the octane should look like the compression ratio. So if you have a mini van with 8.7:1 compression, use 87 octane. If you have a Corvette with 9.2:1 use 92 octane. Old cars from before 1955 have compression ratios of 7.5:1 or lower and will run happily on 75 octane gas, which is lower than the cheapest regular available today. Naturally this is not an exact rule, just a guide. There is some leeway depending on the car and the quality of gas. Some real old timers with compression of less than 5:1 run best on a mix of kerosene and regular gas. It is advisable to add a shot of Redex, Marvel Mystery Oil or some other upper cylinder lubricant. This is to protect the rings, pistons and cylinders. The old long stroke engines have a high piston speed and are more prone to wear in this area than newer cars. And of course if you do not use the car very much, add some stabilizer to prevent the fuel going bad especially during winter storage.

You can speed up the shift if you step on the clutch, then whip the gear lever quickly from hi to low and back to hi. Another trick is to drain off part of the oil from the fluid drive, this has the same effect as a high stall torque converter. Why do you want to change transmissions? Is it a performance thing? Hard to believe you want more performance out of a straight eight New Yorker, there are thousands of cars that would give you more performance with no mods. If it is a matter of wanting more relaxed Autobahn cruising a higher rear axle gear ratio might be in order. Unfortunately special gears for this axle are not available so some people change the whole rear axle assembly. In the US the T5 manual 5 speed is popular. The best models for old timers come from pickup trucks and vans, the same trans is used in Camaros and Mustangs but the gearshift location is better in the truck models. The T5 transmission may not be available so easily in Germany but there must be many Mercedes and BMW cars with manual 5 speed transmissions with overdrive top gear. If you change the transmission you must add a hand brake, as the Chrysler hand brake is located on the back of the transmission. For this reason it is common practice to change rear axle and transmission at the same time. Newer cars have the handbrake on the rear brakes. It is hard to come up with good ideas unless I know more about what you want to do with the car. Frankly, it would probably be best to keep it stock and if you want a faster car, buy a new BMW. Wear your pinstripe suit, Fedora hat and hand painted necktie when you drive your New Yorker and enjoy it for what it is.

There were other factors at work besides better gas. One was the improvement in automatic transmissions. They reduced the advantage of the low speed pulling power of the long stroke engines. Another was the new interstate hiways. They required a higher speed engine than formerly, the short stroke OHV engines were better suited to this service. The short stroke, large bore design was required to get the most out of an OHV. A long stroke, small bore engine did not have room for large enough valves in an OHV head. The flathead did not have this problem as the valve chamber was beside the cylinder, the designer could make it wider than the cylinder and use whatever size valves he liked. The Harley Davidson flatheads have very large valves for the size of the engine and a very wide valve chamber. So circumstances favored the development of short stroke, large bore, OHV engines and they did offer improved performance and economy. So, the flathead was king on its merits from the early twenties to the early fifties, a period of 30 years. Then it was succeeded by the OHV V8 which reigned for 25 or 30 years before being slowly replaced by 4 cylinder and V6 engines with OHC.

Because they knew better gas was coming. When Cadillac introduced the first modern OHV V8 in 1949 they said it was built for up to 10:1 compression even though the 49 model only had 7.5:1. It was not the only new V8 that year. Lincoln brought out a brand new, flathead V8. The comparison, Cadillac short stroke OHV 331 cu in 7.5:1 compression 160 HP. Lincoln, 337 cu in long stroke flathead 7.5:1 compression 154 HP. You will see they were comparable in size, both designed for luxury cars of similar size and performance, both state of the art for the year, and the OHV only had a 6 HP advantage or less than 5%. Not a noticeable difference. In later years the Cad increased horsepower by higher compression as better gas became available. Lincoln dropped their flathead in favor of an OHV V8 in 1952. The last flathead luxury car was the 1954 Packard Patrician. It had a 359 cu in 212 HP flathead straight eight. By that time Cadillac was up to 220HP. Again, not a lot of difference. But this was the limit for the flathead. Packard had a very sophisticated design with the valves tipped at an angle towards the cylinders, and a well though out combustion chamber design. It also had an aluminum head. All this allowed them to use an 8.7:1 compression ratio, the highest of any car that year. The highest of any flathead motor The next year they brought out their own OHV V8. The point of all this is yes, the OHV short stroke engine has the advantage in sheer horsepower over the flathead engine if you have the high octane gas. But the advantage is not as great as some imagine and the flathead engine is not a worthless hunk of scrap iron. Too many people think they must scrap the old flathead if they wish to drive their car. Nothing could be further from the truth. The flathead can still give good service if it is kept in good condition.

If you suspect the timing is out... Remove #1 spark plug. Also the pipe plug in #6 if you do not have timing marks. Turn the engine over by hand until you get a *woosh* of air out of #1 cylinder. This indicates it is on the compression stroke. Line up the timing marks, or set #6 piston to TDC. #1 and #6 rise and fall together. The pipe plug in #6 allows you to use a wire or small screwdriver to feel the piston and find TDC (top dead center). With #1 at TDC, check the distributor. Is the rotor pointing to #1 plug wire? Are the points just opening? Correct as necessary. To set the points you can use a 6 volt test light. Connect across the points. Turn the distributor, when the points open the light will come on. Or you can use a cigarette paper. Put the paper between the points. Tug on it gently as you turn the distributor. When the points open it will come free. When the points open, the spark fires. Now be sure the rotor is pointing to #1 and check the other plug wires are connected in the right order. Having done this, you KNOW the spark is happening at the right time no guess work. By the process of elimination you can go on to the next step. Such as, take the plugs out and check if they are firing. If they are badly fouled they may need to be sandblasted before they will work. If the engine is badly flooded the gas can wash down the cylinders causing low compression. The solution is to shoot a little oil into the cylinders to oil the rings. When the engine starts maintain a fast idle for a few minutes to warm up the engine and burn off the excess gas and oil, then it should idle down and run normally.

You think you have the plug wires in the right position? Suggest you check this out carefully. #3 and #4 are particularly easy to get switched.

I once did a tuneup on a 1967 slant six Dodge, that had a point gap of .003 that is, three thousandths of an inch. I know because when I took the cap off the distributor I thought the points were completely closed so I checked with a feeler gauge. The only symptoms were hard starting and a slight loss of power. That is why the owner wanted a tuneup.

Not as good as a trailer but not bad. If you are towing an old vehicle check that the back tires are good and the rear axle full of grease. The axle can lock up if it runs dry of lube. If it is an automatic car you have to remove the driveshaft. Otherwise the trans will be damaged. There are exceptions, such as, if you are towing at 30 MPH or less for no more than 10 to 20 miles. Or, certain early automatics have a rear pump and are self lubricating even if the engine is not running. In the case of a manual trans car it should be OK as long as the trans is full of lube. When you take off the driveshaft you can get a bad oil leak from the back of the trans. A friend of mine made up a false rear yoke of ABS plastic pipe with a pipe cap on it, held in place by a bungee cord to stop the drips. Or a spare yoke will do the job. You need to be careful not to turn too sharp, and of course you can't back up. On many dollies I have seen the fenders will dent the rocker panels if you turn too sharp. Most of all BE CAREFUL an accident with a dolly can really mess up your car. On the whole I am not sure a tow bar isn't a better solution.

It may be true today that an OHV will make more power but this was not true before about 1953. OHV engines make more power because they have higher compression. The design of the typical flathead combustion chamber limits them to 7.5:1 compression or less. The highest compression flathead car engine was the 1954 Packard @ 8.7:1 but they used every trick they could think of to get it that high. When all cars were limited to 7.5:1 or less compression by the quality of gas available, the OHV engines had little or no advantage in horsepower. If you go back and look up developed horsepower and torque figures from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and early 50s you might be surprised to find the OHV engines had the same HP or less than the best flatheads. The only exceptions were out and out racing or high performance engines with overhead cams as well as overhead valves, like the Duesenberg or Stutz. Even then the difference was small.

Back in 1946 -47 my old man lived in Kapuskasing Ontario. This is where all the car companies do their cold weather testing. On 40 below days he would start up his 1934 Dodge and then boost the other cars in the neighborhood. His secret was, he had 2 batteries which he brought inside at night and kept in the kitchen behind the wood stove. Also his engine was tuned to the teeth (he was an electrician) and the crankcase filled with the lightest oil he could get. With 2 six volt batteries in series for 12 volts he could always get the engine to start. He also told me the seam in the hood was directly over the plugs. Rain or dew would drip down on the spark plugs. So if there was rain he would wipe off the plugs or brush diesel fuel over them with a paint brush and the plugs would fire.

You should be using a filter with a good anti drain back valve. This will keep the oil in the filter and reduce dry bearings on startup, also make filter changes cleaner. Slant sixes have the same setup (vertical filter). They don't leak much oil when you change them, as long as the anti drain back valve is intact. Fram filters are rather poor in this regard.

If you want your Plymouth or other flathead Chrysler product to start in damp weather, Andy Bernbaum has the ignition wire kits with spark plug galoshes.

As for the larger 251 and 265 engines they were used in DeSoto and Chrysler which were heavy cars, and were handicapped with Fluid Drive. They were very smooth running, quiet, and comfortable cars but not known for speed. Compared to competitors like Studebaker Commander 6, Packard 8, Pontiac 8, Buick 8, Mercury V8 and Hudson Hornet 6 they were on the slow side. On the other hand they were as fast as, or faster than the Frazer 6, Pontiac 6, Hudson Wasp 6 or Nash 6. The transmission meant they did not take off like a ball of fire but once they got rolling they could cover ground pretty good. Cruising speeds of 60 to 70 MPH were no problem.