TodFitch

Actually, I don't have an electrical fuel pump. And the "vapor lock" issue has only occurred a couple of times, both in very hot weather that is unusual where I live. So unusual, in fact, that both occasions I had a problem were when I was driving in other areas of the state that get much warmer than here. Since it is a rare occurrence for me and I know how to deal with it when it happens I don't have plans for altering the fuel system away from stock. But I can see where other people living in other climates could have an issue.

I have had vapor lock occur while idling after long bouts of high speed driving in 95 to 100F temperatures. Temporary cure was to cool the fuel pump down by pour a bit of water on it. I've never had this happen on cooler days even when the engine temperature was about the same, so I think this is partly due to the gas in the tank being at 95 to 100F and so it doesn't take long for it to heat up to a point where some components can vaporize inside the fuel pump. I agree that hot restart problems are often caused by overflow into the manifold as the carburetor heats up due to under-hood heat and lack of airflow when the engine is stopped. And those are often erroneously referred to as vapor lock. But if the fuel pump is too hot then gas in it can vaporize on the suction stroke and the pump will not work well. If you put an electric pump into the system, I suggest you put it close to the gas tank away from heat in the engine compartment. You don't want the suction side of the pump to be hot as that is where the issue rises. If the pump is in a cool location and the line from the pump into the engine compartment is under a couple of psi pressure then you shouldn't have an issue for the reasons Chet gives: Any bubbles will be released out via the float valve and vent on the carburetor bowl.

I guess I'll have to look at the factory service manual I have but the first question that comes to mind is that .060 the cut (change in radius so max diameter would be 10.120) or on the max diameter (0.030 cut from the drum surface for a change in diameter of 0.060)?

No poll option for my preferred choice for a vehicle of that age and condition: Call up the vehicle donation number of your favorite charity and have them haul it off for a tax deduction.

I think I've just had the same reaction that someone from England has when they hear about biscuits and gravy. (Biscuits are what we'd call cookies.)

I see in that four year old thread that you had a specific question for me that I missed and never answered: On the early engines that came from the factory with studs and nuts rather than head bolts there were no washers.

I believe they did have an oil pump. But it was a low pressure affair to get oil to the top of the engine, not a higher pressure setup to directly oil the rod bearings through a drilled crank. I don't know how long it lasted, but the early Chevy 6 had three main bearings so there were three crank throws between the front bearing and the middle bearing. And three more crank throws between the center bearing and the rear bearing. I have a hard time visualizing how one could cross drill such a crank to get oil from the mains to the #2 and #5 rods. So I would not be surprised if they maintained splash lubrication on the rods until they added more main bearings to the engine.

Have you checked the reference section on the main part of this web site?

There is a thread over on the AACA forum by a fellow doing a restoration of a 1934 Chevrolet coupe. http://forums.aaca.org/f190/reconstruction-34-chevy-master-coupe-297983-10.html Amazing what he is doing. But my big take away was that I'm very glad I have a '33 Plymouth with all steel body and an engine that came from the factory with a four bearing crank, thin shell replaceable bearing inserts, full pressure lubrication, aluminum pistons, etc. It may look like a cast iron anvil, but the insides of my engine are a lot more modern than his overhead valve "stove bolt" engine.

I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that the bushings were a service item only: It might be that the vehicles left the factory with just holes drilled and reamed in the manifold but that bushings were available in for maintenance work to handle the situations where the holes had become worn.

Seeing the chocolate syrup falling off the white sneaker immediately brought the old movie "The Man in the White Suit" to mind for me. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044876/

Sounds like some quality time under the dash and under the hood with a test lamp and/or volt meter is in order. You have power to the headlight switch because your tail lights work. But do you have power to the connection the headlights connect to? Do you have power to the dimmer switch? Do you have power to both the high and low beam outputs of the dimmer switch? Etc. Just follow the money, er voltage, to see where it ends.

I've had good service from Roberts too.

See http://www.ply33.com/Parts/group6#6-19-03

Hmmm. Might not want to pound that down into the valve guide any further. Can you compress the spring enough to get the keepers off with the valve where it is? If so then maybe putting some stock between the lifter and the valve and then rotating the crank/cam will push the valve out of the block.

Fifth grade, making a lot of noise during recess... teacher poked head out of door and told us to be quite because of the news. I looked at her and said she was lying, nobody would do that. After recess they had a TV on in the classroom, and I learned someone would do that.

Information here is also over a year old as I am now employed by a company that has decent medical coverage. But prior to that my wife and I, same age then as your are now, with no health issues were paying $10,000/yr for Kaiser with fairly high co-payments. Pre-existing conditions should not be as big an issue as the once were now that part of the medical act passed the other year has or will be kicking in shortly. But unless the "individual mandate" is kept insurance will become event more unaffordable as "self-selection" occurs. For any insurance to work you need people who don't currently need reimbursement paying in. For health insurance that means healthy (typically young) people need to buy insurance. But why would they if they know they can get it when they get sick?

Is the need for the old version of Windows only for those old DOS games? Will they run under WINE on the Ubuntu machine you have?

Would Plexiglass/Perspex be legal to use in your area for that rear corner application? It is pretty easy to form to a curve by heating it in an oven and then forming it to shape when hot....

That is a good point. And regard the other posts that followed my original one: While a 3/8 grade 5 ought to do it, it is certainly reasonable to use the largest grade 8 that will fit in the existing frame holes. If the holes are larger than 3/8, fine. If they are smaller, then I'd drill them out to at least 3/8.

For towing, you state 2000 lbs and you are using 4 bolts or 500 lbs/bolt. Double that for safety so you want bolts with at least 1000 lbs shear strength. Doing a quick web search turns up this: http://www.portlandbolt.com/faqs/bolt-shear-strength-considerations which implies that you want bolts with 1667 pounds of tensile strength. Bolts are rated in psi not pounds. Same web site says that grade 5 is 120,000 psi so you'd want a cross sectional area on the bolt of 0.013975 inches. Area is pi * r * r, and r = 1/2 d, so your diameter is at least 0.133392419827 or 3/16". I'd drop a four 3/8" grade 5 bolts in there and call it a day. Disclaimer: The above is not a through analysis and if you get into problems using the above it is your own responsibility. But I think I've shown you a possible way to approach the arithmetic...

The issue might be when you go to remove the head in the future. Rust takes more space than the metal it was formed with. The undercut along the shank of the official head bolts is enough that even if it expanded some with rust in the section that goes through the cooling passages it will still be able to be removed.

I believe that Denman went out of business early this year. Or maybe it was early last year, time flies when you are getting old and senile. Not too sad to see them go. The tires I've had that were manufactured by them, sold under different brands but the manufacturing plant ID buried in the tire code on the side wall show the same Denman plant, did not wear well and required lots of wheel weights to get balanced.

As a interesting, at least to me, side note the Second Chance Garage article failed to mention that positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) systems were originally developed not to fight smog but to increase engine life. Here are a couple of patents, the first from the 1920s where the inventor uses the exhaust system to create ventilation flow through the crankcase, to compensate for too much flow under some conditions he has a valve actuated by a linkage from the carburetor. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1937031.pdf A weird one was filed in 1930 that uses a fan built into the camshaft gear to move air through the crankcase: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1872609.pdf In this next patent, filed in 1938, the inventor seems to have specified the modern system with ventilation flow being achieved using manifold vacuum and using a vacuum sensitive valve to control for engine load and speed. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2198790.pdf

In good operating condition, I think both are good. In the late 1970s I had trouble finding parts to fix my original so I had a drive shaft custom made with then modern U-joints. I guess when I later took everything apart for restoration I didn't store it correctly and it got damaged. Anyway I had a drive line vibration that process of elimination finally got me to the drive shaft. So I ended up getting the parts to fix the original drive shaft I'd kept all those years. Runs nice and smooth with the original now. Big difference is that it is harder to get parts for the original style and if the boots get damaged and dirt gets in they fail very rapidly. Just like a modern CV joint will fail rapidly if the boot gets damaged.