Mr. Belvedere

I am planning on giving old smokey as I call her an engine rebuild this winter. I am toying with the idea of going to the offy dual carb and split exhaust set up on my stock 217. But before I tack on an additional $1000.00 in bolt on performance to my rebuild, I'd like some idea how much power gain I will get for the trouble. I know alot of you out there have done it, was there enough bang for the buck to make it worth while. Also, where is the best place price wise to get such a set-up?

Sounds like fun, I haven't been to shepard of the hills since I was but a wee lad, and I found it very impessive back then. Of course things look far more impressive when your young and small. You see it again as an adult and its not as impressive. Anyway I live too far for that but it sounds like a neat idea what do you do out there in the middle of the night?

Yes I think I've seen that stuff before, I'll try a bottle of that and the restore and see what happens, a sort of 1-2 punch! Too bad my dad didn't know about that with his caravan. His smoked too I think thats why he traded it in. His had the 3.0v6 that was notorious for smoking after about 60k mi. It was a good motor other than that though. He is currently on his 3rd generation of Chrysler mini van, but says he is done, and is going Japenese next time!

Yep, I've tried stp and motor honey before w/no luck. The oil that is in there right now is 50wt (at least according to the shyster I bought this car from) which has the consistency of peanut butter and it still smokes like crazy! Richard

Thanks for the tip and the link I'll give restore a try.

My 54 Plym smokes like a two stroke! It is a tired out high mileage engine that I am afraid needs a rebuild but until I can get to it, I wonder if this stop gap solution would work? Someone suggested this previously on this site and said that it doesn't burn like conventional oil. Sounds plausible but has anyone actually tried this before I spend $5.00+ a quart to find out? If so, what brand should I use? Thanks. Richard

I think Norms right, probably fresh green meat into the hobbie. Lord knows I got screwed enough when I was new to this hobby. I've found E-bay is a tough place generally to get a good price on old car parts, there is always some fool willing to pay more. Better to pick-up a copy of Hemmings and do your homework!

I always thought that you needed one of those three leg pullers to get them off like they show in my shop manual. That would be terrific if all you have to do is loosen them, put the pins back like Bill says and then drive and listen for the pop That will save some bucks on buying an expensive tool! Richard

I was recomended by my local mechanic to Star auto parts machine shop, so I gave them a call. They said it would runn about $1000 to $1300 for machining tear down and reassembly if I supply the parts. A master deluxe kit from Kanter is approx. $1000 so I figure $2500 leaving some room for error on the total bill. Not too bad considering I have had several other estimates for $3500. But it didn't sound like they work on flatheads too often and you know what they say, never take the low bid!

Thanks, for all the info. I am in southern california, LA area, if anyone knows of a good shop w/experiance on these engines I am open to suggestions.

O.k. I am aware that most machine shops today are no longer familiar with flathead engines. So what do I tell them to be sure and check for and or install properly, that isn't common to other engines? I am terrified of spending alot of money on a rebuild only to have some thing go wrong internally shortly after putting it back in the car. I have heard alot of horror stories out there about rebuilds on these flatheads that went awry. In fact thats what happened on my parts car. The guy that owned it prior to me said something went wrong with the rebuild, he took it back and got in a fight with the shop shortly after, and went down picked it up, partially torn down. Thats when he sold it to me as a parts car. Depressing and scary, I definitely don't want to run into the same issue. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks, Richard