austinsailor

Today I took Barn Find (My wife refers to her like one of the family, using her license plate as a name) to town about 15 miles to get gas for the wood splitter, then filled her up. Got to keep the shop warm, you know. She has to do her part if she wants to get tinkered on this winter.

I'm thinking George asche 3 carb setup. can you go to that much lift without worrying about hitting the head, or is some relief needed? I've never done any sort of porting. is there a beginners write up somewhere? I assume you just use a die grinder, smooth and open thing up. am I at oll on the right track? I guess I should have posted this on the car side, but I spend most of my time here. but then, I am starting with a truck motor!

I had that happen on a couple engines, burning the oil I dumped in. fogged the whole neighborhood. but, with new rotella, half an hour of running, they cleared up, don't smoke and use no oil. you need to give it a chance to clean itself out.

I'm beginning to collect parts and make choices on my 25" motor rebuild. I'm looking for feedback. motor is a 251 truck motor. crank was ground to .030 mains and .020 rods. both are in good shape but need cleanup and will be .040 and .030. stroke is 4 1/2. I also have a 48 desoto motor, probably STD, not sure, but stroke is 4 1/4 for 236 ci. I thought going under more than .030 was a problem with shortened life, but my old time machine shop guy says that was a bearing problem, not the crank. he says they used to just put on more Babbitt, now the build up the base and it is no longer an issue thoughts? choices? shorter stroke, higher reves or more cubes? any thoughts? plan is to get the cam ground with a more aggressive curve, shave the head, add multiple carbs and headers. goal is not a racer, but reasonable power for the highway and to sound mean. oh, and to last a long time. piston choices? stock? are there better aftermarket ones, like lighter or?

And notice the fuel pump is not located on the block as in a vehicle.

Back in the 60's a '40 Plymouth more door was my daily driver. Not a bad old car. The winter of 62-63 was pretty cold. I learned that it would start on it's own down to zero, below that I needed to roll it and bump start it, then it would go. I don't recall one day I didn't drive it, at least not because it wouldn't start.

Does this look like a reasonable parts list and cost estimate for my old truck engine? What am I missing? 251 truck engine rebuild list Machine work $500.00 Parts needed Cost Gasket set $100.00 Pistons $250.00 Rings $65.00 Cam grind $150.00 Bearings Rods $80.00 Mains $80.00 Water pump $50.00 Carb setup $1,000.00 ( George Asche 3 carb setup) Timing gears $25.00 $35.00 Timing chain $55.00 Valves Exhaust $54.00 Intake $75.00 Cam bearings $40.00 Water dist tube $65.00 Oil pump $90.00 Freeze plugs $15.00 Total $2,729.00

I was in a car museum in Las Vegas about 10 to 15 years ago and they had a '54 or so Dodge, I think, might have been Chrysler but I think Dodge, that was supposed to have been Howard Hughes' car. Pretty well equipped with air and some special equipment. Like many there, it was for sale, I seem to recall under $5K. I'll have to say, I toyed with the idea of buying it. I don't think my wife would have been too excited about driving 1000 miles back in a 50 year old car. So, I wonder, was HH a true Mopar fan?to 15

Sounds like fuel starvation to me. Filter, pump and lines is where I'd look.

I paid $400 for the two seat parts. It needed everything but the springs, all the stuffing was gone. I've since learned there are a couple other local shops that would be less. The same shop priced my 47, very similar seats, at $200, but it only needed the fabric covering. All the innards were still in good shape.

Ed, once you put the T5 in with it's overdrive, would you think a different rear end would be in order? I think they're usually around a .7 final drive, so it would seem it would be about right.

Well, that is a different picture. I can see why using your existing motor isn't a good option. I have a 51 Fargo, long block motor, and I assumed it would be a bigger motor than that. Guess I need to run the numbers and figure out just what I have, too. Maybe the Desoto motor I have laying here would be a better choice. Which brings me to another suggestion. Find a Chrysler, Desoto or US built bigger truck motor. Plenty of bigger motors around and they'd bolt right up. For example, the '48 Chrysler 6 is 114 HP, 54 is 119. 52 Desoto is 116. Shave the head of any of them and gain a few more HP. A truck motor will have a different cam and be more torque than HP, but a new cam can change that. And this is all bolt in.

I'm confused - you want more ponies, but a smaller motor? I'm guessing that your 25" motor, no matter which one you have, is bigger than the 23" one you'd get, no matter which one you get. A little freshening up, maybe a few tricks like a shaved head, would probably go a long way.

Got it torn down the rest of the way. No more big surprises. Here's the tally: 4 broken pistons, broken rings on 5 of them, one piston stuck due to water in the cylinder. I scored that cylinder getting the piston out, but my machinist says that is no big deal at all, he'll sleeve it, does it all the time. Crank .030 under on rods, .020 on mains, all journals look fine. May or may not need turning. Timing chain is very loose, but no surprise, since the little oil tube that lubs it is stopped up. Cam looks good, lifters look good, I think it needs new valve guides, but my machinist will know for sure. He tells me about $500 to do all the machine work to put it in top shape, then I need a bunch of parts. I may drop it off soon and see what he thinks. I wasn't able to find any markings on the transmission, but it's not a big deal at this point as it won't be used anytime soon. If it had happened to be an overdrive unit, I would try to fit it into my '47 3 ton to get a little more highway speed, but it's not a big deal. I can drive it 45 mph and piss people off - what can they do? It's too big to play chicken with, so they'll just have to deal with it!

I priced his recently. A manifold with 3 rebuilt carbs and linkage, but without air filters is $1000. Seems like a fair price to me.

You are pretty observant - I guess you saw the controller on the firewall. I do believe it had 6 lugs, although I am not 100% sure. Not long after I took this picture we ripped the sheet metal off and yanked the drive train apart to get the motor and tranny out. I got the doors, but the rest of the cab was too beat up to be of much use. I did hate to leave the rear end there, but there was only so much I could find a use far and I already had a COE and a 53 half ton on the trailer. Such is the life of a scavenger/picker! I did salvage a fresh air heater and an electric wiper setup out of it. Not much else was usable. I suspect the rest is now on the way to China. I got lucky on the motor. I gave $50 for it, hoping to salvage a few parts from it, but it looks like it's going to be a good one. The head is still questionable, but the block and crank are good, so I did ok. I'll check for the stamping on the transmission tomorrow. Thanks for the pointer. Should the pattern be: 2 4 R N 3 5 1 ????

Not sure what it was - here's a picture. Of course, it was a motor from somewhere else, remanufactured. Rods are ground to .030 under. Not sure yet if it needs turning now, but I recall from many years ago that over .030 you are getting past the hardened area. should I be worried? I have a Desoto that I should be able to get a crank out of. Just checked the valves .437 it is. Oh, another thing. The transmission seems in good shape, I expected to find top gear to be 1:1. It may be in there somewhere, but trying it on the ground every gear I found was undergeared, nothing was 1:1 that I could find. Granny seemed to be far right, and back, reverse far right and forward. My 47 3 ton is the same, with high at center and back. On this one, that is less than 1:1. And I had hopes of finding it was an overdrive, which I understand a few were made with.

Got it off, didn't mash off any corners. It was close, but I did get them. Got to get a big socket tomorrow to remove the pulley on the front, but it's pretty well apart. Question: Are the exhaust valve stems usually quite a bit bigger than intake? On other engines I've worked on they were usually similar. I suspect that, this being a truck motor, they are sodium filled. Not sure what needs to be replaced and what is usable yet, but assuming I need new exhaust valves, and assuming these are sodium filled, can I just replace the guides with the other type? Or, should I be buying a set of these: ebay # 360122781944 They look to be the ones I have.

I have 2 sets of wheels I wanted to keep original. One for the paint on the outside, one for the rust that matched the truck. I sandblasted the inside, painted it properly and left the outside as it was. They all worked just fine. If you're real concerned, just run a small weld bead around the rivet to seal it, then paint.

Did mine on my rusty '49 recently, cost $30. done by a local shop.

thanks. I'll attack them tonight and I'll bet they'll come off. at first glance this appears to have a much bigger clutch and pressure plate. Probably the reason for 8 bolt instead of 4. I'm also guessing this won't fit in a car bellhousing. A bigger clutch would be great, but this probably wouldn't work

ok, I need some direction before I screw something up. The flywheel has 8 bolts, nuts on the motor side. 5/8", can't get a standard box wrench on them, an open end feels like it'll round them off before turning. I can grind a little off a box end, but first, the nuts have small notches on the middle of the flats, similar to brass fittings that are left hand thread. I think that is showing they are hardened, not left hand. Correct? any hints before I tackle it tonight? oh, everything is usable, so it'll probably go to the machine shop soon.

Last summer I bought an old motor out of a truck in a scrapper's yard. I figured for $50 I could get something useful from it. PTO was gone on the transmission, but the rest of that was there as well. A couple spark plugs were broken, so I expected some water had gotten in a couple cylinders. This was from about a '49 or '50 1 1/2 ton or maybe 2 ton. Reman engine with a tag riveted on the serial number boss, nothing under it, and the tag was mostly missing. Bottom line, no telling what it was. Turns out water only got into #6, it's stuck bad. Rest of the block, crank and cam look good. Got to get the crank out, but the bearings look good, no sign they are undersized. Very little ring ridge, might make a fine core. Strange thing, though. 3 of the 4 pistons I got out have one side broken out, the pieces fell out when I took them out, and the rings fell apart. There is no doubt why it was parked. Cylinders look fine, though. Oh, stroke is 4.5", bore measures something like 3.4", hard to be accurate with the tools I have. I'm guessing it's the standard 251 truck engine. Now I'll take a drill to #6 and reduce it to rubble until it falls out. This could end up being my hot rod engine I'd like to build. I also have a '48 Desoto motor to chose from, but this one is bigger, so might be the way to go. Shaved head, reground cam, headers and dual carbs - how wild can I get?

When you trade, check the date on the tank you're getting. If it's close to the limit, make them give you another tank. You can often take a tank from one chain and turn it in to another when you want to trade - unless it's out of date. Then they'll charge you for it. Many, maybe most, will take their own tank if it's out of date.

You can buy the exact replacement parts for our trucks at a number of places, including several of the suppliers on our links page and NAPA. Master cylinder is in the neighborhood of $125, the 2 ended wheel cylinders around $40 to $45, and the single ended ones for low $20 range. Sleeving costs much more, but you shouldn't have to redo them very often. Both the single ended ones and stepped ones (different diameters on the two ends) can be sleeved. I did not have my 48 B1B sleeved, just installed new ones. But if I end up going through it again I might.