38plymouth

Hopefully this picture shows what I have. They aren't bowed at all like reular springs, they lay almost perfectly flat. If they were arched any different to lower it they would actually have to bow upwards. It's kind of hard to explain.

I can't find a source for dropped spindles for a 38 plymouth. Rearching would lift the front end even higher.

Good luck to you, we stayed down in Playa a few months ago and it looked like some people were still recvering from the last hurricane. I can't imagine living through something like that.

My 38 has leaf springs in the front and rear. I'm going to lower the car a little this winter and the rear looks simple enough to do with lowering blocks. The front is a whole different animal. It has a strange design and the front leaves are almost flat and the axle is under the springs. At first I thought I could flip the axle but there is no room at on top. While looking at the springs I noticed they are wrapped in metal so it's hard to tell how many leaves are in there. There must be alot because the whole pack is about 3-4 inches thick. I got thinking that if I got new springs with only 3-4 leaves but were still heavy enough I might be able to gain the 2 inches of drop I'm looking for. Is this possible? I called the only spring shop in my area I could find and they told me to pull them out and they would see what they could do.

I never thought I would want to add signals to this car, but, I'm thinking it would be safer to have them. I see they sell a switch that mounts to the steering column and it looks like I would have to replace the tail light bulbs for the rear. How do you add signals to the front? I have nothing but headlights and I'm not adding any ugly yellow lights up there. Is there another way???

I'm trying to locate something off a later model vehicle so I can get them cheap, they only cost $12 a piece at the local pick and pull. I would love something off of an older mopar but I haven't seen anything for sale locally. I'm keeping my 16's with the bias ply's for shows and cruises, they are still in really nice shape. I was just at a local shop and they had one 15x5 1/2 ford wheel but they don't know what it came off of.

I have the stock 16"s on my 38 p6 and I want to get a set of plain steel 15"s so I can put on a set or radials for normal driving. Does anyone know what wheel width and backspacing will bolt up? I have two dodge diplomat steel wheels off of a police car and they are too wide.

I just put a different head on my car. It ran great before I did it but after it popped really bad and barely ran. I did a compression test and one cylinder was at zero. I looked down the plug hole and could see a valve was stuck open. I sprayed some pb blaster down onto the valve and let it soak for awhile then I tapped the top of it with a screwdriver and popped back into place. When I started it it ran great. I still don't know why it stuck. I would think your compression would be zero or damn close if it was a valve. When I had the head off I soaked the tops of the pistons overnight with seafoam, the carbon came right off. I'd try pouring a bunch of seafoam into the plug holes and spin it by hand and then let it sit overnight and see what happens.

I just put on a fenton aluminum head and a George Asche split exhaust manifold. I drove it to shop a few minutes ago to have the exhaust pipes bent up. It definately has more power with just those two changes and I think it will run even better when the exhaust is on and I get the carb adjusted a little more. I went up a hill in third gear that normally gave me trouble and I was able to accelerate up it today. I might go with dual carbs this winter if I can find something I like.

I'm very irritated with the first shop I tried to hire to make up the exhaust pipes. They never called me back to set up the date to do the work, after a week I called them and they wanted me to drive to the shop after hours to talk to the guy that would do it. They were supposed to be the best but I'm sick of chasing them down, the guy was given my cell number and was told to call me. I just stopped at another garage and I know the owner a little bit. He has a pipe bender but I was told he wasn't very good at using it. I might have gotten lucky, he hired a new guy who did all the custom exhaust work for a local street rod shop. I talked to the guy and he really impressed me, I'm dropping the car off in an hour and they are planning to do the work tomorrow. Hopefully this works out.

I would love to check it out, but, as it stands now I think I'm going to be at the state fair all day. I'll know for sure by the end of the week.

I live just outside of Seneca Falls. We haven't been bringing the car to many shows or cruises, we have been driving it alot though. I decided to put a split exhaust manifold on the car so I could add dual exhaust, then I lucked into a free fenton aluminum head. I put them both on and now I'm still waiting for the garage to call me to bend up the pipes, it';s been over a week now. I'm starting to look for someone else to do it. It's killing me, I want to drive it again.

Believe me I'm ready to run it, I just can't. I'm waiting for the shop to call me to tell me when to bring it in for the custom exhaust pipes. I was praying it would be tomorrow so I could drive it this weekend. I'm ready to drive it with the open exhaust manifold, it's LOUD though. My wife keeps asking me why I keep starting it and revving it in the garage, she thinks I'm playing, I told her that I'm still tuning the carb.

My engine used to smoke like that, everything was in great shape though. We didn't drive it much for several years but this year we started using it alot more and we took it on several trips of an hour each way at highway speeds. I'm not sure why it happened but it doesn't smoke at all now and it has never run better. My wife even commented on how much smoother it seems to run. If you haven't driven it much I'd run it on the highway a few hours and see what happens.

My numbers were all extremely close when I checked it, they were within a few numbers either side of 115. I do think I did it wrong though, isn't the throttle supposed to be open? I checked it just cranking the engine without touching the throttle. There's a big difference in the combustion chamber from the stock head to the Fenton head, I'm just curious how much it jumped and I wished I thought to check it stock.

I checked my compression after I put on a Fenton head, I'm not at 110-120 pounds. I never even thought to check it with the stock head. I looked in my shop manual and it doesn't tell. I'm curious how much it changed. Does anyone know what a stock engine in good condition would show?

I'm going to a local muffler shop today to see if they have them, I really didn't want to deal with them. I had a bad experience with them in the past and they usually want to do all the work instead of sell you anything.

I'm just about ready to have my 2" dual exhaust made, on the original exhaust when I pulled it apart there is a strange flange on it. The exhaust pipe goes thru the flange and is welded, then it sticks up inside the exhaust manifold. I'm going to need two of these welded to the new pipes, the problem is all the local parts stores look at me like I'm crazy when I ask for them. All they have are the regular type that slip over like a collector pipe. Where can I find these and do they have a special name?

I spent all day last Friday working on my engine, I was determined to get the Fenton head on and ready to go for when my split exhaust manifold showed up. I had every piece back on the car except the intake, I was sitting back trying to figure out what else I could do since the exhaust manifold still hadn't arrived. I looked out the garage door and saw the DHL truck turn around and head the other way, I ran down the driveway and waved him down. He had the wrong house number So, his timing was perfect and I got my manifold. I put it all on and I couldn't wait to start it up. It took awhile to finally fir and it was running real rough. I was able to pull 4 plug wires and it didn't change the way it ran at all. I was bummed and didn't have time to touch it again until Sunday morning. I started by checking the compression and I found the problem right away, one cylinder had a stuck exhaust valve. I sprayed some pb blaster onto the valve and let it soak awhile and then tapped the top of it thru the spark plug hole. That popped it back down and when I checked the compression again and it was perfect. I put in a new set of plugs and fired it up and it ran great this time. I need to bend up a new fuel line to move it away from the second dump on the exhaust and then it's ready to go get the new pipes bent up. I drove it down the road a little and it definately has more power and it is loud right now.

I planned to have finished this project already but I had a few problems, my split manifold still hasn't arrived yet (might be here today or tomorrow) and then I threw my back out. I have been trying to do little things but there is no way I can bend over the fender of the car to get much done. I'm supposed to be taking it easy and lay on my back. This sucks, I want to get this together.

Thats what I was looking for, I obviously didn't look far enough....Thank You.

I did a search and didn't find what I needed. I also have a shop manual and when I look up the section for valve adjustment, it tells me what to remove to get to them and the clearances and thats it. I want to check them while I have the head, intake and exhaust manifolds off. It has been many years since I have done this and that was on a small block chevy. Can someone explain the procedure or point me to a place that does?

Thank you. I'm really looking forward to getting the head and exhaust done. I keep hearing how great these engines sound with split exhaust. The only one I have ever heard was blueskies. I just picked up some short aluminized 2" glasspacks and I'm going with 2" pipe from front to back. I hope it sounds good when it's finished.

Man, I feel stupid now. I was thinking it could go either way and now that you say that it is pretty obvious. Thanks........

I'm a new member with a 38 plymouth P6 4door. I have been reading for quite awhile. I lucked into a really nice fenton aluminum head that I'm ready to install. I'm also adding a George Aesche split exhaust manifold. I ordered a set of felpro gaskets from napa, the head gasket is copper with some type of blue coating on one side. There isn't anything on the gasket or in the paperwork that tells which side goes up. The original gasket was copper on both sides. Does anyone have any idea? Heres a pic of my car.