Jeff Balazs

Pilothouse Fishing Update Owner lands a whopper! Fishing through a 3/8" hole in the center of the block (in the water jacket area between the piston and valves 2/3 of the way back) yielded a 2" section of water distribution tube. It was way too big to get through the hole. Fortunately I was able to get it back up into the WDT casting hole and drag it out the front. One thing is for sure....there is no way it would have ever came out during flushing. Jeff

Hey Guy's; Well I have all the freeze plugs out.......and like you I kept flushing til nothing more came out. Thing is there is still stuff in there. And it doesn't look like I need to rebuild the engine at this point. I just had a feeling there would be more there. With the head off there are many spots deep in the cooling jackets you can reach with one of those small magnetic wands. There are several small access holes open to the interior of the block at this stage. It might be overkill.....but it doesn't cost anything but some time to do this. All the stuff I get now is just that much more that won't be adrift in the cooling system. Jeff

Since I have the cylinder head off I decided to try and make certain the cooling system was as clean as I could get it. A few weeks back while the head was still on I used a power washer and wand to flush as much rust and stuff out as I could. I did get a fair amount of rust particles out. I started "fishing" down into the water jackets using one of those small magnetic tip extension tools. It is amazing how much stuff I have fished out so far. Probably 3 to 4oz and it is still coming up. Not just rust sludge....but pieces of water distribution tube and lengths of wire. None of this stuff would have done a fresh cooling system any good if it managed to come loose. I know hot tanking the block would have got some of it...... but I doubt very much if you could get a lot of the larger stuff out by any other method. I am saving my "catch" on a magnetic tray and will post a photo when I am finished fishing. It's the closest thing we have to ice fishing here in SoCal ...... you just never know what you have until it comes up through the hole! Jeff

Very Cool Tim; What an amazing event......I wish I could have been there. It really would have been great to meet everyone and see all those trucks. Looks like you had a great turn out. I'll bet everyone had a awesome time. You are to be commended for all the hard work you put into making this happen. You must be a decent guy.........no matter what Hank say's about you. Jeff ( don't bring up the Kirk Gibson thing )Balazs

Paul; Glad ya got it off. There are a few items on these truck that could have been thought out a bit better in my opinion. Steering wheel......rear hubs....master cylinder location....? I don't get what they were thinking on any of these. But they got bucket loads of character. I can't wait to get mine on the road. I mean it. Had an old friend stop by on Friday. He is an old (almost 80) midwest farm boy that moved to California in the 50s.....should have seen his eyes light up when he saw it. Hadn't seen one in a long, long time. He asked me what I was going to do with? Well Bill I said....when I get it done I am going throw some fishing gear in it and get on the road.....and good luck finding me after that. Jeff

Hank; It is a photo in the DEPETCA Gallery....look for a red truck that belongs to a guy named Dennis. You will see what I mean. No ground on an antenna. But you might want to drag a lightening chain....... Jeff

Hank; Dennis of Minn. has mounted his antenna directly to the wood "stake" set up he has on his truck. Looks like a pretty common right angle mount antenna. I am sure you could do something very similar to this and not have to drill any holes in your cab or bed. Jeff

For what it is worth.....If you look at the DEPETCA Gallery.... Dennis in Minn has a pretty clever antenna setup on his red truck. I am certain that this type of installation can be done without drilling any holes in the body. Just run the cable through the firewall and under the cab then come up in the gap between the cab and the bed. Couldn't be any simpler. Jeff

Guy's A machinist buddy of mine and I just got through checking all the bores.... His verdict was that there is virtually no wear on any of the cylinders since it was bored to 40 over. No ridges or scoring either. Based on what he saw he thinks this engine has about 30-50 hours run time on it at the very most. Sounds good to me.....think I will just finish cleaning things up and run it. Jeff

Hey Paul; I don't know if you have already dropped the tank and cleaned it.....but if you have not I would guess that you should. I was thinking that mine wouldn't be bad......boy am I glad I did this. What a mess! Lot's of crap inside.....and I had to have several pinholes repaired and have it lined. You sure wouldn't want to put gas in it if it was any where near as bad as mine was. Jeff

Paul; I don't know how any shock can have a lifetime warranty..... I bought a set from Napa for about $80 +/- I don't expect them to last a real long time. It is a wear item like tires or brakes. You can certainly buy better than these. You just have to find the right size ones for our trucks. Jeff

Paul; For what it is worth. Good shocks can make a huge difference in the way any vehicle rides. Shock technology has come a long way since the 50's. The seals and internal valving in particular........not to mention gas charging. I have rebuilt old oil dampened shocks in the past. It is a fair amount of work and the sealing surfaces must be in excellent condition if you want to have any hope of them working. Even then a modern shock of decent quality will blow them away. From one who has rebuilt them......it is not worth it. Jeff

Thanks again Merle; I made a few mods to what I had based on your photos at lunch. Now it works! It needs a new lining..... but it works which is more than I could say before. Thanks again. Jeff

Merle; Amen! But then I would want it to work regardless.....It is not exactly flat here. I will have to look at it again and see if there are any signs of this....but either way it just makes sense to do this. Jeff

Merle; Thank you....yes that helps. That BA spring looks pretty stout! They may well have made a slight change....or on mine it could have been deleted by a previous owner. I notice you have an additional spring going to the linkage. I was thinking of adding something like that too. I couldn't find any evidence of my truck ever having one.....but it seemed logical to do this type of arrangement. Thanks, Jeff

Mark; That is possible.....mine is a 4 speed fluid drive. I did not see any evidence of the 3rd spring either...... just lot's of crud. The manual I have does not appear to show the exact set up that is on my truck. It's a reprint and a lot of the photos did not come out too well either. On a side note I was talking with my son-in -laws father Dave this weekend and it turns out he had an uncle who was a Dodge truck mechanic for over 40 years. I've asked him to inquire through relatives if his uncle had any literature, special tools or whatever that might be off interest. It's a long shot as his uncle passed several years ago.....but you never know. Jeff

Hi Guys' I am working on getting my emergency brake to operate. Does anyone know what size the springs that expand the hub are or should be ? I believe there are 3 springs associated with this. I don't think they are all the same size. I would try to match up the existing ones.......but they all crumbled into pieces long ago. Thanks, Jeff

Geez Hank; Yellow Submarine ? Watch the Rounders movie will ya?.......these trucks were made to get good and wet. Dirty too..... and actually haul things. If you are not going to ford steams or back into cattle tanks (figuratively speaking )then honestly why bother having a truck? As far as getting a few extra horsepower goes....... I am not trying to build a hot rod. But if there are a few ponies to be gained for minimal effort ... and I don't sacrifice reliability then I can't see why not. Jeff

Guy's; Just thought I should mention this. I recently posted a want ad on just this forum for a 3.73 differential. I have had two people contact me. Interestingly both from the UK. They both claim to have just what I need......but when I asked the first to send photos.....he had a problem with his server and oh by the way cannot do paypal either. Just do a western union payment.... Ya right! Now I was more than a little suspicious to begin with, so why would I proceed now? That's not going to happen. I would have thought this was a fairly obscure site for scammers to take an active interest in. It appears that is not the case. So beware. Jeff

Hi Guy's; I am trying to educate myself on these particular engines. I have read through many threads and I think I get the gist of things. But I still have a few questions that I am hoping some of the engine savvy members here can answer. How do you go about determining whether a cylinder head has been milled down already? I figure there must be some set of reference measurements but have not come across any. What is a safe amount that these can be milled to raise compression without putting too much strain on the lower end? My engine sat for quite a while and water must have sat in the spark plug wells. As a result the seat area in the wells is very rusty and needs to be cleaned up. This must be a common issue with these engines. Is the "Ever Dry" cup and cap option the best solution to prevent this from occurring again in the future? When I got my truck some of the exhaust system was still in place. I don't know that is was the original system but I had the down pipe and most of the tailpipe from behind the muffler. It seems to me to have been rather small and perhaps restrictive. I have to have a new one built any way. What size should it be to get decent performance from these engines? I have attached a few photos of my engine with the head off. It is a T372 230. Thanks, Jeff

Wow Paul; Those look great! The before and after photo really tells the story. Keven just sent mine back on the way to me...... I should have taken a before picture too......but they were so ugly I didn't want a reminder. Can't wait to see your dash when it is all done. Post's like this really help me and I imagine others to keep going. It is great to share in everyone's success's. Lord knows' there are enough trials and tribulations trying to bring these old trucks back up to snuff. I just spent a couple of hours cleaning the brake and clutch linkage on mine. What a mess! A thankless job if there ever was one. Keep at it Man! Jeff

Hi Guy's; How can you tell if the head it at standard compression or has already been shaved? What is a safe amount to mill these to if you wanted to raise the compression a bit? Jeff

Guys; I hate electrical problems so I am definitely going to make a new harness for the truck. The mess that was in it has all been removed. I have done plenty of rewire jobs over the years and this one is pretty simple. My plan is to leave it 6V positive ground. I am sending my Starter, Generator and wiper motor out to Northwest Starter to have them re-manufactured. And I am in the process of gathering a spare starter and generator which I will get rebuilt and keep as spares. I have already gone through the distributor. Wherever possible I will get new switches, etc. I am not a total purist so I will make upgrades to the wiring harness where I think it will improve reliability. I had Keven go through and recondition all my instruments....he sent me a photo last night and they look amazing. As usual Merle you have given me something to think about in regards to the front brakes. The major reason I decided against them was the lack of a clear cut solution to the master cylinder arrangement. Since you got yours to work ...then there is hope for me. One thing though. I just went through a drawn out process of getting all new lug studs installed and the original wheels reamed to fit them. These are all 5/8" diameter lugs now so if I switch to discs on the front I need to accommodate this. Not sure if that creates a problem with this conversion? I have already done the fuel pump rebuild you refer to....and the carb as well. I had the gas tank cleaned, spot repaired, lined and coated by the same fellow that re-cored the radiator. I also have a new sending unit from Roberts and will replace all the hard lines etc.. As for the engine..... part of me want's to put it all back together and fire her up. The more cautious part (funny how this part kicks in when you get past a certain age) has some concerns about this. I am inclined to think that there is probably nothing much wrong with this engine but ....the head bolts sure didn't seem to be all that tight. And now that the head is off there appears to still be an awful lot of rust etc....in the water passages. I have to think about this some. Jeff

Keven; Well I am not sure what benefit that might have? At least with this one I am fairly certain it was not a victim of catastrophic failure in the past. I think what I really need to find out is what the difference is between a T372 and the standard engine.....or if there is any? Maybe someone out there knows. This may effect what parts I need to obtain. Hank; Too far? At least now I know a bit more about what I have....which can't be all bad considering I didn't break anything. One question though....... Why was Englebert Humperdink helping Ricardo work on your truck? Jeff

Guy's It is going down to a bare frame. I will replace the wiring, hard lines etc... I have had the radiator re-cored and the fuel tank repaired, lined and coated. I am sending out the starter,generator and wiper motor for re-manufacture. I have replaced all the brakes with all new parts. Will look again at front disc's but it looked like there might be issues with the master cylinder arrangement. It has a T 372 engine which I think is a slightly later block. I have been trying to find out particulars on this engine but have struck out so far. I want to start gathering the parts for a rebuild and that is the reason for this post. Jeff