Jeff Balazs

Tod; Best weather in the state.....or so they say. Hope you enjoy it. Jeff

Tod; You are right about that.......I just didn't have any confidence in the 3 sets I got from different sources. I got metal transfer on two of them in just a few hours use and the third set looked like it had been made by a jungle blacksmith in Cambodia. I really don't like the idea of getting into my truck and wondering if it is going to have a good enough spark to fire off. With the set up I have that thought doesn't even enter my mind. So far it is one of my favorite modifications. Of course time will tell. Jeff

Bill; The Dana 35 from a Cherokee should work just fine. If you can find one with a 3.73 ratio that might be closer to optimum if you live in hilly terrain. I have a 3.55 in my truck with a 230 engine and it could use a bit more grunt on hills. Jeff

Well Fred this thread is all about using one of these trucks as a daily driver....... which means it must start and run daily. I am not saying it couldn't do that with a set of points in it but I do doubt it would do it all year on the same set of points. My bottom line has always been to use the truck in this manner. Everything I have done during the build was with this goal in mind. I have made quite a few mods which were made to either improve reliability or enhance the driving experience. They may not all stand the test of time but I feel pretty certain this ignition system will. Jeff

I'd like to know what this "cloistered ride" is all about?.......then again maybe I wouldn't. Methinks he doth use some silly words. Fred I know you have time into these other distributor builds but if you stop and think about what I am suggesting I think you will come to the same conclusion as I did. There is just less to go wrong and you can't hardly tell it from bone stock until you go to use it. Jeff

Yes but what I am suggesting is simpler and in IMO actually less prone to any sort of failure. I do have a spare on board but whether I will ever need it is questionable. So far it has been excellent. I did follow your other thread but refrained from comment. I will just say that I think there are too many potential failure spots in that system. I like the simplicity of the trigger. It either works or it doesn't. Less potential faults to chase. I do agree with you regarding the speed thing. The suspension and frame are not all that well suited to cruising at higher speeds. It is what it is. Jeff

Fred; Obviously the points are the weak item in this situation. I came to this conclusion fairly early on with my build. Even in the best conditions they are subject to failure or degradation from a variety of sources. Dirt....moisture....movement.....metal transfer.....wear. This is why I decided to eliminate them altogether and use a Pertronix trigger instead. It is just simpler and in my opinion much less prone to failure. One sealed component with no moving parts and two conections outside of the distributor. No more fiddly ground wire or condenser either. Just this trigger and a matched coil is going to give all the spark you will ever need with one of these engines. I think this installation truly is in keeping with basic simplicty of the overall design of these trucks. Jeff

Well Reg........how about condition of the engine......and for that matter displacement? Then there are the differences between the models......weight .....wheelbase....etc. Mine has a fluid drive 4 speed. Others a three on the tree. How about non standard items? Even tire diameter comes into play. And then there are the driving conditions and climate which can be very different for each of us. I think a 1/2 ton with a fresh large displacement engine is going to react very differently to a gearing swap than say a tired 218 1 ton. This is what I am talking about when I mention variables. Jeff

There are so many variables with these trucks that it would be hard to say that a particular gearing is going to work best. With my truck I have found that the 3.55 gearing is not optimum for the slower speed driving I have to do each day. It seems fine at speeds around 50 and higher but on hills at speeds below this I find it annoyingly sluggish. Just not enough power to lug it so I spend a lot of time rowing through the gears. Not my favorite thing when combined with crappy stop and go driving. It is not horrible because I have a relatively short commute........but it is nothing special either. It would get real old stuck in a lengthy surface street commute. So what is the answer? Not sure yet. Obviously more power would help........but then I wonder what it would be like with a nice non overdrive 5 speed. Would an extra gear help it out a lot? Or is it a matter of just more power? Wish it was easier to just try 3.73 gearing. I do like the general feel of the truck but I can't help feeling it is not quite optimum as it is now. Jeff

Yes........but he is real good at burning them up!

Light gray.......no foo-foo stuff Paul. You don't want to know what I think of the "art" of garage or shop decoration. Functional is what it should be about. Makes it easy to see stuff that get's dropped. Single light color wins hands down. Jeff

Tod; I just painted my garage floor this summer. I used the water base concrete paint sold at Home Depot. It is fine. Easy ....cheap .....dries quickly......no odor.....and looks nice. It might not be as good as the real expensive stuff......but it is clean and easy to touch up. Jeff Where are you moving to? I am in the Lake Forest / Irvine area.

Daylight spectrum HE florescents work fine in my shop. You would need to have the correct ballasts but you can reuse the fixtures you have. Jeff

Yes you should be OK. If you think about what causes failure on something like this It is usually advanced stages of corrosion that weaken the bolt.....combined with badly seized threads. You shouldn't have any of that going on yet. Jeff

Paul........not even when they are wet. Awesome photo Davin. Thanks for posting that one. Too cool!

I knew it was Rod but you expressed a concern about carrying head bolts on trips. I was trying to say that if yours had been replaced at the rebuild they would not be likely to give you problems should you have to pull the head. IMO it would be silly not to address these and the manifold studs during a rebuild. Just makes good sense. Jeff I can't remember a day when I didn't bleed at least a little bit. It is how I sign my work.

Hank; Did you use new head bolts when you had your engine rebuilt? I would think breakage is only likely to occur on older bolts that have seized after decades of being in place. Jeff

Am I missing something here? (probably ) Is this type of conversion done primarily to retain the look of the old style headlights? Surely by doing this conversion the lens has to really mess with the focus of the beams. I would think it would be quite distorted by the shape of the old style lens grafted on to this housing. The kit I got from Octane Lighting has optically designed housings that focus's the beams the way we now know they should be. This is a very simple swap that results in a marked improvement over the way vintage style bulbs light up the road ahead of you. Yes they look a little different than the old style bulbs......so what? .Are you that worried about how it looks? If so you better make sure you get rid of the radials ......seat belts ..... and any other modern improvements or materials you have employed in your trucks. Jeff

I don't know Joe. To my old eyes they always looked a little yellow even after I added a relay and heavier wiring. All the electrical system in my truck is new and heavier than stock. I even have an alternator and an Optima battery. Hey it makes no difference now....the new headlights are definitely white .....and work much better for an worn out old guy like me. Jeff

I just put a 6V super white kit on my truck. It is much better but I it is not illegal. It is just white light instead of the yellow that the so called halogen bulbs I had before put out. There is a side benefit if you have them adjusted just so.....pointing at each other about 35' out......... with the high beams on you can vaporize the car in front of you. . Jeff

I believe you can get one seperately from Mikes Carb Repair or Roberts. They are easily damaged so your old ones may not work correctly. Do not tighten them with a screw driver. You should be able to change this out with the engine off without fuel pouring out. Jeff

It regulates the amount of fuel in the idle mixture. Did your kit come with a replacement for this? Some do ....some don't. Makes a big difference to how well it runs. Also have you tried putting a vacuum gauge on this engine to see what might be going on? This simple tool can be quite enlightening....... Jeff

I can only tell you what has worked well for me. Before I ever started this engine I dropped the oil pan and pulled the head. I did this to determine what the general condition was. I found nice clean bores with little wear. The oil in it was relatively clean but there were heavy deposits of sludge in the pan. So i cleaned the pan real good and took the valve inspection covers off and scrubbed and flushed it out as best I could. I had the head resurfaced and installed a new head gasket with new head bolts. I also replaced all the manifold studs and and trued the mating surfaces. Once I had the engine running pretty well I installed a vacuum gauge. Based on the readings I got I figured a few of the valves were sticking a bit. I have used detergent oil as I believe it is the only thing that will get the build up of crud out of an engine like this. I have changed the oil several times and it just keeps getting cleaner and cleaner. I did drop the oil pan again and found a fair amount of gooey sludge in the very bottom of the pan. That tells me the detergents are doing the job. As I have already mentioned the engine runs very smooth and quiet with good even compression. I checked the valves once when cold and have not felt it necessary to mess about with them since. Jeff

Did this engine sit idle for a long time? If so you may not actually have a problem caused by tappet clearance as such. My engine which sat for many years took a quite a while and multiple detergent oil changes to completely free up the valves. I could actually see it getting better slowly on the vacuum gauge I have installed. No needle bounce at all now. The sludge issues with these engines are pretty well known. Once all that old crud is washed out of the system you may be pleasantly surprised at how well they can run. Jeff

I have 3.55 gearing and can't see going any taller than that with this heavy old truck. I can feel it a bit it going uphill. It get's up to speed real quick going downhill. There is no doubt that it would be more pleasant to drive with a peppier engine........ and an automatic. Because of the traffic here and the way the stop lights are timed I spend a fair amount of time rowing through the gears. I works but it is less than ideal. I have thought about building the flatty up but the idea of putting a bunch of money into a top drawer rebuild coupled to this transmission kind of kills it for me. I am going to drive it this way for a while before I make any rash decisions. Jeff.