Jeff Balazs

Did you swap to one of their matched Flamethrower coils ? If not you should. You can open the plug gap up to .040" with their coil. Enjoy. Jeff

Active steering would be more of a problem.......

Paul......you should be looking for one marked Halon!!! Jeff Actually I think the Air, Defrost and Heat knobs are hardest to find.

Yes.....not sure what they based that on? My 6 volt is working fine on #14 wire. Martyn; Glad it is of some help. I ran without the regulator for a little while but decided to do it up right. It has worked fine this way. Jeff

I am still looking for one labelled Hyperdrive.

Jim; I am running a Carter vane type pump which I mounted near the tank. I mounted an adjustable pressure regulator with gauge on the passenger side inner fender. This is set at 3.5#. I have a large sealed canister type fuel filter between the tank and the pump and another between the regulator and the carb. I have the original fuel pump mount blanked off. This set up has worked really well and insures a cool & clean fuel supply. Jeff

You would probably have to contact a Woody club or organization to find out about your Campbell. As Hank mentioned there are a lot of Woodies here........but you don't see too many based on the Pilothouse. A shame as the ones I have seen are very cool. There was one in an episode of last seasons Chasing Classic Cars. Wayne pretty much poo-pooed it said it wasn't worth much and moved on rather quickly. I think he didn't know anything about what he was looking at. He is a fan of the Fords. And he is more than just a little jaded. As someone who makes a living as a woodworker I have a pretty good idea of what goes into a quality restoration. I think that a well restored Pilothouse woody would have a minimum value here in SoCal of around 40k.......and could potentially fetch twice that. It really depends on how well all the details are done. Originality in material selection and joinery along with good fit and finish is what most prospective buyers will look for. There was a fellow doing a modern drive train swap on one of these. Just as it was nearing completion he quit posting. I wonder what happened with that? Jeff

It is a fair amount of work but you can make these cabs pretty darn quiet. I probably have more than a hundred manhours and a $1000 of material into insulating my cab. And I will tell you what it was money and time well spent. Makes all the difference in the world. I never listen to the radio but the Ipod stereo sure sounds great. Jeff

Thanks for the info. Was not aware these requirements have been relaxed or changed. Some day I would like to test the brakes on my B-3-C on one of those rolling roads. I went the extra mile and installed a 4 wheel disc brake system with all new components. It is pretty impressive but It would be great to check the balance of the system on that sort of device. I suppose there is potentially something good about what happened with this brake drum? Might make a few folks take a much closer look at their own vehicles. Putting a car or truck this old on the road is very serious business. My feeling is that an owner should have intimate working knowledge of the condition of his vehicle before taking it out on the road. Anything less is unfair to the people you share the road with. Jeff

I was under the impression that the MOT stations there were very strict?

That is really ....... really scary. You are very lucky that you did not get hurt or even worse hurt someone else. When I see something like this I have to ask if you did any sort of road worthiness check on this car? I am sure you realize at this point just how dangerous this sort of condition actually is. Maybe your experience will prompt others to take a closer look at this sort of stuff. Jeff

Good luck with this Phil. I am not really interested in one of these radios.....but I do love to see a good mystery solved. Since there are several of these 51-52 trucks with factory cut outs......I figure there just has to be a radio or two that is a correct fit for them. Jeff

It would be helpful to know a bit more about the condition of your truck. Is this a rebuilt engine or one that sat for a long time? Was it working OK and this problem just started? Obviously if the radiator is boiling over there is a problem......knowing more about the general condition should help us help you pinpoint the problem. Jeff

Looks like a 56 to me. Very hard to say what it is worth from that photo.......but some came with a poly V8. 270 in think. I have seen a few non runners here at between $1000 to $2000. Jeff

I know what you mean. Watched the Monaco GP........it is always cool but it lacks the charisma it had when the cars were a bit slower. I would gladly dial the calender back to the days of the early 60's.......much more exciting.....cars were still cars....not computers. All the technology sort of ruins it. Jeff

You will want to get a matched pulley from Quality power. Needs to be the correct diameter. Also you need to specify belt width based on the other pulleys you are already using. I have their 50A 6V single wire alternator and it works great. Jeff

There is a manual for an 813 radio on ebay right now.......dated 1951-1952 Dodge cars & trucks. Looks like a match to me. Jeff

Well I drove a 76 GMC Jimmy from 81 until just a few years ago. Got more for it when I sold it than I paid for the old Dodge. And not once did a wheel fall off. Oh yes and the Jimmy a 2WD got a new engine.....the top removed.....and a new career as a film truck for the movie studios. Must be that weather you got back there?

You guy's crack me up. I got excellent service out of the 3 GM trucks I have owned. I only hope this old Dodge I have does half as good. I have my doubts and I have put way more work into it than it will ever be worth. Jeff

Tim; I have read that. And at the time it was written this was probably the only practical method of dilution.......of course now we have better options. I can't imagine anyone actually doing it this way these days....but there is probably someone. Another common use for kerosene in those days was as a solvent. Every garage and service station had it and used it in quantity.That was the use I was alluding to. Since it was suggested to Reg as a method of flushing the sludge out of his engine I thought that I would comment. The reason I brought up kerosene in the first place was to present another way for people to look at the issue of sludge removal. With kerosene the oil will be diluted and more than likely carry suspended particles of sludge etc throughout the engine. For obvious reasons I think that this method should be avoided. With the use of detergent oil it appears that the majority of the sludge that is dissolved seems to bond or emulsify with the detergent additives and then drops into the bottom of the oil pan. I believe this method is a much safer way to go. At least that is my opinion....FWIW. Jeff

Tim; I have seen that and other reference material on the use of kerosene. And as a lad working in a garage we used it to flush out engines when owners just added oil and never changed it. It might be OK with a full filtration system?......but I am not even certain it was such a good practice even back then. I really think that getting the internals as clean as possible....in a safe manner....and then insuring that the crankcase stays clean through the use of a PCV valve and a better breather is the best thing for this engine. At any rate that is what I have done and I am happy with the results. Reg.......I used a scraper.....and then 3M pads and solvents to get mine clean initially. I kinda think half of this crud enters through the road draft tube. I am definitely not a fan of that item Fortunately there is a much better way than using that awful thing. Jeff

Well yes......it probably works out to be close enough. One thing I would like to add to the original thought about sludge removal. I know for years people have mixed kerosene with oil and run that as a way to flush the crud out of an engine. I thought about doing that with this engine but I decided against it. Because it is really a fuel rather than a lubricant I think it would reduce the viscosity too much. And perhaps allow the sludge particles to flow along with the oil instead of separate like it has with just the detergents in the oil I am using? Might work faster than the detergent oil.......but end up doing more damage? I am fairly convinced that the method I am using has worked about as well as I have any right to expect. I am no chemist but it sure appears as if the contaminants in the engine have bonded with the detergent in the oil and have settled out as semi-solids into the bottom of the oil pan. Jeff

I began "flushing" the sludge and carbon deposits out of my old engine a while back. First step was to start with a clean oil pan and to brush and flush as much of the gunk as I could reach through the valve inspection covers into a large drip tray. I used kerosene and WD40 until I got as much of it as I could. I then refitted the clean oil pan along with a new oil filter and ran detergent oil for a few hours. It came out black. Changed it a couple more times after maybe 10 or so hours of run time. Each time the oil looked a bit cleaner. I then I dropped the pan again. The pan had about an inch or so of heavy black goo at the bottom. It had very obviously separated from the the engine oil and had very heavy viscosity. Sort of like cold tar. I cleaned the pan again and ran it for around 50 hours on fresh oil. During this period the oil remained very clean looking. I then dropped the pan for a third time. More black goo but about half as much this time. This confirmed my suspicion that most these contaminants that are loosened by the detergent oil will drop out of the oil and remain in the bottom of the pan. The rest probably are trapped in the filter media of the bypass oil filter. At any rate I have a sweet running engine now which does not smoke and it has quieted down considerably since I first got it running. I am just about ready to drop the pan one more time as I know there will be some more of that goo in the bottom of the pan.......but I expect it will be less than last time. Will it ever get it all? That is hard to say but I am certain it is better after this treatment and that is all I can ask for. Jeff

I have a passenger side mounted spare on my 3/4 ton. I like the way it makes the truck looks and prefer it over an under bed hanger. Anyone who has had to actually change to a spare out on the road would agree that it is a much better arrangment. Jeff