soth122003

Told you that cleaner would do the trick. As far as passing on the 201, when it's all said and done, tally up the money spent on yours versus the 201. I think you'll be happier. Your car looks pretty sweet. I tell everyone mine is a good looking girl in an ugly dress. But when I get to the paint job and the interior, she will be the Belle of the Ball. Joe

If you haven't rebuilt the engine or just want to clean the internals, add about 1/4-1/2 a quart of Seafoam eng/gas treatment to the oil and put the rest in the gas tank, and then change the oil again at about 500 miles. Joe

Pretty cool video. When I got my tank from AB, it had a little rust in it. I took a length of chain and swirled it around in there for a while. Took the rust off like I had sanded it. When I drop my tank again, I try the apple cider vinegar treatment for any rust I find. Joe

If I had the money that guy put into his chainsaw, my 48 P-15 would be so cherry right now. Joe

Any auto parts store will have a cleaner or solvent for carbon removal. Just remember some are flammable. I am not to familiar with the water bypass valve, but you should be able to get one fairly cheap from Bernbaughms or Roberts maybe even Napa or CARQUEST. Rock Auto just to name a few. Just checked Andy Bernbaughms, waterpump bypass elbow-$40.00. But check around. From the looks of the parts the PO was either to lazy or to cheap to do the proper repairs. I am spending about $50.00 a month doing my restoration and it will take me some time. I put about 500-600 bucks in initially to get it drivable. Now I go back and forth to work in it at about 60 miles round trip 3 days a week, and work on it on the weekends. It runs great but leaks oil about a quart every 300 miles. I can live with this until I get my bank up to buy a few needed items. I know how you feel about wanting to get it driving as soon as possible, and if you got 5 bills for another engine, then you have more than enough to fix the one in the car right now. Take your time do it right and do it once, and the next time it needs to be done, your grandkids can help you. Joe P.S. Post a pic or two of your car.

I'm with Don on this. Your eng block looks decent. I would get a cleaner and soak the carbon deposit areas and keep at it with a soft non metallic scraper. Just let the cleaner soak for a few hours, scrape and repeat as required. You said the eng was running. If it was running good, I would stay with the 218. If it was running bad, I would still stay with the 218. The only money you will probably put into the rebuild are the gasket, bolts, and the machining of the head. Everything else will be your labor, which will only cost your time. The more of your time you put into it the better it will turn out. Keep referring to the tech tips and the members forum advice and you will have a decent to great car you can be proud of. Joe

Give it back to your mom, She takes better pics. Just kidding. Looking at that brought back memories of my family when we went to Alaska in an old mopar in 1964. I hope you have as much fun with it as your family had, and when you get old and grey hopefully you'll pass it on to your son or daughter. It's like they said, "Plymouth builds great cars." Joe

You said you found a head on epay for 100.00 bucks. Go to the P-15 D-24 store on this site at the banner above, they got 3 for 50.00 bucks each. Joe

What oil weight are you using? If you are using a 40 weight it might explain the higher pressure at start then lower as it warms up. Joe

Judging from what you said so far, sounds like you had a head gasket leaking due to the JBweld bolt. I would get a wire brush and start cleaning. If you know your way around the 318, the 218 is really simple. Since you have the head off, clean every thing up then use a straight edge to check for warp. The check for cracks. If everything looks good, It is basically a top end rebuild. If you don't have one, get a shop manual. This will tell you how to do almost everything on the car. These old engines are pretty bullet proof, The yellow gunk was probably a ton of radiator/engine sealant to stop the leak. If you have cracks in the block replace the engine. If you have warp on the head, a machine shop will tell you if you can smooth it out or not. If you can't smooth out the warp in the head, you can get another head pretty cheap. Look under the topic banner at the resources tab, the click on the tech tips and look for the head gasket. Nine times out of ten, it looks worse than it is. The hardest part is staring the job. After cleaning everything up, you will know where you stand and it don't cost much to clean and find out. Aside from the manual, this forum will be your best friend to get you engine back up to speed. Joe

Hey Tony, You should be able to buy your copper washer at any hardware store. They usually have a good selection of sizes in stock. For anyone else who may have a small fuel leak on the tank, JB Weld works pretty good. That being said the best tool in your repair kit for on the road, is a small bar of ivory soap. It has to be a bar of soap not the liquid kind. Gas will not eat through soap, and you can use it to make an emergency repair to your tank until you can pull it to make a permanent one. Here is how I know. My dad told me. Really he did. I was about 14 years old at the time and we had a family station wagon. Must have slung a small stone or something and it put a pinhole in the tank. My dad used the bar of soap and rubbed it across the hole, caking it in and it stopped the leak. Sold the car a few years later with the soap repair still in place. 7 years later. I'm rolling down U.S. highway 64 at about 3 am. Had a blow-out on my left rear tire. The truck I was diving had two 20 gallon saddle tanks just forward or the rear wheels. The tanks were plastic, but that didn't matter. The tire tread smacked the corner of the tank cracking it. The 3 cracks radiating out from the impact area about 2-3 inches. I had gas leaking out onto the remains of the tire. My spare was shot and I'm 1 1/2 hours from home. I pulled out my shaving kit got my bar of soap out and smeared it into the cracks on the tank. It stopped the leak dead in it's tracks. Limped to a station a few miles up the road and spent the rest of the night there until it opened and I could get a new tire. That soap repair lasted over 5 years. The only drawback to this repair is if you live in a wet area. The water will eventually wash the soap away. Joe

It is amazing how much space you get to work with up there by pulling the radio out. Joe

Hey Doc, Saw that after checking your bio. I had misread it before as north part of florida. Found you on the map, you are about 9 hours from me. Joe

Sorry Tod, I assumed incorrectly, that you were using steel or aluminum rims with tubeless tires. Airsoft BB's won't work with tubes unless the valve core hole is big enough to accept them. Even then with a dual layer of rubber, the tube and the tire, I don't know how well the beads would work. If you ever found a tubeless tire for your wheel, You would have to seal the inside rim area with a rubber based paint/sealer. Joe

If you haven't removed the rear drums, you should, and pay close attention to the return springs. Joe

Good read Don. Used that procedure when I was Air Force and built up tires and rims for aircraft. It still applies to all tire mounting as well. Some of the other color dots are a weep system to bleed any air pockets or bubbles out of the sidewall of a tire. While everyone has a preference, I also like using the beads due to the fact that they are self balancing for the life of the tire. TodFitch, you could always try and if you don't like it, all you have to do is break the bead on one side and remove the beads then rebalance with traditional weights. Joe

Captden, This is the link that got me thinking about the beads. http://aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/balancing_beads/ This is the video that pretty much made me try it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq263AYgyYg And here is the tire sizing chart. http://www.innovativebalancing.com/chart.htm Since I am running 205/75/15, 3 oz is what is recommended. I added the 1/2 oz so when I mounted the tires if I lost some of the beads it wouldn't go below the recommended weight. Again it is just an option for those that don't want the ugly lead weights on their rims. Joe

I'm with Doc on this. I am on a budget and WW are way out of my price range just to make the car look better. I ordered a set of 4 Hancook's from wal-mart for about $260 and they look great on the car. Something else I found out was instead of balance weights on the rim, I use 3.5 ounces of air soft BB's inside the tire for balancing. And man I get a very smooth ride out of that car. Joe

If I had the money to burn, I would definitely have one of those. Joe

I missed the post as well. But thanks to all who served. Myself included. U.S. Navy 78-81. U.S. Air Force 82-99. Joe

Nice car Doc, and welcome back. Myself, I like stock, but I do like the carb setup on yours. Sweet. Your locale says NW Fla. How close to Niceville are you? Joe

Sounds like the water pump bearing. You said it was squealing, and it probably locked up and then broke loose and tore your water pump seal. Joe

I believe that is called a bezel ring, but I am not positive. I also have no idea where you can get just the ring. Joe

Very cool video!! Watching it, I could really feel for the young men back in the day who had to ride or drive these things, due to the lack of a good suspension system. Granted the weight of the vehicle would help mash everything in it's path but over a rocky surface, for extended periods of time, must have played hell on the kidneys and back. Joe

I used to have a 1965 dodge 1/2 ton that I paid $125 for. It was in good shape and over the course of 10-12 years I rebuilt the clutch slave cylinder a few times. I put over 100,000 miles on that truck, and one time the clutch return spring bracket broke. I took one of the hood springs off and finangled it in there and used it for over a year. It worked great except for one small problem. My left leg was like Arnold Swartzenhagers and my right was like Mr, Puniverse. Sold the truck for $100 12 years later. Joe