Worden18

Thanks dpollo; its been a lot of fun so far. And I have that brochure that says "Drive it for five minutes and you'll drive it for years!" Some things I'll have to take care of in the near future: -adjust the clutch -speedo is sticky; will have to lube the cable -rear brakes -and exhaust: I just visited the shop this morning. It will be a couple of weeks before I can get it in. What I have on there now will be okay, its just kind of cobbled together and has a few small holes. And low and behold, what happens when I stop to fill up with gas? An 80 year old man strolls over and we talk about my car for 15 minutes ; and he noticed the piston and hitch on the rear bumper right away. He liked it. He was telling me when he was small his old man had a 37 Plymouth and it wouldn't start worth a damn in the winter, so they'd have to pull it with horses to get it going! They'd only drive it into town about once a month (from the farm) because he said they just didn't go anywhere. He wasn't sure whatever happened to it. Every single time I fill up with gas someone talks to me about the car. I enjoy that. I really enjoyed this morning's cruise as well. I'm at peace when I drive the car. BTW, I averaged 17mpg the first 170 miles on the rebuild.

Mike, your oil pressure is normal. As your engine heats up the oil thins out and the pressure will drop some. I have 150 miles on a total rebuild and my pressure is exactly the same as yours at idle and at 55mph. My old timer friend told me once that even 2lbs of pressure is okay; that means oil is flowing through That 2-5lbs at idle is what my pre-rebuild engine had for pressure. Hey, it didn't blow up

Oh by the way, that original 1951 MN license plate actually passed through the DMV without one single question or comment being made as to its condition. In MN the rules are that the "year" plate has to have at least one letter in it. Well I have news for ya, most of the plates in 1951 for MN are ALL numbers. This was the only one I could find on Ebay with at least one letter in it. It worked out well because it matches the patina of the car

One other thing I did today was mount a vintage period tow hitch (that my friend gave to me) to the bumper. Not sure I would actually trust it to tow anything , but I like the look of it. I then mounted that original piston (that had a couple of chunks out of it) to the hitch using the eye-bolt the rebuilder used on my engine for the cherry picker. I wanted to re-purpose that piston somehow; I just couldn't throw it away. Its certainly a conversation piece. Can't wait for someone to notice it and ask me about it!

At home right before I pulled it into the garage

No way anyone could wipe the smile off my face! I love driving the Meadowbrook

My family and I at Subway for dinner. Lots of people looked at my car....

Had my dogs with me today (male and female boxers). Here's the female enjoying the armrest in the back seat on the way home!

Finished up in my friend's shop today. Re-torqued the head, zip-tied some wires, tightened the carb hold-down nuts again, topped off the anti-freeze, put the hood on, cleaned up my friend's shop, loaded all of my tools and parts and headed home! 50 mile trip home, so I got to test it out really good. No problems. When I got home I changed the oil and filter, which is what my rebuilder said to do. It was fairly dirty. I replaced the SAE-30 non-detergent with Castrol GTX 10w-30. Should be fine. I know there's a ton of other options. Here comes the pics:

Going up! There IS sound to the video; all you can really hear is birds chirping in the background. The hoist is silent

My 7 year old son took all of these pics

That old flathead purrs nicely! Very excited about getting new exhaust....

Me and my friend Brad. Thankfully he was around today. We had fun

Up on the hoist. I taught my son how to run it; he loved that!

Worked on the car this afternoon. Put on a new carb to intake gasket (stopped that whistling), filled the tranny with gear lube (I had lost some when I left it upside down one night after cleaning it ), checked the anti-freeze level, put 2 clamps on the exhaust (it'll do for now, but I'll be getting a whole new exhaust system within a couple of weeks), reseated those leaky oil lines and tightened them, and took it for a ride (about 25 miles). Put some fresh gas in it as well. Let me say, it has really nice power compared to before. Winds up nicely and without any effort I was up to 50mph. I did vary my speeds throughout the trip. I went hoodless . As usual, some dude at the gas station asked me about the car. I let him know what year, and that I had just rebuilt the engine. He wished me luck. Tomorrow I will go back to my friend's shop and torque the head bolts, check the antifreeze again since I ran the heater, put the hood on, and there's a few more minor things I have to check. I will likely drive it home! Can't wait. Here's some pics from today. First one is me

Before and after rebuild 51 Dodge 230

Nice! I just did that very thing to my 51 Meadowbrook. Next week I'll be finishing it up and then I'll be ready to cruise! Good luck on your rebuild and have fun along the way

Here's a pic from the other night my friend sent me after i went home for the night. He has an awesome garage with a hoist he put in himself. Can't tell you how grateful i am that he's letting me keep my car and piles if parts in there. Almost done though...

This I didn't know....

My friend did talk about the oil pump and distributor with Dennis (the rebuilder) when he had the engine all apart. Of course this process was new to me, but I somewhat understand it now. Dennis did install it correctly. He never put the distributor cap back on (with the wires); we did that just the other day. The wires were off by one because of ME last fall. The car had quit on me at one point (I think it may have been the condenser) and I took the distributor apart, cleaned the points (which is what I thought the problem was), took the wires off and put them on a new cap, and when I put it all back together it would not run. Got some help with it and we still couldn't figure out the problem. I had already been seriously considering rebuilding the engine before it died on me, but not being able to get it running again just made me want to have everything new. Anyway, the darn cap and wires were in the exact same place I left them from last year. I was one off on the rotation. I did put in a Pertronix kit and I'm happy with that. I have a Pertronix kit in my 68 D700 3 ton truck (413cu in) and that baby runs smooth. Very noticeable difference IMO. Thanks for the input dpollo

That awful whistling you hear is the carb to intake gasket leaking; will fix that soon

Turns out my engine bay is kind of ghetto I realize there's quite a number of parts that are holding their original patina, and a lot that have fresh paint. Probably makes some of you guys cringe a bit, but for now I'm leaving it as is. The car is a driver not a trailer queen, it'll never be perfect. I'll do my best to try and improve more things along the way and keep it running the best I can. We're ready to drive and enjoy this old Meadowbrook!

Last couple of days have been a lot of fun for me. I've really worked hard to get everything assembled again. As expected there's been a few bumps along the way and things that take extra time. Yesterday we finally got to the point of firing the car up. Of course it wouldn't start. We checked and rechecked the distributor, we were getting gas, getting spark, etc. It was quite frustrating. It wasn't until about 8pm when my friend's son got home from planting corn that things got better. He re-evaluated our distributor and discovered we were off one wire on the firing order. So #5 was firing first, etc. Switched all the wires around to where they're supposed to be and the car fired right up with no effort! I can't tell you how relieved and happy I was! After all that work to sit behind the wheel and listen to that old flathead purr was something I won't ever forget. We ran it for quite a while and let it get up to temperature. Had between 40-45lbs of oil pressure at idle. I put it in gear, held the brake and let out the clutch and she purred right down.... There's a few minor issues yet I have to button up: there's a small oil leak from one of the lines that come out of the oil filter canister, the carb gasket leaks(whistles); that took us a while to figure out, I need to put a couple clamps on the exhaust, recheck coolant level, make sure e-brake is adjusted correctly, and a couple of other things I can't remember but have written down

Ironically, installing the fuel pump was about the only thing that went without a hitch today ; but thanks for that advice. I got quite a bit done today despite a lot of setbacks. I put on the fuel pump, carb and linkage, heat riser assembly, generator, radiator fan and pulley, belt, radiator and hoses, heater hoses, temp guage line, oil pressure line, cap and rotor, coil, plug wires, oil tube and clamp; getting close now. Need to pick up some engine oil in the morning, do some other wiring, hook up the battery, put the coolant in and I should be darn near ready to fire it up. I'm excited but nervous as hell at the same time only because I'd be devastated if something went wrong. Forgot to take a pic today. Hopefully I'll remember tomorrow. Brain is mush lately

Got a lot done today (for me anyways...not being the best mechanic). I got the e-brake assembly back together, clutch assembly/linkage, speedo cable, back up lights sensor, Fluid Drive/bell housing pan (if that's what it is actually called), starter motor, driveshaft, crankcase vent tube, engine to bell housing brackets (both sides), spark plugs in, and later on picked up a new 6V battery. Ran into some problems along the way but my friend baled me out and helped me get things together. I had some problems with the ebrake and also the clutch linkage. Tomorrow I hope to get the fuel pump on, carb and linkage, heat riser and spring assembly, distributor cap and wires, coil, generator, radiator and fan, hoses, battery and cables, etc. Not sure if I'll get all that done but I will try. I need to buy some oil tomorrow as well. Despite a few frustrations today I had fun, it was a good day. Very thankful my friend was there for me, too. Sorry no pics today fellas