Los_Control

I would suggest the cast rings and your sources are fine. I believe you really do need to grind or lap the valves .... use to be a simple test to rotate the engine until the valves were closed .... then pour some gasoline around the valves and watch to see if the gas leaks past the valves. .... good seating valves are air tight and should not leak past .... Very unscientific, but will tell if you do have a problem and which ones. I figure replacing the rings now for 2 different reasons .... As you said they are reasonable .... all but one cylinder is in good shape. I want to know why that cylinder has a gouge in it ..... If it is a loose wrist pin that the clip broke and the pin is causing it .... you want to fix that now. If it is a ring that broke and caused the damage, it can continue to break and cause more damage. Pulling that piston for inspection is the only way to find out. Or it is possible the gouge has always been there and you're just now finding it because of the valves leaking? One thing I'm confused on is the .03 stamp on the pistons. ..... I first assumed it was a typo and meant .030 .... maybe that is a shortcut for 30 over pistons?

Just curious what the oil pressure is when running? Will tell you the condition of the bearings. To grind the valves will probably help a lot with compression .... whats a set of rings cost for this engine? While you have the head off, drop the pan and spend $200 for a set of rings .... these old cast iron rings do not last that long. While the compression is low, lapping the valves and a new set of rings will improve it for $200 and you now might drive the car for a few years before installing the fresh rebuilt. I get it, # 4 cylinder has a gauge. This will create a puff of smoke now and then and depending how bad it is .... not be a real problem. No it is not a perfect solution to run it ..... but it is not bad either. For the price of the gasket set, rings, lap the valves .... you can keep running that engine while you rebuild another.

Good point .... Honestly I just want to get the truck on the road and licensed to become a driving project .... from that point on it will be a evolving project for the rest of my life. So right now I just want something that works ..... with a bad ground it did not work ... I fixed that and it works now. .... Good enough for me. I just have bigger fish to fry, do not want to get lost in the weeds on a simple condenser issue. When it is actually on the road, I will want to do the /6 distributor conversion and eliminate points/condenser. Same time I have a 318/3spd and a Rustyhope brake kit on site ..... I may not want to keep the 6 ??? I just need it to run for now.

I think points have a certain degree or level of expected life span. Since the discussion has turned to placement of condenser to best protect the points from a high spark ... closer to the points makes sense. If it does not matter, for ease of future maintenance ... I prefer it by the coil. If the points was getting a abnormal amount of spark, it would show up on the face of the points. When I was a kid I had a 1969 Mustang fast back and I put a huge square yellow jacket high performance coil on it .... it looked cool. I would burn out a set of points in 4-6 weeks .... after 3 or 4 sets of points I put the stock coil on and end of problem. If I'm burning a set of points every 2 months ... thats abnormal wear and I would do something different to correct it .... I would first suspect the condenser location. Because @Sniperis telling me what I want to hear .... I'm jumping on his bandwagon .... @lostvikingis saying what I do not want to hear .... I'm sticking my fingers in my ears. 🤣🤣🤣

Well I think I will leave it where it is at, then keep a eye on the points. If the points show abnormal pitting or burning, then I would probably move it inside the distributor .... or if it causes other problems.

🤣🤣🤣 Guaranteed ... Honestly it is like turning a page in a book and starting a new chapter. I stopped working on it maybe October last year, Then in January life just got in the way with family member health issue and was 4 months we put him in the ground .... then the wife car needed a engine installed .... that took me 110 days before I started the engine then been spending some time working out bugs because it sat for so long. So almost a year later I get to say the wife car is done .... I spent some time on my daily driver Chebby truck ... Now I'm free to start working on the Dodge again .... I'm still trying to decide where to jump back in and what to do first. I was happy just to see it back in front of the garage.

@TravisL17 I was out there at 6:30 am with a flashlight removing the condenser bracket and cleaned it up while drinking my coffee. When it got daylight I put the bracket back on and it fired right up and ran really good ..... bad ground was the problem all along. Your post was very helpful, Thanks again.

I call it gossip. Many things get passed on down through the decades ..... One of them is to use thicker oil in a high mileage engine. When our cars were built, thicker oil actually had a purpose and worked. When talking about a 1997 Dodge truck with a 360 .... We need the correct oil for the engine so it gets properly lubricated. Tighter tolerances require thinner oil .... I see no purpose to ever run a thicker oil in a modern car .... maybe I'm wrong. Here is a 1997 Dodge 360 farm truck that never had a oil change in it's lifetime ..... Run thicker oil in it, it will be fine. Lots of old stories out there that had some 1/2 truths to them .... no longer accurate today.

Thanks @LazyK you are correct, I'm not positive on the values .... The condenser is a replacement for a factory GM dual point distributor that is commonly modified and used in flathead Ford V8's. .... I do not know the value. I want to dance up and down and sing Winner Winner chicken dinner. The mounting clamp came un painted .... so I painted it. .... the coil bracket needed some surgical welding to make it usable .... I painted it. I never once thought about a good ground for the condenser and am certain it does not have it. That gives me something to do, I really can not proceed further until I make sure I have a good ground. That would explain why it ran good but randomly died and then as the fresh bolt attaching it was losing the poor ground it had ... it just got worse. Will be tomorrow but I will create a good ground for it and report back. ..... Thank you!

I installed a custom condenser and hooked it right to the coil .... not inside the distributor. I have a known good working condenser inside the distributor but it is not connected. So this is my question, is it OK to install a condenser to the coil like this? The reason why I want to do this is a aftermarket built in USA condenser will not fit inside. You need to stand on your head servicing the distributor or changing a condenser when it is inside the distributor .... I have a bad back and if I can keep it outside I would prefer this. Adjusting the points is not terrible, just changing parts with the distributor installed is a PITA .... easier to remove it and work on it on the bench ..... I want my condenser here if it works. Every since I installed the condenser here, I have been experiencing run issues .... I will let it run for a hour idling in the driveway ... then it just starts cutting out and dies. Next time it ran a little less time and ran crappy and died .... now it does not want to start .... spark looks funny and I suspect a bad condenser. What I'm wondering, do I just have a bad condenser and install another in it's place ..... Or is this a bad idea and I will continue to have issues with a good condenser?

<---- takes a aspirin

I was born in Tacoma general hospital, raised in Puyallup. When I was disabled 14 years ago wife and I moved back to Washington for 2 years while taking care of court business. I was disabled, fighting for Social Security disability. I let my driver license expire because I could not drive at the time ..... as I got better 6 years later I could drive. Washington could not even give me a price to renew my drivers license ... first I had to take a drivers ed course for over $100 .... then pay $50 application fee .... once I completed those steps they would tell me how much more I needed to spend to get my license. We bought a house in Texas and I waited .... I got here and they charged me $25 to get my license. The social security lady in WA that was handling my account was absolutely furious when she found out I finally went to court and had a partial payment of $50K in a bank in New Mexico .... She yelled at me, she wanted to control my money and just give me a little at a time. I paid cash for a small house and set myself up for life ..... no way I could have done that on her plan Just saying, if you are guessing Washington is a high tax state and very communistic controlling ..... I learned that 35 years ago when I first moved out of there.

@p24-1953 here is a mock up of what I'm talking about. You can visually see how much more welding surface you have to weld the washer to the bolt ... welded correctly it will not bust free from the bolt. Now weld a big arse nut to the washer .... again you see how much welding surface you get .... If you do it this way and I would at least try it .... it might not work. As far as I know this is the best chance you have .... and it does not matter if a busted bit is in the center of the bolt ..... If this method did not work ..... I would resort to drilling the old bolt out all the way and maybe retapping the treads to next size if I did a poor drill job.

Is there a double post of this issue? ... seems last week @greg g gave a good reply and I threw in my 2 cents worth. When welding a nut onto a broken bolt, there is so little welding surface. Usually just inside the nut .... maybe a couple tacks outside. One good zap in the center of the nut and all the welding surface is covered up and no real penetration. The weld will not hold and pressure and break. If you weld a larger fender washer to the bolt first .... ideally depending how much bolt you have to work with, a large washer that will slide over the bolt and then you can weld all the way around the washer to the bolt. The washer is thinner so easier to get good penetration on it and it will not break free. If you use a 1.5" fender washer ... you can get a big honkin 1" bolt to weld to the washer ... all the way around the outside leaving enough room for a wrench ... also weld inside. .... With all the extra welding you are adding strength but also heat into the rusted bolt .... the heat will help break the rust free. Also adjust your welder for the most amount of heat to get good penetration .... were not worried about warping body panels ... we want heat.

First of all, every state is different. .... I also live in Texas. My 1949 Dodge truck I bought from a guy who bought the truck from a estate sale. It came with a free and clear TX title ..... The deceased owner who died 20 years ago never signed it. He was the 2nd owner and that title was presented in the 1960's. The car flipper that bought it and sold to me .... he signed the title for me. Nobody ever questioned the signature and there was never a past signature on file after all these years to compare it to. It was a very pleasant trip to get the title changed over into my name .... The lady would not let me keep the original title for my records .... she happily made me a copy of it to put in my records. Another time I bought a 1994 Dodge Dakota truck from a friend who bought it from a estate sale with no title. The heirs claimed there was a title for it but would have to return in 2 weeks to pick it up. ..... My friend being lazy never went back to get it. This time I had to go to my insurance company and pay a $300 fee for a bonded title .... then take that to the tax office and have a new title issued. That was painless also, except for the $300 for the insurance .... I got over it. Texas is typically a easy state to get along with .... it comes with clean air and clean living ..... If you see something different .... wheeelll ... shrugs shoulders.

Well thats it! I have been flushing the coolant system for 14 days straight. The vinegar no longer had a useful effect .... then soap no longer has a useful effect .... I'm over it. It still looks dirty and not satisfied with it ..... I'm going to run it for a few weeks with straight water and see what happens. Some point will need to add antifreeze for the winter .... just not convinced I'm done with flushing yet. One thing I will offer up about flushing with soap or simple green .... It does clean .... the car never overheated with it. I just felt like with all the sudsy bubbles there was too much air in the system and I would not trust driving it for a 80 mile trip. I drove it to the local grocery store or around the block .... just no freeway trips. I really thought I would be done with the Caravan last week and back on the 49 Dodge this week .... soon I will be there.

Understood .... I do not either. I feel the metal is not being damaged because the vinegar is very mild. Also when I used vinegar in the 49 Dodge I filled the coolant 100% vinegar with no water added ..... it turned out fine. This time I'm only adding 1/2 a gallon to the water so it is diluted. I had a new water pump I installed on the dirty used engine ..... It was full of mud when I removed it. I did not feel like cleaning it up at the time, the existing water pump felt good so I just used it. Since then I spent 5 minute with some glass cleaner .... It is a couple years old but has very low miles, less then 200 miles on it so will use it again. Knowing how easily it cleaned up I'm certain the soap will clean the coolant system. First time using soap last night and letting it run, sit overnight then warmed it up again I flushed it. I have a positive feeling about it. Plain vinegar for 2 days and several miles driving, 5 minute of flushing the water would be clean. Using soap over night with 2 heat cycles, it took 10-15 minute before the water would turn clean. So it is cleaning deeper and removing more dirt .... I'll try this for a bit, no more vinegar.

A lot of good advice there. I feel like I'm up against something new .... not really sure how to handle it .... feel like I will need to get creative here. The engine that I bought sat in a shed for 8-10 years ... the wrecking yard owner had no paperwork on it or knew anything about it .... just that he had it .... must have been good or he never would have kept it. These were his words. What I'm fighting is good old Texas dirt blown into the coolant passages over the years. Add water and it turns into clay. I installed the flushing T, 10 days ago. I figured to flush it a few times over labor day weekend and would be clean. I add a 1/2 gallon of vinegar and run it several heat cycles, then drive it 40 -70 miles .... I wait 2 days and then flush it again. ..... right now I have gone through 2.5 gallons of vinegar 1/2 gallon at a time. It is better but still not clean .... the dirt sticks to the interior walls of the coolant system and the vinegar is not cutting it. At this point I think I need to try something new .... I'm thinking soap. I never heard of using soap to flush a car with .... you get dirty hands you wash them with soap, not vinegar. Question now is what kind of soap? ..... I like Dawn dish washing soap for dirty hands. I have simple green on the shelf. Also have a soap called purple power that I bought with my pressure washer. Heavy Duty premium multipurpose pressure wash concentrate ..... I'm giving it a try, been sitting on the shelf a few years and would like to free up some shelf space.

Another vote for a washer first then nut to washer. Sounds like you're having penetration problems and not getting enough heat to solidly attach the nut. The washer is thinner and you can get good penetration and weld it solid easier. Then the washer gives you more surface area to weld the nut to. Is also thinner and again easier to get good penetration. A main reason why welding a nut to a bolt to get it loose is not so you can put a wrench on it ..... you had that before the bolt broke. The heat from welding on the bolt will break loose the rust ..... the more times you weld on it the hotter it gets and the better chance of it breaking free. I have tried just welding a nut to the bolt and what I find is, the small center hole is filled with weld and you are finished .... the bolt never got any heat. So the nut just pops off, never got a good weld. So crank your welder up on high, send some heat to it .... use a larger washer so you have welding surface inside and outside the nut. Use a grinder to remove some weld if you need to to get a wrench on it ..... the goal is to get as much heat as you can into the bolt ...... use a torch on it also if you have one .... the heat breaks the bolt loose.

I do not know what it is, but something screams hospital cabinet to me. ..... Maybe it is the color or the handles. I know back in the 70's - 80's you might see something like that in a Dr office or a hospital. Just thinking it is possible it was not originally for automotive use .... I'm curious what the shelfs are like if any inside it.

Would be interested in knowing which years work? I'm following along this thread because someday I to plan to do this conversion. @Sniper got me a little confused with upper and lower shaft .... sounds like shaft is 2 pieces. I always thought we knocked out the pin then removed the shafts from both distributors ..... then installed the old distributor shaft into the new distributor. Doing this, who cares how the rotor button fits on the new distributor because that shaft is getting tossed away and the old shaft we are used to is what we are using? Mark me as confused 🤔 While I currently do not have time to work on my truck .... I'm thinking in a week or less I will be able to start back on it. First thing I have to do is fix a no start issue .... while not positive, the spark looked funny and I believe I need to replace the condenser .... No big deal staying points if we had quality replacement parts ..... I have a new condenser in it now, I have a known good 20 year old condenser and also 3 new untested condensers on hand. ..... simply because I have no trust in them I collect them. When the truck is actually driving on the road, I do not want to deal with these issues and will do the /6 conversion.

yeah, it is cleaning vinegar .... has a higher acidic level. I think I was just not taking the job serious enough. I think this morning will run to the auto parts store and pickup a flushing T to add to the heater hose. Just let the engine run awhile and back flush it at the same time ..... Do a better job then I did the first time. Then add vinegar and let it run some more ... then flush it again. I wont be in such a hurry to put antifreeze in it this time.

Well guys, what you think? I have been fighting a transmission issue for awhile, I have almost 300 miles on the used engine but the transmission was not shifting correctly .... I finally found the dirty wire connection and fixed it and took it for a 80 mile drive on the freeway and performed perfectly .... not even a hint of overheating. I already flushed the coolant system out with clean water a few times, then I gave it a vinegar treatment .... this is a crust when I remove the radiator cap to check coolant level .... 3/4" thick and actually need to poke my finger through it to see anything. This is from the last used engine I installed that had sat for 8-10 years .... not from the current engine I just installed. I think I will need more then just vinegar to flush this one

That sounds like a perfect way to correct it. I think that the castle nut has a very important role in the front wheels. The actual purpose of it is to hold the front wheels on the car .... it actually sets the pre load on the front wheel bearings .... you snug them up to where there is drag .... then you back it off to allow free movement with no drag or wobble on the bearings. This is not a nut you torque down to 40 pounds .... It is something you adjust freely then use a cotter key to hold it in place. While it sounds jacked up, imho if the nut has enough threads threaded to get on the spindle, the nut does not care which direction it is threaded on ..... the cotter key just keeps the loose nut from backing off. So your way is fine, I think Charlie way is fine also ..... such a minor detail not worth worrying about.

What you say is true .... same time if you can do it with fluids, is a lot easier ... I've only owned 2 of these engines .... The worse one had 5 cylinders with zero compression. After pulling the head I had all the valves working smoothly except cylinder 6. Literally took a 1/2 hour or so after the head was removed. #6 the valves moved freely, just a little sticky and the springs were not enough to pull it back down .... you could push it with your finger down. That truck I never really had enough time to work on it and ended up giving it away because was moving out of state ..... If I worked on it a little bit more, could have gotten them working easily .... even if I put it back together and ran it on 5 cylinders .... With heat and continuous rotation the valves would have came back to operational ...... Will the valves actual seat and seal? that is a different question.