Los_Control

You might be interested in this new "mini series " of engine rebuilding. Tony thinks it may be 6-8 videos just for noobies like me wanting to open up & rebuild a engine. We may get something from it...

Ring gap is very important in high performance engines. With High rpm & heat, the rings expand, closes the gap & breaks the ring landings on the piston. Just saying in that case, it is not the piston that failed, it is the too tight ring gap that broke the piston. I have no idea how critical this is on our 95 hp flathead engines .....I would want to file the rings to specs if up to me. My 1958 Motors auto repair manual shows .010 for both compression & oil rings.

I'm a firm believer you need over 60 psi to get a engine to run .... 80 is low but you are in the ball park. After running the #'s will increase. I think it is a good idea to write them down, then in a few weeks run test again to compare. ... Then for future reference you have data to compare with if needed.

As they say, a little at a time. I am excited to see the rear brake lines in place. The front was done 2 years ago. I also went through the master cylinder & replaced all 4 corners wheel cylinders .... Needed rear lines to bleed the system & make it work. ..... Just been waiting til I got the bed off. Last connections is at the master cylinder for front/rear lines. .... And the master cylinder is froze in place trying to operate it by hand. I figure I could use my foot & stomp on it .... I'm going to pull it back out & go through it again. I have a rebuild kit here for it. Then I will make final connections & bleed them. I also have the bushing for the clutch pedal to replace. I got the fuel line made, man I love the nicop stuff ... real easy to work with. I just used the original line and taped the new line to it as I formed the bends by hand. I still think I want to add a return line to the tank, to avoid future vapor lock issues .... now would be the time to do it. Thats my update for today

I did not think this video was spectacular or anything, just easy to find because watched it the other day .... Just to give you a idea how to go about the conversion.

Not sure about the air cleaner .... mine is all metal with perforated holes. Cant really take it apart but can soak it & clean it. I watched a video the other day where a guy cut his apart & converted it to use a paper filter. Was a Ford filter that also had Horse hair in it. If mine had the Hair in it, I would be concerned with the age & deterioration & getting sucked into the engine like you suggest. I would do the modern air filter conversion. Only way I know of is to cut the filter open, you do not take them apart for cleaning & put them back together. <--- I have been wrong before.

My 12 volt test light does work on 6 volts, the bulb is not as bright as should be but you can tell when it is on.

Looks like a lot is going on there. Looks like 2 stress cracks that started from a previous repair. Possibly they did not completely weld up the previous repair so the cracks continued to grow. The cracks will need to be properly prepared & removed, then welded up .... or they will continue to grow. I have no idea what was done there in the past, why the bracket has been cut & folded back. What does the other side of the tunnel look like? Any repairs or cracking going on there? Lets be honest here, that's a lot of booger welding going on there. Looks like something that Los_Control character would do. Looks like it will hold, sure not pretty. ..... Really was not done by a professional welder. Besides what they obviously missed ... I would want to look over the repair to see if any other missed areas.

Here is a pretty good thread on doing the project. Should answer a lot of your questions .... or give you more

Sadly I do not have oxyacetylene .... something I'm not allowed to play with. I do have propane with the yellow map gas bottle. .... no help there. The metal does cut easily with a grinder & blade. .... I could easily cut a u shaped hole in the strip, then cover it with a washer. Think I will try to use the carbide bit grinder first .... to drill a hole not cut it. This is one of those moments, Just because it is free does not mean it is good.

Seriously as a carpenter, when I was 40 years old I had no desire to rebuild a engine .... send that **** to the shop. As we grow older, we seem to have more time or we care more about who does what to our vehicles.

I have basically the same Shumaker charger but only 6 years old ... works fine.

? Pretty sure it is a sign

I have dogs. Daisy would lick you to death, Penny she would hurt you really really bad ... Just saying Dogs have their own personality & do their own thing. My dogs have free use of the yard during the day .... If a thief was casing the area for a late night visit they would skip my house. Just knowing the dogs are on the property. .... Look for a easier target. Same time the 100 pound dogs are inside sleeping on my bed when the thief's might enter my property. .... They do not know my dogs are locked in for the night & my garage is unlocked. Then again this is Texas, we shoot intruders. ... I would prefer my dogs to sleep while I took care of the intruders. Alas, the dogs love to have fun also.

I love your questions in this thread .... I am 60 years old & never rebuilt a engine. I have always been to busy to do so, I have had engines rebuilt & installed. I have replaced heads & also maintained my vehicles .... I just never had time or interest to rebuild engines for future use. Then I turned 60 & I have 2 engines am rebuilding ..... Is it possible 60 is a magic number?

Time for a update ... I needed to do some work on our kitchen .... the goal was to paint it, included some needed cabinet repairs & build a shelf etc... I waited til after Thanksgiving to start, then finished right before Christmas. Like everyone we had a cold spell move over us .... I was able to get one day in & paint most the frame underneath before it froze. At least I got the drivers side done .... Some work to do yet, but having this done I can move on to bigger fish. Just getting that part done, Now I can install the fuel tank, run the brake lines, tail light wires, grease everything ... Big jump forward. So I made the Fuel tank bracket. .... Only suggesting I need the bracket to go first because the plumbing & wiring pass through the bracket. I want to express how ugly it is ... but it is very strong ... Thats what I want. Also it was a learning experience. Just amazing how fun learning is! I used old bed rails to build it. Really strong steel & welds up really well. & free!!! The problem was when I needed to drill 4 holes to mount it & the tank .... no idea how tough the steel was. I spent the whole day trying to drill 1 hole through it, all I did was dull my titanium drill bit. It is now 2" shorter from sharpening it. I went to the store & bought a $17 Cobalt bit ... 20 seconds & it was dull needed sharpened. I drug out my mini die grinder with a carbide bit. It took about a hour but I did drill the 4 holes using this tool .... All cool right? I used the same material for the bed side strips .... I still have 14 holes to drill. Strong material & up to the job, sure wish I knew a better way to drill holes into it. I suspect 2 more carbide bits, hope I do not burn out my small compressor in the progress. I would cut the rails out at this point to get softer metal to work with. They are welded in too solid & would destroy the bed sides. I'm stuck with working with what I have. .... Just amazing how much fun it is too learn new things.

That is true @keithb7 We use a battery charger to charge dead batteries. If the charger will not work because the battery is dead .... ???? Lots of amusement in today's world.

I just find it amazing that a modern battery charger will not charge a dead battery .... Who thought that one up? I love my old stuff all the way, that includes old school battery chargers.

Then there is always the oddball in the crowd. My 1949 B1B was built at the end of the year and used at the dealer to show off next years trucks. So it was built in 1949 & titled as a 1949, truly is a 1950 model though. Is there such a thing as a B1.5B

Thanks @JBNeal for sharing the links. Has a important photo that I lost over the years. I will share it here. I also want to clarify, I'm only talking about 1948-1950 trucks & "Tanks" gas tank install. The reason why I think it is important, we do see many questions on the install over the years. I think actual photos from a numb skull like me may help others. Today a Tanks gas tank is $315 .... look on ebay & they sell from $600-$800 for a precision fit 48-50 tank. .... You can save $300 by making this bracket. Or you can modify the existing bracket on the 108" trucks .... If you have a 3/4 ton truck or larger, you should have this bracket already. I just made my own version Here it is bolted in place So now it is removed for final cleanup & paint & I have a working rear tank bracket made from the scrap pile. I bet anyone that wants to make a bracket can make it more purty then mine .... I want strength, slap some paint on & call it a day. Just hoping this thread takes some of the mystery out of modifying the rear tank bracket.

I call it the 2nd to the last ... while the last is bolted to the end of the bedsides & supports the tailgate. The short one you are asking about I have 40 1/8" ..... the 1/8" may be paint since they were painted with a brush ... 40" should be close enough.

For the plumbing, I would suggest going with nickle/copper lines. Just so much easier to work with, you can bend it by hand without a bending tool. You can use pipe and bend it around it for a straight corner. It comes in a roll, you can drill a hole in a wood block, pull the rolled line through the hole and have a 25' straight line .... You can probably do magic tricks with it if you're a magician. Because it is softer, it is easier to make your double flares. It is rated as a lifetime line, is certified to work with fuel, brakes, automatic transmission lines. I see Amazon has a 2 roll kit with fittings for $55 .... My 1/2 ton uses 5/16" & 1/4" ... no idea what your 1 ton uses. I am making another thread on the fuel tank ... Tanks has been around for some time, they sell the fuel tanks for the earlier 1947 trucks. They claim will fit 48-50 trucks with some modification. Why I feel it is important is currently Tanks sells that tank for $315, searching on ebay others want between $600-$800. Since you have a 1 ton, you already have the needed bracket, you just need to grind off the 2 rivets holding it to the frame & move it 2" .... Or make a new one. Hope you can clean out & use what you have. Brakes are a tough one for me on my 1/2 ton. If I need new drums on the rear, I'm swapping in a modern rear end. Drums are $400 each & only 1 vendor. Same with the front, would swap in disk brakes. .... These are my options with a 1/2 ton, no idea what your parts availability are with a 1 ton. Just seems like as long as we have good drums, hydraulics & shoes are available. You might talk to rustyhope, they sell a brake conversion kit for the 1/2 ton & some mods can work with the 3/4 ton .... they may be able to help you with the 1 ton. Their kit is simply brackets & hardware, with a list of calipers, rotors, bearings etc... you can buy from napa. IMHO, as long as your drums are decent, is cheaper, easier to just fix what you have .... then decide later after driving it what future upgrades to add. That cooling system looks like more fun then a barrel of monkeys. We have real hard water here in TX, sure AZ water smooth as a babies behind. With the radiator & water pump removed, I used a long piece of flat steel to clean (rod out) the distribution tube. I removed all the core plugs, with a garden hose inserted into the distribution tube I flushed out the block. I used a long bent wire to reach into the block through the core plugs and pulled out all the leftover casting sand & crap I could find. Is common to find lots of sand leftover from when the blocks were cast. I got a lot out of mine, along with other crud. My truck was parked because of overheating .... I think. After cleaning it best I could, I installed core plugs, water pump, T-stat hoses ... I filled it with vinegar I ran it through several heat cycles, let it sit for days & warm it up & then drained it. .... Runs pretty cool in the driveway now. Just need to work at it.

Check your firing order? I know you already did this .... Are you sure it is correct? My first start of my truck that had been parked for many years, I replaced the wires installing #1 at 7 O'clock like the book says.. Turning the engine over I had spark & fuel, but no signs of life. I saw fuel puddling in the manifold. I went through the firing order using the pipe plug over #6 to get #6 on tdc compression stroke. This is where I found out my wires needed to be set 1 rotation to the left .... #1 the book says 7 O'clock ..... mine needed to be 6 O'clock. Setting the wires correctly she fired right up, even with the puddle of fuel in the intake. For something simple like checking firing order, is easy to get #6 TDC compression stroke. That is where the locating plug is. It is important to get #1 @ TDC for many reasons .... checking firing order is not one of them, any cylinder will work if it is at TDC compression. Lay a piece of toilet paper over the pipe plug hole, rotate engine by hand .... when you see the paper move you are coming up on compression stroke. Remove paper & insert wire & continue rotating engine til wire stops traveling upward. Remove distributor cap, the rotor should be pointing @ #6 If not, remove the wires And install them in order starting with #6. I'm only suggesting to wire it starting from 6 because that is where the pipe plug is located .... If it was located over #1 cylinder (where it should be) I would suggest starting from #1. The extra steps of first getting #6 TDC so you can now rotate the engine to get #1 tdc compression like the book suggest .... just leaves wiggle room for mistakes.

I thought about doing the same, decided not to. First off, I know the original bracket works .... I never heard of anyone having any issues with the tank falling out. Google says a gallon of gas weighs about 6 pounds, so 16 gallons + 5 pounds for the tank is about 100 pounds .... Less then I was thinking. The original bracket is very well made & very strong. .... They just installed it wrong imho. I would hang the bracket off the top of the cross member .... not bolted underneath it. That way all the weight would be sitting on top of the cross member, the bolts would only hold the bracket in position. The way they have it, all the weight is sitting on the 2 bolts or more precisely the 2 nuts. Then if you extend the bracket 2", is now acting like a lever applying more stress on the 2 nuts. Again I'm no engineer, it has lasted 70+ years with no problem ..... I'm sure I would lose sleep if I were to use it as is ??? Simply drilling 2 more holes & adding bolts so 4 bolts are holding it would help. I would modify the bracket slightly so it would sit on top, then use 4 bolts ... if I were to use it. My bracket when finished, has some faults also. Inside the frame rail is 5.75". So the height of the bracket is only 5.5" There is only room for 2 bolts, it is long acting like a lever with all the weight sitting on the end. Putting all the stress on the 2 bolts. .... Factory used 2 rivets. So I will add 4, 1" welds on the sides just to help the bolts.

LOL yeah pretty disgusting ... is the pc out in the shop & gets pretty dirty between my dirty hands & the doors always open. Time to go to the goodwill for another key board