Los_Control

Just a opinion .... I will start off with I have zero plans for seat belts at this time, I only plan on driving around town at 25-35 mph .... I may change my mind later. IMHO .... If a seat belt works correctly, you will break some bones. The job of a seat belt is to restrain you in case of a violent impact. That is fine, that is why we have seat belts. They save our life's. I kinda think that a lot of engineering goes into proper placement of seat belts. All my injuries, broken pelvic, 3 cracked & 3 broken ribs, 1 broken collar bone, 1 cracked collar bone .... punctured lung. All of my injuries was caused from seat belt restraint, they did what they were designed to do. Saved my life .... yeah the air bag helped also. My only point here, A proper lap belt will break your pelvic bone. ..... You have the wrong angle on it, will it slide up & rip out your guts instead? A proper seat belt will do some bodily harm, the angle will choose where the body gets harmed. I personally would not compromise & try to imitate exactly what previous engineers have proven...... you do you.

To be honest with you, I would try and flush the radiator out just simply with a hose. remove the lower hose & run water through it til it comes out clean ... even better if you remove the radiator, turn it upside down & run water into the bottom side & back flush it. I would want the radiator installed for the first start if possible. My first start, I quickly learned the reason why my truck was parked is because it was overheating. The engine was plugged and not a radiator issue. While my radiator functions, it is completely shot with 6 or 10 leaks in the radiator core. It will run & idle fine with water dripping out of it. When you goose the throttle the fan sucks the water out and disperses it for a proper shower. Point here is, A proper honeycomb radiator rebuild would likely be over $1k ..... We do not even know if the engine runs yet! I myself would spend a afternoon with the radiator .... Then on first start take notes on just how bad it really is and if worth repairing or just go with a modern Aluminum radiator. I have already bought the new radiator for mine, I will paint it black to look authentic, only a purist would know. But it will function. I would not send the radiator off for repair before first using it to see just how bad it really is, same time it is needed to see what condition your engine is in.

Marine tanks are convenient if you can find one. For your needs something like this should work for you. With a twist though. My truck has a new fuel pump on it, so I secure the tank here and run the hose to the fuel pump because I know it works. How invested are you in the vehicle? How long has it been since it was last driven? The reason why I ask & just my opinion .... From the fuel tank along the frame is all hard fuel line. Right up to the fuel pump location. Then from the frame is a short rubber fuel line to connect to the fuel pump. The frame is solid, the engine rocks back & forth with torque so it needs a flexible connection at this point. So to me, this is the ideal location to hook up your gas tank, it is already setup for a rubber line. You can prime the carb while starting the engine from a hand held bottle, It will run long enough for the fuel pump to start working on it's own. You will hear how the engine sounds, if there are major issues that require a complete tear down/rebuild .... running for 45 seconds will tell you a lot. Point is, you can probably pick up a new fuel pump from your local auto parts store for $20-$40. It is possible your old fuel pump will not work. Because of modern fuels, there is a good chance that if your old fuel pump does work, it will not work for long. The modern fuels will eat the old rubber and a newer style rubber is needed to work with today's fuels. For that reason I never tried my original fuel pump, the truck sat for 20 years .... I just replaced it. I kept the original and put it in the packaging and stored it on a shelf so I can order a rebuild kit for it & use it in the future.

Just a generic photo, think it is a Ford engine .... Mopar have them in nearly the same location. The down draft tube was the original version of a PCV. All it did was remove the exhaust gasses from your engine & point them under your floor boards. ..... If you had holes in your floor, the gasses would be sucked up into the cabin area. We improved since then with a pcv, but your car would still have the tube & can see whats coming out of it.

I use my 2 gallon gas can sitting on the bumper. I have tie wire holding it in place, then I have 6'-7' of fuel line attached to the fuel pump. The hose actually comes out through the small marker light on the passenger side. No idea how safe it is, but I can start it and move the truck as needed. I still have some welding & paint in front of me, installing the fuel tank & lines will be after.

Pushing the oil out the plug holes is a good sign. Probably means the rings are kinda sealing & the thin oil is not leaking past the rings .... Thats fine. Just the idea that the engine has had oil added to the cylinders, it is rotating fine .... probably time to check for spark & start it up. Probably will not foul your plugs, did not foul mine ... it is possible though. The engine will smoke a lot for some time. Till the engine heats up & burns off all the excess oil. Another issue is excess oil pushed into the muffler will smoke for a long time. A long drive may be needed to get the exhaust hot enough to burn off the oil. You can tell by looking at what comes out of your down draft tube. Smoke out the tube is generally oil that is leaking past the rings being burned. If that is fairly clean & oil smoke out the tail pipe, it is oil trapped in the exhaust.

No idea what your procedure was. I would pour in the mmo & let it sit for days or possibly a couple weeks, in my case. Give it time to soak down around the rings where it is really needed. Then it will leak down into the oil pan. Put the plugs back in & the oil will be forced out the exhaust. ..... Too late to avoid this, You already started the process. If oil is coming out the plug hole, probably just as much went out the exhaust already ..... yes it will smoke when you start it, but will burn off.

looks good, curious what it is? Those ties sure are heavy. Would be around 1984 I had a 1962 Dodge heavy duty 1 ton, 12' bed. My brother worked for Union Pacific rail road. He had a opportunity to get some free used ties. His foreman authorized it. The loading was in a culdesac, where we backed down a gentle slope to a hill. Was very easy to walk right onto the truck to load the ties. We had the truck loaded pretty good, suspension just starting to squat. Maybe 20-30 10' ties ... Not sure on count. We strapped the load & pulling out going up the slope. 1rst gear granny, I only gave the slant 6 enough gas to just crawl up the slope without the engine dying. The truck never moved 1" .... The drive line twisted in 2 like a tin can. .... So we unloaded the ties so we could drag my truck home with my brothers 1/2 ton. I learned that if you have a damaged drive line, with a ding or dent in it, that can happen .... only time I ever seen it. I have hated rail road ties every since .....

Different ways to cure VL. ..... First thing is to acknowledge the modern fuel will percolate faster then older fuel .... something to live with. The fuel will be pumped from the fuel pump to the carburetor. If we are in town, driving slow. The float bowl will shut off the fuel to the carburetor. Then when you park & shut the engine off .... the fuel evaporates turns to vapor. The key is too add a T before the Carburetor. Run the line back to the fuel tank. The carb is fed with fuel, any extra is routed back to the tank & always a constant supply of fresh cool fuel to the carb. Simply how modern cars fixed the issue. A quick fix to add a electric pump is a good get me by. Adding a return line to the tank to actually cool the fuel, prevent the problem in the first place ..... your choice.

Air always has moisture in it. Steel will absorb moisture. Unless engine is stored in a climate controlled environment, it will collect moisture. A stored engine such as yours, with a carburetor/air cleaner in place you have a much better chance for the cylinders to survive. With a jar lid to cover it .... Myself as a prospective buyer, I'm going to value the engine by what I can sell the accessories such as starter, generator or basically scrap yard prices. Simply because it did not have a carb/air cleaner I'm assuming everything inside is junk ... whatever I can save like a cam or crank would be a bonus. Kinda what you are seeing now .... rodents pee is extremely corrosive, with no rodents & no Carb, you would still see rust in the cylinders. A few examples. Last fall I bought a used engine from a wrecking yard here in West Texas (Abilene) a very dry climate. I was told it sat stored for 8-10 years. I added oil to the cylinders and rotated it often til I installed & started it. When I started it there was white smoke or steam coming out of it for over 1 hour, almost 2 hours. Simply condensation the iron block had absorbed & releasing as the metal ran up to operating temperature. ..... Totally expected. Another example of a vehicle parked for 4 years in the Washington Area, nothing but steam coming out the exhaust as the moisture burned off the engine block. I once bought a rebuilt engine while living in Tacoma, sat for 2 years under the work bench in a garage. The rings were frozen to the cylinders. We do the best we can, metal will absorb moisture, we can try to prevent it .... nature will repeat itself.

No idea if any here follow Alex on youtube ... her last project car was a 55 chebby to race it into the 6's. .... Her Father is a incredible builder/fabricator. Alex is a pretty young lady and fun to follow her career. I get that a lot of people would not be interested in building a race car. I like watching her Father and listen to his explanations on fabrication .... He is top of the heap there. Anything I could learn would be worth my time. Last year after Alex got her Chebby into the 6 second crowd, she & her father were offered a chance to receive a charger with no vin # & $10k to build it into a race car ... would be crushed at the end of the game ..... Her father built it, she drove it & won the competition. She then as a young lady got her first professional job offer, work for Hot Rod Garage. .... No idea if good or bad. Just fun to watch a Father Daughter team work on a car together that happens to be a 55 Plymouth Savoy. .... Same time I expect mother daughter to build a custom 1 piece fiberglass front end .... no slackers in this family.

We are told the Lord works in mysterious ways. Sure glad this pup found his forever home. Takes a lot of training for a dog to safely ride in the open bed of a truck. Some dogs just take naturally to it, while others will never be safe .... Some will be ok with a lot of training & experience .... riding around on the farm while doing chores, eventually taking a short trip to town at 35mph. Working up to trips at higher speeds. I often see farmers with their dogs riding in the back at 75mph while moving between one field to the next. Very well behaved & enjoying the ride. A little 6 month old puppy not properly restrained while training .... equal to child abuse in my book. He is in good hands now. I have a dog that was abused & abandoned at about 6 months, we got her at about 10 month old and partially wild. She has some strange quirks she will never get over, taught to her from her early days. Daughter has a French pug that was the runt of the litter, her siblings always beat her to the food as a pup .... as a adult the dog just has a obsession for food and can never get enough. Hard to say what if any Crash will get as he remembers his accident .... will be hard coded into his brain, difficult if not impossible to break.

I would only imagine the jar lid being the weak link here. While the jar lid was sitting on it when you pulled the engine, I think the vehicle has been sitting for several years. I suggest there was no jar lid originally, then later on added .... or it fell off & later was put back on. Either way would not take long for the rodents to create that amount of mess. They do like to get into the darnedest places.

Sounds like you have it all under control. About the only issue with switching from positive to negative ground would be a radio. You would not be able to use a stock +ground radio with a -ground system. ..... Betting your truck does not have one, is possible though. The starter does not care. Heater motor wont care but will spin really fast on 12v. You can reduce it down to 6v or replace the motor for $10-$15. Wipers? good chance you have vacuum? I have the exact replacement tank & fuel sender sold for your 1947. I told the lady over the phone that my truck was still 6V +ground. Wanting to be sure I got the right parts. She told me that the sending unit & gauge did not care about the voltage or ground. So I'm going on what the supplier told me when ordering parts for my 1949.

Think it was around 1980 I bought a 1972 Ford 2 door Grand Torino. Sweet car, baby blue with a white vinyl top. Had a 6 cyl engine and it sounded terrible. Lifters clacking .... The engine looked just like the photos above when I removed the valve cover. As a kid working at the Union 76 gas station I paid less then $200 for it. Just saying running a few oil changes through it adding 20% ATF to the oil. I drove it a few hundred miles .... I kept pulling the valve cover to check progress .... within 6 or 8 weeks that engine looked & ran like new & sold the car for $600. As @Snipersays, paraffin was a issue back in the day. Back in the day it could be cleaned up .... been sitting in the woods oil changes would not help it today.

Yes my example with pex .... 25 years ago I would tell you that copper is the best water line for your house available. As a retired remodel carpenter I have several horror stories about using or replacing copper. ..... I really know no horror stories about pex. Once our plumber ran out of the red pex & plumbed the house with all blue pex .... He messed up & ran hot water to the cold water @ the bathtub faucet. Human error, I can not tell you one error I have seen caused from pex. While I could tell you several reasons why it is far superior to copper water lines. I would never suggest anything but pex today. Today I suggest nicop for automotive lines, maybe in 5 years from now we all will be suggesting your nylon fuel lines instead? I see you as a pioneer in this project, I would love to hear future updates on it if you choose to use it.

I always loved the 54, 1 year only grill .... beautiful truck.

For the amount of effort involved in changing the fuel line, I am using the nickle/copper line myself. I know there are some modern products available that are far superior to older products. A example would be pex plumbing lines. Not sure when it was invented, I know 45 years ago the natural gas company was using it as direct burial to supply gas to new homes. Later, plumbers switched to using pex to run water lines in houses. Today they claim it is the best waterline available ... A 100 year fix. I know nothing about the modern nylon fuel lines, possible it could be better .... I dunno.

@desoto1939 The oil usage was mostly the rear valve cover bolts being loose, the front seal seeping some ... It may have burned some but never that I could notice. I respect @kencombs honesty & thank them for it. I did replace the Crank sensor on that engine. The procedure is the sensor has a felt washer on the end, you push the sensor snug & tighten it down .... `I did it wrong & admit it. I pushed it snug, but then lifted it just a hair for breathing room. .... Seems I destroyed a engine but learned a lesson. @kencombs just set me straight on that. I still am going away from Castrol GTX. My 1987 Ford E350 work van had a new factory crate engine in it when I bought it .... I drove it for well over 10 years using Castrol GTX ..... It ran perfect. When I became disabled and important for me to sell it. The first prospect customer took one look at the oil & refused to stay around to hear it run. Castrol oil goes in dirty looking & within a few days it just looks black & nasty. Naturally the used oil needs to go to a chemist to be analyzed for it's performance ..... Castrol GTX is pretty much the cheapest oil @ Wal Mart ..... I hear the dirtiness is simply a characteristic of Castrol .... I never heard anyone claim it was superior because of it's chemical abilities to change color. ..... It's just cheap oil. But it is cheap & I change oil often so it is good enough. I have to apologize, I love the idea of creating a oil for old cars. Being retired & more time to think about it ..... I'm not using Castrol anymore.

Yeah the tires are certainly a individual choice of the driver. .....I love the look of this truck, but it is not for me. While I have a 1949 1/2 ton, just saying I want to try to make it look more like a big truck ..... While still being a pickup. There is simply nothing wrong with either choice .... it is up to the owner & what they want to build.

@kencombs yes sir you are 100% correct .... This is the engine the crank sensor failed on. This could be the early demise of that engine. But if what you say is true .... I have a different issue like a bad computer that caused the pre-ignition. .... whole lot easier to blame it on oil?

My opinion has been more solidified just asking myself questions about the oil I use. I have a engine with unknown past maintenance. (Possible the school teacher took it for regular oil changes) We got it at 150k miles & failed at 187k. A lot of miles for any engine but not uncommon to reach 300k miles with these engines. What I found when I diagnosed the engine failure, A piston broke at the wrist pin. The rod destroyed the block ... total destruction. I also found 2 other pistons when I removed them, the top ring was broke .... just fell off the piston when removed from the hole. Just saying it was a time bomb waiting to explode. My thinking is, possibly the piston broke because of improper lubrication at the wrist pin? ..... Just a WAG but not too far fetched. How long will a engine run with a broken ring? This engine leaked 1/4 quart of oil in 3k miles, no smoke. I would suspect after a few thousand miles with the rings "loose" flopping up and down, possibly breaking a ring landing eventually just destroy the whole cylinder. So that's the question I'm asking myself. .... Did those rings break before the engine had 150k miles on it? ..... Or was it in the past 36k miles after it was switched to Castrol? I just find it hard to believe the engine would run for over 40k miles with 2 pistons with broken rings. .... I could be wrong though. I have no solid proof that Castrol caused this issue. I certainly feel it did not help the situation at the very least.

I always loved the styling of those Fords ..... I was a bit of a Falcon man myself. Fairlane was too high class for me My Wife Grandfather bought a new 1963 Ford Galaxie .... Just amazing that it it is a true survivor. 2 door, 352/3 on the tree. White with red interior. The only way it survived was Grandpa pulled the heads for a valve job in the '70 during the gas crunch. He did the valve job on the heads himself ..... he just never bothered to put the engine back together .... covered the car up & forgot about it. Just beautiful cars built back then.

Nothing wrong with your choice if it works for you. For me I have many weeds & wild flowers that grow in my yard .... If I did not water it .... It would turn into a dust bowl in no time at all. I keep a few girls around the house, the yard is their yard & they would destroy the grass if not kept watered....

Lets be honest, I posted the link because it is what was sent to me ..... My mistake because it really does not specify Castrol GTX .... Just talks about oil performance. I really messed up when I posted it without a link to Castrol GTX .... I have no idea why others are happy with Castrol .... I made a bad decision with my link. ..... It does not mention Castrol, only the reasons to use zinc. So Yes we can talk about shooting the messenger ..... where do we talk about the quality of Castrol GTX? I personally do not care what oil anyone chooses to use .... I made a choice and Castrol is not it.