Los_Control

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.

As a carpenter, a grinder with a 32 grit piece of sandpaper was one of my favorite tools. When you create a curved maple rail for a custom home you do not need it .... the rail is sitting on the stair treads clamped down .... the next day when you raise it up in to position ...... then you start adding all the connections to the custom rails .... there are some cuts you can do with a saw .... most fitment is done by hand with a grinder and 32 grit paper ..... once you fit the pieces together then join them ...... now you can start using more conventional means to achieve a proper sanding finishing level. For some of the finest carpentry I have ever done ..... A grinder with paper and a very light hand has created some great masterpieces. I do not hesitate to use one ..... I caution others because it is such a powerful tool .... If I pushed too hard I could easily ruin $6K worth of materials. Used properly and lightly .... it is your best friend. A engine bore done very lightly will remove some minor stuff .... but not fix problems.

Depends on who's world you live in. In my world I have a engine like that .... I used a 3" wire cup wheel in my electric grinder ..... the bores were 3.25 so it was not tight. I very lightly touched the sides and they cleaned up perfecto! I was just investigating to see what I had. I then did disassemble the 1951 Ford Flathead V8 for a complete cleaning ..... I knew those cylinders were fine and before re-assembly would just re-hone them. What you are suggesting will work fine for a old forgiving flathead motor ..... others will not agree.

If you ignore it long enough, the solution thing goes away ..... there are no solutions going on here. I agree with a different thread with a precise title explaining the issue. This helps future generations when searching for a specific answer on google .... You can already tell that we ramble on and bounce around to different issues .... Someone 5 years from now may need this information and they wont find it in the middle of a bunch of gossip .... specific titled post are better .... they too will go sideways, but a future searcher can find them. So there are at least 2 advantages to starting a separate post. Sometimes it is fun to start a build thread and document your progress ..... again they go sideways but useful to the owner.

Thats my point .... the motor mounts are bad? ..... surely you wont scab the 250 into the same scabbed up motor mounts. You have some welding ahead of you no matter which engine you decide ...... do a compression check on the 350 and see where it is at. I just did my 350 and all were 150-155 except for 2 that were 145 .... no spring chicken but a nice runner and will run for years. No matter what you decide, you will have to re-install the engine correctly .... I hope you do weld?

@Eneto-55 please do not misunderstand me, I only suggest the electric car has been around forever .... Lithium is new.

Cool car, just curious how bad the 350 is? I would think it would fit pretty good and is a decent engine combo .... 350/350 is a popular swap for Ford cars of this era because they fit ..... The Ford transmissions are so big they need to cut out the floor and build a new tunnel .... 350/350 just fits. The 250 is a good engine also, nothing wrong with it. I lust wonder how bad the 350 is? If it needs new motor mounts built .... seems you would need to do the same for the 250. If it is too close to the steering box, is common to set the engine 1" or 2" over to the passenger side to make clearance. This was common practice from the factory, drive lines have u-joints and they do not care. I guess I'm just partial to the 350, I have a 1991 chebby truck with a 350/5spd and love it. My neighbor has a 1964 Chebby truck with the same 350/NV3500 5spd ... what a beautiful truck. I would not hesitate to fix your 350/350 and run it. As far as trailer hitches go .... my 1991 chebby truck has a bolt on class 3 hitch. It is simply bolted to the frame and easy to remove and transfer to another vehicle. Possibly a narrower Dakota, Ford explorer, Jeep Cherokee will have correct one .... bring your tape measure to pull a part and go shopping. And enjoy your car.

Well it is a cool technology, can not say it is new though. Seems first electric cars were invented in 1880's .... they never were very practical though and never gained popularity. With modern batteries it is gaining popularity .... it's totally crazy though.

These EV battery fires are so intense it is incredible. .... Impossible to even get close enough to try to put them out. Then the reasons why they start burning is somewhat of a mystery. There was a bus that was put in the shop for maintenance and had not been touched for 3 days ... then it started smoking and FD was called out. It had stopped smoking and was considered safe, but they did move it outside. Then a few hours later it was fully on fire and burnt for hours. Most but not all the batteries were destroyed. .... A few days later it caught fire again and the rest of the batteries were destroyed. Sometimes it happens while being charged, have a car in the garage charging overnight, catches fire and burns the house down. One bus caught fire while charging and burnt several others because they were parked so close together. We will certainly need to develop a way to fight these fires if the EV are going to stick around.

I vote @38plymouthtry's the carburetor and report to us it's value I have seen some reviews on other aftermarket carbs, honestly they were not that bad. $300 in todays inflation actually seems fair ... I would think it worth the gamble .... no idea where it is made .... are rebuild kits available? https://daytonaparts.com/m/replacement_carburetor_chevy.html

I feel you have more experience then you are letting on .... And you have common sense to go with it. When I first woke my engine from a 20+ year sleep it had a loud tick. .... I made a video and all said check the valves.. I only made the video because I was happy it was running ..... I let the engine run and the tick just went away. I know the difference between the clack clack clack of a rod bearing, or the clunk clunk clunk of a main crankshaft bearing ..... A tick tick tick is in the valve train somewhere .... And just went away in my case the longer I ran the engine. Driving the car locally around town for daily errands and such may be enough to just bring it back around .... the 20 mile drive may be the best thing for it.

I feel one of the advantages is to switch to negative ground along with 12 volts. Nothing in your car cares about going to negative ground .... Except the radio! As far as I know, there is no way to convert it to negative ground without sending it out to be refitted with modern guts inside .... so it looks original but is not. Just because of the ground and all the electrics inside setup for positive ground, the 12>6 reducer on the power feed line will not be enough.

Really is sad that every state is different on the rules here. Then there were different years that they actually titled vehicles .... eventually they all came around and put registrations on them so they could tax them. Even today some cars over a certain age .... 10-15 years old do not get a title, the registration is considered the title in that state. Then there is the human factor, when you show up with what information you have .... some people are reasonable and understanding, others have a mean streak in them and enjoy raking you over the coals. Just no telling until you show up and find out for yourself.

Something you might check on sealed bearings .... If you use a fine pointed pick you can remove the plastic cover and check the grease before you install them. The only thought is, some places are really skimpy with the grease ... you can add more if needed. I installed sealed bearings on my JD riding mower and I pulled the cover and checked them ... mine were fine and just put the covers back on. Watching a YT video on the subject, I saw some bearings barely had any grease at all and probably would fail soon. You only need to check a couple, if they are fine the rest will probably be fine also.

I'm just saying they clean up nice. .... If you're not to specific. I had to weld 4 patches on 3 of these ..... The same strips will be fine once bolted down ... a little love and some seam sealer .... naturally my plywood bed throws me out of the race for a trophy ..... I plan to use my truck and a little dirt on it is just fine. Thats why I say, depends on if looking for a trophy. Sometimes you can just fix what you have and be happy. If you want to show it .... the ridges on the bed strips are different between a Dodge, Ford, Chevrolet ..... The judges will spot this and mark you down. If you really do not care, then nobody else will either.

I just fixed the ones I had ..... someone might spot the repairs .... just depends which trophy you are reaching for.

If you were to search old dirt track, circle track racers ..... It was common to create a loop from the dash to the floor shifter to hold it in 2nd gear. Just one of those things that the syncro's would wear out and they would pop out of gear. Since these were dirt track racers, they would race down the straight sections and just when you would want to grab 3rd gear .... you would enter a corner and need to let off the gas. When this happens, worn syncro's would cause the transmission to pop out of gear. So serious racers created a hook to hold the gear shift lever in 2nd gear so it would not pop out ..... These were dirt track racers that in any race the car could be destroyed. The transmissions worked just fine for racing and instead of replacing the syncro's they just tied the shifter up. I'm just saying if your transmission is popping out of gear when you decelerate .... tie it to the dash or rebuild it .... nothing new going on here.

That is frigging awesome, I love the way the old cars were made .... they just worked and could be maintained. They will last forever properly taken care of. This is perfect for someone maintaining a 1930's vehicle ...... For those of us with a modern 1950 vehicle 🤣 ..... We no longer need to do this maintenance chore. @Theturtle this is my only point, you said it is the distributor that came with the engine and we know it will work. I just suspect that it is not the correct distributor for your year of car .... without the numbers stamped on the engine block, no idea what year/size you have. I would want to know that information if it was mine ..... post the numbers. There were the usual P, C, D, T, then IND ... for industrial ... maybe more I'm no expert. It is important to know if it was a Industrial engine. They had some oddities in the distributor/camshaft area .... they were designed to run at one set speed. ..... It would be good to know what engine you do have. Also back then you could buy a new engine block with no numbers stamped in it. .... It was up to the builder to stamp in the number. While it would make sense to copy the original number that matches the title .... they might stamp in the invoice number for their own warranty. I just see a mystery and it gets me curious ..... A 1930's distributor in a 1950's car with a engine with unusual numbers.

Maybe if I try a more sensible approach .... I'm not really a bad guy. My first truck I bought was a 1949 3/4 ton. It had a 1/2 ton front axle installed and a 1938 engine. ..... Just a farmers truck with mis matched parts. The 1938 engine did have the ball bearing distributor installed. So in a different approach, are you sure you have the original 1950 engine with the correct distributor for it? The engines were so close that it was easy to swap engines or parts to keep them running. .... like a older distributor. My 1950 218 engine does not have the old skhool ball bearing distributor .... my earlier 1938 engine did have the ball bearing distributor. Hey if it floats your boat fine ..... but the distributor you are repairing is for a much older engine and will work .... I would rather find a newer modern distributor to replace it with .... one that would have come out in 1950. ...... Use to be able to get them from Napa or Rock Auto a few years ago .... no idea today.

While no expert .... I never liked the rotate on ball bearing style .... too much room for sloppy and non working conditions. A later plate attached to a pin to rotate on .... thats where I would spend my time. I only saw or worked on 1 distributor with ball bearing rotating plates .... I never liked the style or the actual product. I realize they did work .... not anything I would want to install on my engine. I also suspect, yours was rough but with some time and care you could have taken it apart and made it work again .... A little TLC. We are talking about ball bearings and they need to be cleaned up .... 2 plates that rotate and also need to be cleaned up ..... are you sure you want to rebuild this? Not a big job and doubt you need new parts. ..... well maybe some wiring..... Such a basic function though.

There is no doubt you re-torque the head bolts .... is suggested 3 times. I equate it to wiping your arse ..... You wipe it 3 times to find out 2 times was sufficient When the bolts no longer move, you are done .... Is suggested 3 times at different intervals .... if the 3rd time and 1 bolt moved a hair .... I'm going to wait and do it a 4th time at a later date. Modern cars, often the head bolts are not re-usable. You torque them and the bolts stretch and do not move. It is not needed to come back and re-torque them again. .... Our old vehicles it is required. Modern engines not required .... our engines it is required.

Nothing wrong with that at all .... I kinda wish I did that to mine also. .... Just not knowing if I have a broken ring or heavy scratches .... just a good inspection I would sleep better at nights. Same time a few years later and compression is all good in my mind, so it is going ok. Letting a engine sit is like the worse thing in the world you can do to them. It takes a while for them to get back into condition and seal up after a long sleep. .... Every engine will have it's own stumbling blocks to get past. Some never recover. I have watched videos of starting old flathead Ford V8's on a engine stand. After running a bit, you actually see water dripping out of a exhaust manifold. The block has a internal crack in the water jacket and impossible to fix. It is possible you have something like this going on ..... the only way to tell is to let it run and see if it clears itself up.