Search the Community

A friend of mine moves vehicles as a bit of a side hustle when he has time, and as a result, we are often seeing rare vehicles and making new connections. He is helping somebody move up here in the Northwest and I had a chance to see this very rare '36 Plymouth Pickup. The pickup is in great shape, and had been on the road sometime in the past. It has a 230 engine in it with some rare accessories. I had never heard of Phillips Performance, but am always looking for off the wall stuff to set my cars a little more apart. Supposedly he has the molds for casting the parts, which I intend to try and verify as it would be very cool if I could get one or two of the items made for mine. I currently have a Shanafelt intake that I'm hoping to put on my engine that I intend to be getting built up in the spring. Again this is not my truck, but is definitely a neat rare pickup.

Last year I bought a 1936 P2 Deluxe 4 door, I keep regular license plates on it and drive it all around. I rebuilt the brakes this spring and would like to do some engine work. I've read about a whole bunch of things other people have done to their flathead motors, but don't know which things would give me what I'm looking for. I would appreciate very much if I could get some advice on a few points. Right now the motor has quite a rattle in it at a certain RPM and I am getting enough blowby to make it unpleasant to ride in unless the windows are down. I have 40 LB oil pressure when it first starts up, but that goes down to 5 lb or so after it warms up. What I want is to have the engine run strong and smooth and last a long time, 55 MPH on the top end is good enough for me. So I was thinking I would just get an engine rebuild kit from Kanter for my 201 CID. Then I started reading different forums and saw how many other things were being done to these old motors. A lot of things I read were dealing with making flatheads go fast, but I just want it to be smooth and durable. For anyone who’s gone through an engine rebuild before, should I be putting some modifications on my to do list? Things like: Cross drilling the crankshaft for better oiling Adding a pcv valve Shave the head or mill the block Grind the camshaft 3 way valve job One final thing, I've been told by some that Chrysler products used babbit bearings and others said that they used insert bearings in 1936. Has anyone had a 1936 engine apart and know what's inside?