vintage6t Posted November 6, 2009 Report Share Posted November 6, 2009 Hi All Long time lurker and been meaning to post an intro for a while now. My current old mopar is a 50 Plymouth business coupe all stock. My previous was a 53 Cambridge sedan. The coupe recently came out of 18 years of storage in the PO's garage, see pic below. Anyway, without too much drama I have it running after a quickie carb. cleaning and it looks like the original 218 is burning a fair amount of oil. My immediate goal is to get the car road worthy so I've been looking at dropping in a replacement flathead. Also considering a 273 swap b/c I have most of what I need already sitting in my garage. A guy near me has a three flatheads available and he emailed me the numbers, but I don't recognize them. They all have a PD prefix; PD157776, PD37742, PD41281. I know of P,D,T, IND prefixes, etc. but I'm not familiar with PD. So my question is does anyone recognize what these engines might be from? Any info would be much appreciated. Lastly to finish my intro , I'm basically into vintage cars and bikes of any kind. Other toys I currently own are a 64 Corvette convertible, a 65 Valiant convertible, a 34 Hudson hot rod coupe, and a number of vintage and newer Triumph motorcycles. This list is changing all the time because I seem to have a sickness of constantly buying and selling old tin! Thanks again for any help on the engine id's. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobT-47P15 Posted November 6, 2009 Report Share Posted November 6, 2009 Hi. Nice looking coupe. Welcome. I'll let someone better with the numbers address your question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted November 6, 2009 Report Share Posted November 6, 2009 There was a PD model of plymouth in the 30s. If that engine code is from those cars that's a poor choice to swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cipponeri Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Hi Dave, I am sure that it is out of a 33 Plymouth, I had one, it was a PD coupe. Tod Fitch will know for sure if that was the only year for the PD engine or not. Nice coupe, I am a little bias as I have one also. Tony C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg g Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 If you look at the engines on the driver's side, and you can see the shapes of the cylinders in the casting, they are pre 35 engines (probably 198 cu in). After 35 the engines got full waterjacket casting and the cylinder columes were no longer visible. If you are planning on eventualy swapping in a V8, why not just drive it, unless its smoking so badly that is causes a hazard to folks behind you. Oil is pretty cheap, you can load it up with anti smoke stuff and use it till you have your swap lined up. You might want to do a quick compression check, and throught some oil down the plug holes on a second go around. If the value increase it wuld mean bad rings. However if the car has been sitting a long time, the rings may loosen up and reseal a bit after getting a few heat cycles into it. The early engines (pre 35) had different starter locations so they are not a boltin to a later car without changing the bellhousing and transmissions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Coatney Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Hi Dave, I am sure that it is out of a 33 Plymouth, I had one, it was a PD coupe. Tod Fitch will know for sure if that was the only year for the PD engine or not. Nice coupe, I am a little bias as I have one also. Tony C Was the PD a four banger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Nope 33 was the very first 6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Coatney Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Nope 33 was the very first 6. There is still hope for you as a POC Pres:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Neon Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Since she's been setting a while she just may need to burn the cobwebs out. I'd just run her until you are ready for the swap. Oil's pretty cheap, and you may see less oil usage in time as things start getting lubed up and deposits burned off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msawdey44 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 For what it's worth, my '50 Dodge had been a mouse motel for 16 years until I started bringing it back. The engine smoke was ferocious at first, but changing the oil to Rotella-T, with all that detergency, seemed to fix matters after a thousand miles or so, much of it involving running it fairly hard. I changed the oil and filter a couple of times to get out some of the crud. Leakage from the rear main seal slowed, but didn't stop, from use of one of the "engine sealers" (seal swellers, in reality). At this point, after two summers and about 3000 miles, there's no visible exhaust smoke and the leakage is down to about a quart every 500 miles, which I can live with. So there's hope. Oil with strong cleaning properties, changed fairly frequently, may free up the rings, if things are not otherwise too worn--I'd agree with other posters to give it a chance and go ahead and drive it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintage6t Posted November 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Thanks for the replies. I emailed the guy with the engines to see if he knows what cars they are from, very possible pre-36 PDs. Also I agree no harm in just running the engine to see if it clears up a bit. The engine also has at least two freeze plugs that apparently have rusted through and are leaking. I know easy fix. Beyond that it runs well, basically purrs even with 100K reading on the odometer. BTW, a few more pictures attached for you viewing pleasure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moparbenny Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 welcome neat mopar ! and a hudson guy double neat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Lets see some of the other iron. Especially the 65 valiant convert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cipponeri Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 No Don, the 33 PD was the first 6 cylinder. Tony C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Actually there was the 33 PC and PCXX first. Then the PD. Sales weren't going well so other models were rushed out to try and help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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