Power Wagon engine

[Barabbas]

I was working on my car the other day (P23) and for the heck of it checked out the engine serial numbers: T137-13856---a Power wagon number.

I was told the engine was rebuilt when I bought the car but I thought it was the original engine that was rebuilt.

So how does the power wagon engine differ from a standard dodge 230?

What should I be using for tuning specs?

Can anyone tell me from the serial numbers what year the engine is?

[1941Rick]

My engine is from a welder early 50's vintage.....from what i can see you are dealing with a generic long block and bolting on items to make it fit your application.

[Barabbas]

Rick,

I wondered if the head were a little different or the cam which would affect timing etc. The engine runs fine but I was curious for future reference. I already found one oddity-- I had a mechanic replace my real seals because they were leaking so badly, well my engine uses rubber seals and not the expected rope seal--

[Frank Elder]

My engine is from a welder early 50's vintage.....from what i can see you are dealing with a generic long block and bolting on items to make it fit your application.

T is for truck.....what is a generic block?

[1941Rick]

I found no differences with the head....as for the cam I could find no difference.....timing was not a problem,,,,as for the real seal, yours may have been upgraded to the rubber seal....I used the Graphite seal as the crank still was knurled for graphite. I should have polished the knurls out and used the rubber, so far no leaks.

The only problem I ran into was the engine was tight to turn over with the graphite seal, 12 volt into a 6 volt starter cured that...now the whole car is 12v.

Franikie47...a generic block to me is a the same long block that is used in a series of applications. The difference is what is bolted on to the block...ie....manifolds, starter, flywheel housing and such.. That is the beauty of these engines...so versitile.

[1941Rick]

Here is a site to identify your engine

http://www.t137.com/registry/help/otherengines/otherengines.php

your engine is from a power wagon wdx to k6 w300 1946 to 1957

your engine may have been built with rubber rear seal, because of the spread in the years the engine was used.

[townwagon]

T137-13856 is a late 1948 or early 1949 Power Wagon engine number. I don't have enough examples of T137 engines from original trucks to be sure about which year that number falls into.

That should get you close enough for ordering parts though.

Eric

[Barabbas]

Thanks Rick and Eric your info helps a lot. I'll just assume then that I have a "generic" Dodge 230 circa 1949,

[townwagon]

Glad to help.

While I would agree in general that the engines are pretty much the same, remember that the PWs had a breather tube returning crankcase fumes to the carb, not a road draft tube like a lot of the cars did.

Depending on how this engine was modified to fit the current application all sort of little bits might have been changed.

As for internal components most of it is just FH6 230ci stuff.

The year does change things like gaskets in a few areas.

Eric

[claybill]

generic ..i know what you meant, but maybe not a good term.

maybe 'basic' would suit better. meaning that the same block would/should fit all or 99.9% of plymouth/dodge apps. my dad sold those basic blocks via Montgomery Wards in the 50's.

bill