1939 Plymouth Business Coupe

[1952B3b23]

1 hour ago, Don Coatney said:

To search for a vacuum leak use an unlit propane torch. With the engine running and the propane valve open pass the torch all over the intake manifold, base of the carburetor, and the vacuum advance. If the engine tone changes you have found the leak.

I believe Terrell Machine in Texas rebuilds vacuum advance diaphragm's. There contact information can be found in the links section of this webpage.

Thank you Don. I've heard of people using WD40 to try and find the leak. I feel like the unlit propane torch would work better.

-Chris

[1952B3b23]

So its been a little while since i've done anything to the Plymouth. But since i can't leave well enough alone, i decided to get my Nicson dual carb intake setup and exhaust manifold split by George Asche. I pulled the manifold off last sunday and mailed the stuff out on Monday. Only one of the studs broke off in the engine block, i consider that a success. 

What dual exhaust tubing size do you guys recommend? The engine is a basically stock 1953 218 thats been bored .030" over.

-Chris

[40plyrod]

I'm running 2" on mine with Smitty glasspacks. I'm happy with the sound.

[1952B3b23]

On 1/28/2017 at 9:49 AM, 40plyrod said:

I'm running 2" on mine with Smitty glasspacks. I'm happy with the sound.

I was looking around online for a 2" universal exhaust kit but couldn't seem to find one. The smallest im seeing is 2-1/4". Where did you buy yours?

-Chris

[casper50]

Chris I used 2 1/4 on my dual exhaust, dual carb, 25" cherry bombs.    

 

Edited January 30, 2017 by casper50

[40plyrod]

I just bought a few 2" U-bends some 2" straight lenghts and started cutting and welding. 

[1952B3b23]

5 hours ago, casper50 said:

Chris I used 2 1/4 on my dual exhaust, dual carb, 25" cherry bombs.    

 

Thanks Casper. I saw those videos on your thread, great job. I may end up using the 2-1/4 kit from speedway.

[1952B3b23]

1 hour ago, 40plyrod said:

I just bought a few 2" U-bends some 2" straight lenghts and started cutting and welding. 

Thats also a good option. I like the idea of the kit cause it seems like it has enough pieces so if i screw something up i can have a back up to try again.

[1952B3b23]

Question: I need to replace the hardware (nuts and washers) that hold the exhaust/intake manifold onto the car. I was thinking about using brass nuts, any thoughts?

-Chris

[Jerry Roberts]

2 hours ago, 1952B3b23 said:

Question: I need to replace the hardware (nuts and washers) that hold the exhaust/intake manifold onto the car. I was thinking about using brass nuts, any thoughts?

-Chris

Chris ,  You do know that the exhaust manifold should be held on with special tapered  conical washers that pinch the special slotted nuts . This arrangement serves as locking nuts on the ends of the manifold .  

[Don Coatney]

4 minutes ago, Jerry Roberts said:

Chris ,  You do know that the exhaust manifold should be held on with special tapered  conical washers that pinch the special slotted nuts . This arrangement serves as locking nuts on the ends of the manifold .  

As pictured.

[1952B3b23]

3 hours ago, Jerry Roberts said:

Chris ,  You do know that the exhaust manifold should be held on with special tapered  conical washers that pinch the special slotted nuts . This arrangement serves as locking nuts on the ends of the manifold .  

Nope i didn't know that. Someone had removed those from my engine at some point because the nuts i took off are all just regular hex nuts. If i cant find the proper arrangement i'll have to try some locking nuts with thicker flat washers. I quickly found these on McMaster-Carr:

https://www.mcmaster.com/#hex-locknuts/=1655b9p

Thanks for the heads up, and for the picture Don. 

-Chris

[Jerry Roberts]

The nylon might melt in the nylocks from the heat of the exhaust manifold . Vintage Power wagons sells the correct nuts and washers . 

[1952B3b23]

6 hours ago, Jerry Roberts said:

The nylon might melt in the nylocks from the heat of the exhaust manifold . Vintage Power wagons sells the correct nuts and washers . 

I wouldn't expect the nylon to hold up to all those heat cycles. The locknuts that I posted the link to do not have nylon in them. But thank you for the supplier. 

-Chris 

[1952B3b23]

I looked on the Vintage Power Wagon site and they sell a kit with the nuts, washers, and studs for $60. It says it fits a 230 ci flathead. I wonder if that means it will also fit a 218?

-Chris

[40plyrod]

My best guess would be yes.

[Jerry Roberts]

I see that you can get the whole set for  $60 or the 4 nuts and washers for $40 . From VPW 2016 catalog . 

 

Edited January 31, 2017 by Jerry Roberts

[1952B3b23]

6 hours ago, Jerry Roberts said:

I see that you can get the whole set for  $60 or the 4 nuts and washers for $40 . From VPW 2016 catalog . 

 

Yea I saw that too. Is there a diagram showing which studs use the conical washer and nut? Or do  they all use the same thing? 

Thanks. 

-Chris 

[Jerry Roberts]

" Yea I saw that too. Is there a diagram showing which studs use the conical washer and nut? Or do  they all use the same thing? "   The conical washers with tapered nuts go on the two outermost exhaust flanges . You can see one nut and washer in Don Coatney's post  .

[1952B3b23]

Tim Kingsbury sent me pictures of my completed intake and split exhaust. It looks awesome, can't wait to bolt it onto the car! You can also see George in a couple of the pics.

-Chris

[1952B3b23]

When i removed the intake/exhaust manifold i had one of the threaded studs snap off in the block. I got lucky that all of the others actually came out. To take it out i wanted to try welding a washer and nut to the end and then turning it out. I was paranoid that i would catch the car on fire with my MIG welder so i removed the fuel pump and covered as much as i could with fiberglass blankets. I first tried welding just a nut onto the end of the stud with the MIG. This didn't work, the nut broke off 

For round two i decided to use my TIG welder. But for that i had to remove the passenger side fender so i could reach in and actually see what i was doing. This worked great. The tig allows you to get really good penetration and it heats up the stud a lot too. So while it was still hot i squirted a little penetrating oil on it and was able to remove it without a problem. Also, the TIG doesn't produce any flying sparks so i wasn't all nervous that i'd light something off.

Having the fender off will help with routing the dual exhaust and fuel lines. It's a lot easier then slumping over the fender for hours!

Thanks for looking,

-Chris

[1952B3b23]

So along with doing the dual exhaust on the car i'm going to remove the steering box so it can be rebuilt. It's extremely sloppy and can't be adjusted any more. I made a simple steering wheel puller yesterday out of some .25" steel plate, three 3/8 bolts, and a 1/2 bolt. It worked great and the wheel popped right off. My steering wheel feels pretty sturdy but it does have a lot of cracks unfortunately. 

-Chris

[casper50]

Pretty easy to fix.  below shows how I fixed mine. Starts at #379

 

Edited February 26, 2017 by casper50

[classiccarjack]

In the future, if you need a nut or washer for the Intake/exhaust manifold....  I am a slant six wierdo, and it appears that the same fasteners carried over from the flatheads to the slant six.  Sometimes slant sixes can still be found in junkyards to obtain this hardware.  I may need to put the parts side by side to compare to see if the studs are the same length....  But by eyeball they appear to be spot on.

 

[1952B3b23]

21 hours ago, casper50 said:

Pretty easy to fix.  below shows how I fixed mine. Starts at #379

 

Thanks. You did a nice job. Whats the name of the color you painted it? I like it.

17 hours ago, classiccarjack said:

In the future, if you need a nut or washer for the Intake/exhaust manifold....  I am a slant six wierdo, and it appears that the same fasteners carried over from the flatheads to the slant six.  Sometimes slant sixes can still be found in junkyards to obtain this hardware.  I may need to put the parts side by side to compare to see if the studs are the same length....  But by eyeball they appear to be spot on.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I bought 4 exhaust manifold nuts from AMS Obsolete on ebay.