51 Meadowbrook engine rebuild

[Worden18]

Me and my friend Brad.  Thankfully he was around today.  We had fun

[Worden18]

That old flathead purrs nicely!  Very excited about getting new exhaust....

[Worden18]

My 7 year old son took all of these pics 

[Worden18]

Going up!  There IS sound to the video; all you can really hear is birds chirping in the background.  The hoist is silent 

[Worden18]

Finished up in my friend's shop today.  Re-torqued the head, zip-tied some wires, tightened the carb hold-down nuts again, topped off the anti-freeze, put the hood on, cleaned up my friend's shop, loaded all of my tools and parts and headed home!  50 mile trip home, so I got to test it out really good.  No problems.  When I got home I changed the oil and filter, which is what my rebuilder said to do.  It was fairly dirty.  I replaced the SAE-30 non-detergent with Castrol GTX 10w-30.  Should be fine.  I know there's a ton of other options.  

Here comes the pics:

[Worden18]

Had my dogs with me today (male and female boxers).  

Here's the female enjoying the armrest in the back seat on the way home!

[Worden18]

My family and I at Subway for dinner.  Lots of people looked at my car....

[Worden18]

No way anyone could wipe the smile off my face!  I love driving the Meadowbrook 

[Worden18]

At home right before I pulled it into the garage 

[Worden18]

One other thing I did today was mount a vintage period tow hitch (that my friend gave to me) to the bumper.   Not sure I would actually trust it to tow anything , but I like the look of it.

I then mounted that original piston (that had a couple of chunks out of it) to the hitch using the eye-bolt the rebuilder used on my engine for the cherry picker.  I wanted to re-purpose that piston somehow; I just couldn't throw it away.  Its certainly a conversation piece.  Can't wait for someone to notice it and ask me about it!

[Worden18]

Oh by the way, that original 1951 MN license plate actually passed through the DMV without one single question or comment being made as to its condition.  In MN the rules are that the "year" plate has to have at least one letter in it.  Well I have news for ya, most of the plates in 1951 for MN are ALL numbers.  This was the only one I could find on Ebay with at least one letter in it.  It worked out well because it matches the patina of the car 

Edited May 9, 2017 by Worden18

[Reg Evans]

39 minutes ago, Worden18 said:

Had my dogs with me today (male and female boxers).  

Here's the female enjoying the armrest in the back seat on the way home!

Looks like a head rest to me.

[dpollo]

Advertising for the 51 Dodge  said  "Drive it for five minutes and you'll drive it for years! "   ,,,  sounds about right!  Congratulations on a job well done and I support your decision to change oil and the type of oil you chose.  Happy  Motoring !

[Worden18]

1 hour ago, dpollo said:

Advertising for the 51 Dodge  said  "Drive it for five minutes and you'll drive it for years! "   ,,,  sounds about right!  Congratulations on a job well done and I support your decision to change oil and the type of oil you chose.  Happy  Motoring !

Thanks dpollo; its been a lot of fun so far.  And I have that brochure that says "Drive it for five minutes and you'll drive it for years!" 

Some things I'll have to take care of in the near future:

-adjust the clutch

-speedo is sticky; will have to lube the cable

-rear brakes

-and exhaust:  I just visited the shop this morning.  It will be a couple of weeks before I can get it in.  What I have on there now will be okay, its just kind of cobbled together and has a few small holes.  

And low and behold, what happens when I stop to fill up with gas?  An 80 year old man strolls over and we talk about my car for 15 minutes ; and he noticed the piston and hitch on the rear bumper right away.  He liked it.  He was telling me when he was small his old man had a 37 Plymouth and it wouldn't start worth a damn in the winter, so they'd have to pull it with horses to get it going!  They'd only drive it into town about once a month (from the farm) because he said they just didn't go anywhere.  He wasn't sure whatever happened to it.  Every single time I fill up with gas someone talks to me about the car.  I enjoy that.  

I really enjoyed this morning's cruise as well.  I'm at peace when I drive the car.   BTW, I averaged 17mpg the first 170 miles on the rebuild.

[knuckleharley]

5 hours ago, Worden18 said:

Thanks dpollo; its been a lot of fun so far.  And I have that brochure that says "Drive it for five minutes and you'll drive it for years!" 

Some things I'll have to take care of in the near future:

-adjust the clutch

-speedo is sticky; will have to lube the cable

-rear brakes

-and exhaust:  I just visited the shop this morning.  It will be a couple of weeks before I can get it in.  What I have on there now will be okay, its just kind of cobbled together and has a few small holes.  

And low and behold, what happens when I stop to fill up with gas?  An 80 year old man strolls over and we talk about my car for 15 minutes ; and he noticed the piston and hitch on the rear bumper right away.  He liked it.  He was telling me when he was small his old man had a 37 Plymouth and it wouldn't start worth a damn in the winter, so they'd have to pull it with horses to get it going!  They'd only drive it into town about once a month (from the farm) because he said they just didn't go anywhere.  He wasn't sure whatever happened to it.  Every single time I fill up with gas someone talks to me about the car.  I enjoy that.  

I really enjoyed this morning's cruise as well.  I'm at peace when I drive the car.   BTW, I averaged 17mpg the first 170 miles on the rebuild.

YIKES! You have somehow decrypted the secret!

I am not a betting man,but I would almost be willing to bet there isn't one person in a thousand anymore that can honestly say they enjoyed driving their new car anywhere. It's just a tool they use when they need a tool for transport.

This means you are already ahead of the game,and spent tens of thousands of dollars less to get there. Most people around here don't understand what I am talking about when they ask me why I drive my old stuff in nice weather,and my new truck when it's raining,and I tell them I do it to preserve the good stuff.

[The Oil Soup]

The patina and the yom plate is nice!

[Worden18]

After I bypassed the heater control valve and checked for leaks, we drove to a nearby town so the kids could have fun at the playground there.  Wife and I walked the dogs.  The Meadowbrook was the lone car in the parking lot!   A ton of people waved to me (well, they waved at the car) on the highway and in town.  I honked the horn a few times in response.  Tomorrow is going to be another awesome day of cruising for us.  Sunny and in the 70s; can't wait 

Engine is running excellent; no problems after the minor anti-freeze incident...

Edited May 13, 2017 by Worden18

[Worden18]

Today started out really good.  We took the car to a nearby farm that was having a plant sale.  Bought some tomato, cucumber, bean, parsley, and cilantro plants for our garden.

 I barely got out of the car when a woman approached me and said "You guys have the coolest car and the coolest dogs."  

I proceeded to tell her about the car, and then we discussed dogs for a while.  She had seen us driving around somewhere before.  The woman selling the plants commented on the car as well, telling us she really liked it. 

We stopped for lunch, then drove about 15 miles back home.  Later when I started up the car, it seemed like it was starving for fuel.  I pulled out of the garage and into the main driveway and she died right there 

I have a see-through fuel filter between the pump and the carb; no gas was in there.  So I took the line off before the filter and turned the car over.  No gas coming up.  I was surprised that the fuel pump itself might possibly be bad because I just put it on last year and it only has about 3K miles on it.  Anything can break, I know.  

The fuel tank I believe is original.  It has sputtered up its share of gunk and pieces into the pump bowl and into the inline filter.  I think a big piece of sh*t came out of the pump when I disassembled it.  I thought I caught a glimpse of it at the top of the bowl right before I dumped all of the gas out into a dirty oil pan.  The diaphragm and everything else looked okay inside the pump.  The thing made a suction noise when I manually moved the arm.  Guess that doesn't mean it still works.  

Question #1:  Is there supposed to be a screen between the pump and the glass bowl?  Mine doesn't have one.  How is the bowl supposed to filter anything without a screen?  Is there supposed to be a filter in the bowl?  Doesn't show one when you buy/look at it online...

Question #2:  Should I even put the pump back on there and see if it works after disassembling it, blowing it out, and possibly freeing it up from a large piece of sh*t? 

I've decided that I'm going to order a new fuel tank and sending unit.  There's a place right here in MN that has them.  I'll have it in 3 days.  This will help eliminate future gunk problems.  I should've done this earlier.  Well live and learn I guess.  

Some pics from today:

Edited May 14, 2017 by Worden18

[Worden18]

[knuckleharley]

Good plan with the new gas tank. Next time you break down from fuel starvation it might be in the middle lane during rush hour,and there is no one to help you push it off to the side of the road.

When you consider what it cost to rent a roll-back these days to get hauled home after a breakdown,you can buy a new gas tank and avoid all that grief and embarrassment for less than two rollback trips home. When you look at it that way,you almost have to be nuts to waste your time trying to flush out tanks and lines and then coat the tank inside to keep the rust from coming back.

Do yourself a favor and replace the old gas lines while you are at it. Do it all once and be done with it.

[classiccarjack]

On 5/13/2017 at 9:48 PM, knuckleharley said:

Good plan with the new gas tank. Next time you break down from fuel starvation it might be in the middle lane during rush hour,and there is no one to help you push it off to the side of the road.

When you consider what it cost to rent a roll-back these days to get hauled home after a breakdown,you can buy a new gas tank and avoid all that grief and embarrassment for less than two rollback trips home. When you look at it that way,you almost have to be nuts to waste your time trying to flush out tanks and lines and then coat the tank inside to keep the rust from coming back.

Do yourself a favor and replace the old gas lines while you are at it. Do it all once and be done with it.

I was going to recommend replacing the gas lines also, Knuckleharley beat me to it...  Excellent piece of advice!  I learned that lesson the hard way for not replacing the line on my old 1959 Dodge.

[classiccarjack]

On 5/5/2017 at 3:03 PM, knuckleharley said:

I've heard that my whole life,and for my whole life I have wondered if that is so important,why is it none of the new cars from the factory are blowing head gaskets? After all,we know they don't drive them and then retorque the heads before shipping them off to the dealerships.

Newer cars have different head gasket technology.  They seal better, and have different materials used in them that hold the crush of the torque applied.  

I am wondering if Cometic has made or is making Gaskets for these engines....  Hmmm

[MackTheFinger]

On 5/13/2017 at 10:06 PM, Worden18 said:

That's a nice car!! Not sure where you are but my little brother lives in Minneapolis, right on Lake Calhoun or whatever they're calling it now.

[knuckleharley]

4 hours ago, classiccarjack said:

Newer cars have different head gasket technology.  They seal better, and have different materials used in them that hold the crush of the torque applied.  

I am wondering if Cometic has made or is making Gaskets for these engines....  Hmmm

That's true,but new cars also have a LOT more compression and use aluminum heads and blocks and turn up a LOT more rpms,which amounts to more "shocks",for lack of a better term.

 

. Things were much simpler with copper head gaskets and 6 or 7 to one compression with cast iron heads and blocks.

[Worden18]

6 hours ago, MackTheFinger said:

That's a nice car!! Not sure where you are but my little brother lives in Minneapolis, right on Lake Calhoun or whatever they're calling it now.

We are down in the SE corner of the state; Houston County