rebuilt engines from the past

[John Reddie]

I saw this ad and it brought fond memories from the '50's. I remember that a place in Boston used to advertise that for $188.00, one could drop their car off in the morning and at day's end, drive home with a completely rebuilt exchanged engine. Ford, Plymouth and Chevrolet were listed but I'm sure that other makes could be done as well. I also recall a young man that attended the school that I did had a rebuilt engine in his '47 Plymouth that was purchased from Sears. I remember that we made less money back then and these prices would be expensive for many families but I find it interesting to look back just the same.

John R

[Plymouthy Adams]

through 1984 many dealerships still had some of these engines in stock as they were big ticket items.  The trend In dealership parts is to stock past 10 years, after 10 years and it is on the shelf, most make room for the next model car and drop the older stuff.  These engines were used commercially till 1972....same as with the Ford flathead V8, Chrysler still produced these in Brazil for civilian car market into the early 70's   

[greg g]

It was also a customer convenience thing.  The Dodge dealership I worked for while in high school always had a supply of engines on hand.  The had a couple of older guys working in a shop out behind he body shop.  They would put together engines ready for swapping. You could drop your car off. In the AM and have a used, reconditioned or rebuilt engine installed to pick up that afternoon.  Or you could have your engine pulled, torn down sent out for machining have it reassembled then installed and have your car laid up for a week or more.  So this was an early form of crate engines. They always had several big and little flatheads.  A couple 318, and couple of hemis either on a storage rack or in process.  They even had a deal with the local junk yard to look out for and pull engines from low mileage wrecks.  They would do compression tests, start them in a stand and runt

 Them for a heat cycle to check for smoking, vacuum and running temp. They would also pull down machine and rebuild some of the ones that were swapped out. They were still doing this through 1966 when I left for college.

 

 

[plymouthcranbrook]

And of course more demand then as motors often need a  partial rebuild at 60-70,000 miles and were usually done by 100,000. Verses today where 100,000 miles is just getting broke in.

Edited February 25, 2019 by plymouthcranbrook

[Theturtle]

I wonder if the remanufacturers did anything about the engine numbers.  The engine in my 1950 Plymouth is red.  The numbers stamped in the usual spot are nothing like the Plymouth factory engine numbers I have seen.  The car was with one owner (and later his grandson) on a NW Iowa farm its entire life.  I think the engine is one of these "remanufactured" engines.  But I do not understand why they would have bothered to come up with a different engine number.  I wonder if it could have originally been installed on some kind of farm equipment and then swapped into this car.

[JBNeal]

I have seen rebuilt engines with their numbers ground off and a new number stamped in its place for warranty identification...I think the reason was that an engine gets one rebuild on it and after that, the engine is too worn to be reworked or obsolete

[kencombs]

Most rebuilders attached a tag to the block.  Two small drilled holes with drive rivets to hold the metal tag.  It had the over/under sized for bearings and bore as well as ID of the builder.  I've never encountered a altered factory id pad.  As a matter of fact, that was (maybe still is) illegal in some states as that number was used to register and title vehicles.

There is a special identification used for industrial and farm usage engines.  I've seen several for irrigation pumps, combines, airport tugs  and even tractors.

[greg g]

Chrysler sold blocks with no numbers on them to lots of regional rebuilders and some chains like Western auto. The red engine may be a Sears Roebuck replacement.

[greg g]

Western Auto chain stores sold With remanufactured engine through their outlets. Jasper rebuilders used a color that looked like a mix of late Chrysler blue and Ford engine blue.

 

Do a search for Western Auto Stores and Jasper images..

Edited March 2, 2019 by greg g

[Frank Elder]

Every Jasper motor I ever came across was Green.