What is this?

[48mirage]

Can someone explain to me what these are?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-SETS-NEW-PISTON-EXPANDERS-1932-49-DODGE-6-CYL-PARTS_W0QQitemZ260160132617QQihZ016QQcategoryZ140692QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Jim

[greg g]

Well back in the day if your engine was worn and your car develpoed a bit of piston slap due to slightly tapered cylinders, they would de ridge the cylinder hone the bores, rering the pistons, then insert these under the wristpins to press the skirt portion of the against the cylinder wall. Remember our pistions are originally cast with slightly oval skirt areas. Thes spring steel expanders reestablished the oval. the oval would allow the skirt some expansion room as the piston heated up.

[Reg Evans]

I think he has them labeled incorrectly. They look like muffler bearings to me.

[Norm's Coupe]

Can someone explain to me what these are?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-SETS-NEW-PISTON-EXPANDERS-1932-49-DODGE-6-CYL-PARTS_W0QQitemZ260160132617QQihZ016QQcategoryZ140692QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Jim

I think if you need something like this, it's time for a rebuild so you won't need them.

That point made. While it can be interesting to learn about all the gadgets etc., of old, I have a motto about them.

1) If I don't know what it is, I must not need it.

2) If I find out what it is, I still don't need it because I may not know how to use the item. (In this case I would rather rebuild the engine and do it right to begin with).

3) Based on #1 & 2 above, I'd just let someone else buy it.

[62rebelP23]

my Dad's old Floyd Clymer books were pretty good at explaining how these things and things like them worked. i read them over and over as a kid,and used to be able to quote chapter and verse on Model A's. considering that these cars all ran low rpms at low compression ratios, and repair funds were limited for all but the well-to-do, "quick-fixes" that did and didn't work were all over the place. one of the best tricks i'd ever heard and many claim it still works for them is plain old Bon Ami cleansing powder for getting rings to seat and stop oil consumption (not LEAKS, but burning oil) by slooowwwly trickling it down the throat of the carb on a running engine (Chevy actually issued a tech bulletin describing this method in the '50's) to "hone"the cylinders as the car ran. change the oil afterwards and away they'd go!

now; installing these piston expanders is a lot more involved than i'd ever want to do without doing a rebuild!

[48mirage]

Thanks for the explanation fellas. I had never heard or seen anything like this before and I haven't thought of myself as a novice for a long time. I guess if they could convince someone that they were worthwhile and cheaper than a rebuild there was a market. But like many pointed out if you are going to go to all of the trouble of installing these you might as well do it right and rebuild it. Now, where did I put that tech bulletin for the Bon Ami?

Jim

[62rebelP23]

there were all sorts of quikfix kits available to sort out the woes of early cars; one was a piggyback oil feed line to supply oil to the rocker arms of Ford's Y-blocks. it came with instructions on where to drill the block and tap the full pressure feed, and fittings to install a small oil tube to the rocker covers. this product actually saved many a y-block from early doom and was fairly easy to install. remember, most cars in the 50's and 60's didn't carry much if ANY factory warranty, and getting any repair work done by the dealer took serious argument. there were no "recalls" in THOSE days!

[Don Coatney]

one was a piggyback oil feed line to supply oil to the rocker arms of Ford's Y-blocks.

I actually had one of these furd top oiler kits. Sold it on the bay a few years ago.

[Normspeed]

I once had a 57 Fairlane 4 door HT that was equipped with one of those top end oilers. It blew up anyway.

[RobertKB]

Norm, sounds like instead of the top oiler not helping you needed to shave a few pounds of that lead foot of yours!

[Jim Saraceno]

If I remember right, many of these quick fixes came out in the 40's when the war effort made metals a scarcity. As some of you already surmised, if you are going to go that far, you may as well do a rebuild, but during WWII it just wasn't that easy to come up with new parts.

Another one of those fixes was if your valve guide was worn, they would "knurl" it, which is like tapping a very wide thread on the inside of the guide. On either side of the thread, the metal would be raised which would make the ID smaller.

Again, today, if your guides are worn, you would just replace them.

[Young Ed]

Thats like when I was younger and used to take a pipe cutter to the piston in my .12CI Rc car engines. The little ridge gained back lost compression.

[62rebelP23]

you have to realize that these were accepted methods in the day, too. look at it from this POV; heavy iron blocks and heads, fairly low compression and low rpm's made it non-critical to be 100% on everything. poured in place babbit bearings shimmed with sheet brass where today we cringe at clearances! my granddad was a brazing artist; hardly ever welded anything, but could patch up tractors and farm equipment like a champ. he had a body shop in Detroit up until the late'50's.