Great Engine Rebuild Video - Restoration of a Classic: Reviving the Chrysler 218 Straight 6 Flathead Engine - ASMR

[Sam Buchanan]

3 hours ago, Sniper said:

Seriously? 

 

Yep, seriously.

[keithb7]

I suppose our perspective around how to rebuild an engine or not, is individual. Where we’ve been. Our experience. 
 

Cleanliness is a big factor that seems overlooked here. When investing considerable money in new parts, it seems wasteful to not try and make the rebuilt engine last. There were lots of steps in the video that appear to have been a little unorthodox. A person new to engine rebuilding may not understand this. Someone learning, watching this video may think this is how it’s done. The shop who you’re paying to rebuild your engine should be more familiar with “best practices”.  Home, backyard mechanic’s rebuild? Yes it can often look like this. 

 

Sure you can refresh it as he did. Sure it started up. How long will it be before the engine needs another major intervention?  Maybe he needed it running to get it across the auction ramp? Good enough. 
 

Some simple things he did are probably not conducive to engine life. Like scraping dirt, rust, and old gasket material off the block manifold port area, after the bottom end was partially re-assembled with brand new parts. Then hitting it with compressed air. So all the contamination is now airborne. Landing in your cylinder bores. Camshaft bushings. Maybe landing on your newly assembled pistons on the bench. I think that’s a recipe for contamination of vital parts.  Better to have cleaned the block thoroughly before reassembly started. 

 

This video is probably not a very good learning aide for beginners.  It is somewhat entertaining though. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by keithb7

[Los_Control]

OK my 2 cents .... I think the dude is a hero!

Joking of course, but I do think his style of making the engine a usable commodity was spot on.

When that car/engine was 10 years old, needed repairs .... it was sitting at the local gas station.

Today the average mechanic has better tools in a home garage then a professional mechanic in the early 60's-70's ... maybe even the 80's

 

I appreciate the dude showed a video that showed how it was done years ago ... Harmonic ballancer? Get the hammer out and get er did.

Today I think you & I may do things different.

I think we are spoiled with having better tools available to us. Often we forget what was available in 1960.

 

I honestly do not think the film creator was trying to reproduce what happened in 1960, Just he did what was needed to be done.

And with the old mechanics, is why we still have old cars today ... I enjoyed watching the video and appreciated how he got to the finish line ... I never judged him.

[Sam Buchanan]

Some folks are taking this video waaay too seriously. The guy admitted he is no mechanic and I don't think any reasonable person would consider this video as a step-by-step guide on how to rebuild a flattie. This is just a guy showing how be brought a junk engine back to life in his backyard with common hand tools any handi-person would have. If you check out his channel you will see more rescues of junk, he isn't trying to be Wayne Carini.  ?

 

I found it hilarious in spots and wish him great success in rebuilding his junk finds. Here is the very entertaining video where he drags the old Plymouth home:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzP2bYAwwNE&t=6s

 

By the way, the guy is a fireman. Here he is showing his little boy how to tear down a wall in his old garage:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL1vxWGTy-4

Edited January 16, 2021 by Sam Buchanan

[Dodgeb4ya]

The only thing that bothered me was that awful nasty red silicone sealant.

Could have at least used black.

[MackTheFinger]

I don't know that I'd have done it that way and I wish him well BUT in a similar vein...

 

Around 1980 a brother stopped in with a badly smoking shovelhead. The rings were locked tight, no doubt because of too much timing and too much crap gas. He didn't have $$ to buy new parts so we dug the rings out of the pistons and filed the piston ring lands with a mill bastard until the rings spun around freely. A new set of rings, a quick hone and he was back on the road. Heard from him a week or so later, he'd made it back to SoCal without a hitch. 

 

Sometimes the light's all shining on me, other times I can barely see...

[Los_Control]

2 hours ago, MackTheFinger said:

I don't know that I'd have done it that way and I wish him well BUT in a similar vein...

 

Around 1980 a brother stopped in with a badly smoking shovelhead. The rings were locked tight, no doubt because of too much timing and too much crap gas. He didn't have $$ to buy new parts so we dug the rings out of the pistons and filed the piston ring lands with a mill bastard until the rings spun around freely. A new set of rings, a quick hone and he was back on the road. Heard from him a week or so later, he'd made it back to SoCal without a hitch. 

 

Sometimes the light's all shining on me, other times I can barely see...

Sometimes we do what we have to do to get by. When I was 17 I was working in Las Vegas, fellow worker had a 57 chebby 1/2 ton 216 with factory automatic trans ... cool beater. It ran good. He told me a rod bearing went bad, he used a beer can as a shim behind the bearing, after he dressed the crank. Yeah not the way I would have fixed it either.

One day his wife was drunk and pissed off at him ... He also had a 1966 shovel head. She told me He was running around socal claiming to be a Hells Angel. HA caught up with him and gave him 24 hours to get out of town    He fixed it anyway he could, loaded his bike, wife, a bed roll and drove the truck to vegas.

Point is he drove it from socal to vegas, back & forth to work for a year, then loaded up a small 5'x7' trailer and moved home to Maryland. Loaded with the bike and trailer, made it to West Virginia and rear end went out ... lost track of them then. But that hokey shimmed bearing held up.

[MackTheFinger]

2 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Sometimes we do what we have to do to get by

 

More times than we'd have liked to but here we are, still kickin'!!

[Sam Buchanan]

3 hours ago, Los_Control said:

He told me a rod bearing went bad, he used a beer can as a shim behind the bearing, after he dressed the crank.

 

Have you noticed that every time a can is used to fabricate an engine part it is a beer can? Wonder why??     ?

[Los_Control]

5 hours ago, Los_Control said:

One day his wife was drunk and pissed off at him ...

You all missing this point ... could be bad news for a 17 year old kid ... unless it was me  

 

[PartsAndRestoration]

Hey boys!

 

Im Glad my videos got yall talking!!

 

I'm Dave and I run the Parts & Restoration Youtube channel.  Disclaimer: I'm NOT a mechanic. These are my videos and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have. 

 

Im a professional fireman the city of Philadelphia, PA, and youll be amused to know that I performed my first oil change in my own vehicle about a year ago.  This is the second chrysler flathead engine ive rebuilt, the first being professionally machined after I pulled it from my 1958 Dodge Power Wagon W300M.  At a machining cost of 3k for the PW engine, i wanted to see if i could get this  one running for less.  Afterall, I traded my old 98 chevy truck for the 49 plymouth straight up, cash free.  I purchased that engine for 200 bucks with a free turning crank and seized valves and just wanted to get it going at low or no cost, replacing what I needed to ONLY when i absolutely needed to.  Iv gotten my education primarily from youtube and a few period tech manuals.  The basis of this video was to get it going using  basic tools and specialized stuff ONLY when necessary.  After all, i did this job at home, cleaning most of the parts in my own kitchen sink (im ALREADY divorced, dont worry).  When i hit a snag, instead of throwing money at the problem, i tried to adapt, improvise, and overcome, just like any of you would if you were in need to get something going with limited resources.  There are lots of these engines out there, for cheap, that, with some confidence gained from seeing somebody ratfuck the engine back to life, will at least give getting them running a shot. 

 

Anyway, im thankful for this forum, and for your comments of praise and criticism.  Tinkering is my outlet, my opportunity to stimulate my brain and use my hands productively.  Im no purist and I have thick skin.  I look forward to talking shop in the near future.

 

Regards,

 

Dave Weinman

Parts & Restoration

 

PS: Not a mechanic.

Edited January 17, 2021 by PartsAndRestoration

[Dodgeb4ya]

I enjoyed your fun and entertaining video!

Other than never liking red silicone sealant your video was 100% awesome?

Thanks for posting and let's see more!??

 

[PartsAndRestoration]

Heres all I have to offer, my video catalogue, if you will. Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHh2IAjdU-G9l8N3oc8h2uA/videos

[Los_Control]

51 minutes ago, PartsAndRestoration said:

Tinkering is my outlet, my opportunity to stimulate my brain and use my hands productively.

I just wish I used my hands productively and had a running truck .... No I use my hands for entertainment.

 

[keithb7]

Cool that you checked in here Dave. Your video certainly did raise lots of interest. I’m interested in learning more about how the engine is running once you start driving the car regularly.  You most certainly refreshed the engine at a low cost. Cost per mile going forward interests me. 

Edited January 17, 2021 by keithb7

[Dartgame]

Hey Dave - your video was quite interesting to watch. Great you got the motor running. You may want to take a look at this you tube - this is a professional rebuild of a mopar flathead 230 ci 6. 

 

 

[Booger]

On 1/16/2021 at 12:21 PM, Los_Control said:

Sometimes we do what we have to do to get by. When I was 17 I was working in Las Vegas, fellow worker had a 57 chebby 1/2 ton 216 with factory automatic trans ... cool beater. It ran good. He told me a rod bearing went bad, he used a beer can as a shim behind the bearing, after he dressed the crank. Yeah not the way I would have fixed it either.

One day his wife was drunk and pissed off at him ... He also had a 1966 shovel head. She told me He was running around socal claiming to be a Hells Angel. HA caught up with him and gave him 24 hours to get out of town    He fixed it anyway he could, loaded his bike, wife, a bed roll and drove the truck to vegas.

Point is he drove it from socal to vegas, back & forth to work for a year, then loaded up a small 5'x7' trailer and moved home to Maryland. Loaded with the bike and trailer, made it to West Virginia and rear end went out ... lost track of them then. But that hokey shimmed bearing held up.

If I remember right the 216s had a brass shim (no bearings on the oil dipper rod cap). so a beer can would have made a suitable hillbilly shim.

I think they killed off the 216 in 51 or 52 for the 235 thriftmaster. but thats a great story

[MackTheFinger]

One thing I'll lay money on, our buddy Dave's had his hands deeper in an engine than a whole bunch of internet "experts."

[MackTheFinger]

3 hours ago, Dartgame said:

Hey Dave - your video was quite interesting to watch. Great you got the motor running. You may want to take a look at this you tube - this is a professional rebuild of a mopar flathead 230 ci 6. 

 

 

I didn't watch that particular series but have watched some of his other stuff. He seems thorough, knowledgeable, and professional.

[Sniper]

9 hours ago, MackTheFinger said:

One thing I'll lay money on, our buddy Dave's had his hands deeper in an engine than a whole bunch of internet "experts."

 

If you are referring to me you would be oh so wrong.

[Sam Buchanan]

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Edited January 19, 2021 by Sam Buchanan

[p15-1948]

On 1/3/2021 at 7:15 PM, keithb7 said:

I watched that video recently too. I thought a rookie could learn more if there was some explanation. Why things were being done a certain way. 
 

I believe this block is getting no machining. No cylinder taper or out of round measured.  What did the crank and rod bearings measure up for wear?  Taking  the top ridge off with a reamer makes machinists cringe. My understanding is its pretty easy to wreck your cylinders doing that. Especially a rookie. 
 

If you have a you tube channel and you need content, this works to keep views up. If you need to rebuild an engine, have reliability, and good return on your investment, this fails in my opinion.
 

Its an experiment. Slam new parts into an old block. Roll the dice. See what happens. It’s entertainment. Not education  in my opinion. 

In my youth I took the ridge out of Ford Falcon 144.  When I got to the machine shop I was shown that I would not have needed to have the block bored if I had taken it easy on cutting the ridge.  Live and learn.

 

[Hamilton]

On 1/19/2021 at 3:43 AM, Sniper said:

 

If you are referring to me you would be oh so wrong.

Based on your post history I suspect you have indeed been inside at least a couple of engines.  Big deal, so have many of us. 

 

My personal experience, for example, includes a couple of VW four-bangers, the 340 Wedge from my '71 Duster, a Porsche 912 four-cylinder, a N/A Porsche 911 six-cylinder, several SB Chevies, the inline-six from a Datsun 280Z, an LS5, a '70 GTO 455 and the six-cylinder turbo from my Porsche 930 (these are $25K-$30K engines when done correctly).  These are just the complete rebuilds - I've done pretty significant work on dozens of engines (first wrench I turned was on a '49 Plymouth in 1969 or 1970).   All of my rebuilds were completed to a very high standard with, I believe, far more care and attention-to-detail given during assembly than any shop would have given them (although I did have to farm out the machine work).  Why?   Because I care more about my stuff than anyone else does.  

 

But for all of the hundreds of hours, and tens of thousands of dollars I've invested in my rebuilds over the years, it hasn't always been that way.  When I was a kid I did whatever I had to do to get my car running and keep it running for as long as it would run on a budget of pretty much ... nothing.  When I was in the Marine Corps I would, during those few times I was actually on a base, go to the Motor Pool and help work on Jeeps, Six-Bys and Deuce-and-a-Halfs.  Talk about a lesson in keeping things running!

 

And yet I, like most people here, have a good deal of appreciation for what Dave undertook, the unothodox-by-professional-standards methods he employed and the entertaining way by which he presented it.  It also bears mentioning that unless the car is used as a DD, chances are it'll see so little use that the engine in the video will probably still be running in twenty years. 

 

That you'd apparently rather condescend than applaud his efforts to show what can be done in a pinch and on a shoe-string budget should disappoint any real car guy.

 

nk

_

 

 

 

 

[Sniper]

You have zero idea what condescension is.  Condescension is letting someone stew in their ignorance and telling them they are a good boy.  Whereas consideration would help them out so that they can better themselves.  But you go right ahead and be who you are and I'll be who I am. 

[Hamilton]

You're welcome.

_