Manifold heat control

The manifold heat control on my 1938 Dodge is stuck in the cold engine position. Have tried all the stuff in the shop from WD40 to BP Blaster to no avail. Would it be ok to remove the flap and use a solid gasket to close the opening thereby putting it in the hot engine function permanently?

Don't do this! That would create all kinds of problems once the engine warms up. You're better off leaving it "as is" until some time when you remove the manifold and can rebuild it. My '50 Dodge doesn't have a working manifold heat controller either. The engine idle is a little rough in cold weather when I first start it up but it's running fine after I go about a quarter mile or so.

I drive the car several times a week in both warm and cold weather with no problem and have been doing so for several years and several thousand miles. You might want to check out the www.P15-D24.com website. Lots of good info there including a "how-to" on dealing with this problem.

In spite of what is said about the not removing the heat raiser butterfly, I say take that thing apart, knock off the butterfly and throw it into the trash. This is the only place it belongs. I had a 1953 Dodge Red Ram V-8 and that @#$%^&*()_+ thing stuck and burned the valves to a highly unrecognizable degree, This is due to people who didn?t know any better using regular oil on it instead of some special oil that is unburnable as to not carbon it all up tight. It can also do this on its own but not as quick as when some guy in a filling station squirts oil on it.

The only result you will get is the slow warm up period. Do not put a solid gasket on it as the carburetor does need some heat in normal running.

Yours, M.L. Anderson

Herb,

I am a bit late seeing your message but I have a 47 Dodge that had similiar problems although the heat valve parts are a little different. I was able to find after much looking - that Tom Hannaford at Antique Auto Parts Cellar in Massachutes has a vendor that make new stainless steel parts for these cars. Tom's number is (781) 335-1579 or email him at Our1932@aol.com which should work. Another phone number I have is (781) 335-8860. I bought the whole kit which was a big improvement over the factory stuff. I did have to carefully remove the exhaust manifold to work on this and get it set to reinstall. There are four carbon bolts holding the valve as I recall and it is very easy to snap them off so soak them with WD40 etc. before hand. My kit cost about $50. Good luck.

Dan Olson