Bloo

Hexavalent is the stuff used back in the day. It has that blusih color we all expect. Trivalent tends to be yellower, but the platers can control color to some extent. I have no Idea about durability. Any nice chrome job is going to be expensive today.

Yes, I believe so. 1936 Buick. The rib goes over the top like that on a '36, but around the side on '37 and '38. I think the Buick light with the rib over the top was also used on Olds in 1936? And possibly some other GM make, maybe LaSalle? Not sure, but definitely not Pontiac or Chevrolet. The '37 and '38 lights with the rib around the side were only on Buick as far as I know. Lights like this turn up on everything now as signal lights. I have even seen them on a Terraplane.

Yeah, thats like mine more or less. I can't really see because It is so close to the engine. These setups should NEVER suck exhaust, but as Joe pointed out, some cars have more thin tubing inside separating exhaust from clean hot air. Your drawing sums up what is in there. It is the standard Pontiac flathead setup. An open cavity. Cold air comes in the holes in the cover. One thing you should also look at closely is your intake. Most DO have tubing (more like exhaust tubing) about the diameter of the carb flange and directly under it. The thin wall of the tubing separates the intake manifold from exhaust being sent up from the heat riser. Look down through the carb hole, and up from the heat riser hole, you'll see. They are notorious for rusting out and letting exhaust into the intake manifold. I am fairly sure all the one barrel cars have this setup. I am not sure how Pontiac approached it when they went to two-barrel.

Good advice. Make sure there is no way it can suck exhaust! On my 36, there is no such problem because the heat stove is just a big open air cavity cast into the manifold, and there is a plate (3.602) bolted over it. I think Pontiac flatheads had the same setup clear to the end but I am not sure. It would pay to check.

It probably doesn't need sealer if it fits tight.There tubes just pull hot air (not exhaust). If I felt I had to seal it, I might use Walker Acousti-Seal. It is good enough for exhaust, but is brittle when cured. The tube would still need to be mechanically solid on it's own. I have made several similar tubes for 60s-70s Fords over the years, and those typically had a shoulder crimped into the pipe that serves as a stop when you drive it in. It should fit fairly tight in the hole. I made a ring out of steel wire and brazed it on to duplicate the shape of the shoulder. That Pontiac tube looks so short it couldn't possibly fall out, As long as it is not so loose it rattles, I don't think it would matter at all if the joint at the hot end leaked.

I remember it. Maybe if they had shot a CitiCar into space, more people would remember.

800k? A usb floppy drive for a PC isn't going to do anything. Those old 800k disks are completely incompatible with PC drives as far as I know. The following generation of Macs had a "SuperDrive" that could accept 800k disks, newer higher capacity Mac disks, and PC style disks. The newer, higher-capacity disks could be exchanged with PCs, but the old 800k were still Mac only due to the mechanical incompatibility. One could use an old Mac to move the files onto a newer Mac disk, and from there to a PC... I think. What is on the disk, Mac programs? You are probably going to need a Mac emulator, and probably some sort of filesystem driver.... Maybe an Apple guru will come along and correct any mistakes I have made here. I don't think its too far off, but this is all from a long time ago. I think it would be easier just to get an old Mac. You don't live anywhere near Central or Western Washington do you? There could be one buried in a deep dark hole here...

How did you get the pins out originally? Did you have a special tool?

Yes custom pistons are expensive. However piston (and ring) technology has changed a LOT in the last 20 or 25 years. Custom pistons are an opportunity to reduce the reciprocating mass, increase the compression a little (on super low compression engines), maybe get some squish/quench. and, if you specify it, modern piston rings. Modern rings are thinner, seal better, drag less, and control oil better too. Sometimes a weak piston pin retention mechanism can be replaced as well. The reduction in weight takes load off the bearings, and may even allow the engine to turn a little faster than before. All of this from a part that will be replaced anyway. It would be a priority for me if I needed to rebore. Food for thought. Anyway, that doesn't help the original poster, who wants ONE piston, and is presumably not going to bore the block. I remember a thread in these forums where a guy had a bunch of random NOS cast iron pistons he was trying to identify. I can't find it. Does anyone remember that?

I dont know. Try to get it out. It least it is soft plastic that wont break anything. If the engine is free, get a bright penlight to shine in the plug hole, try to crank the engine slowly with a wrench to make the piston come up and maybe push an end up where you can see it. Maybe you can grab it with a skinny needle nose ot a mechanical grabber. Worst case, you take the head off.

No need for aerosol, I just mentioned it because it makes it super easy to do. The spark plug holes are over the valves, the pistons are actually on the drivers side of the car. A "zoom spout" oiler bottle from the hardware store (they are full of mineral oil, which would be fine also) is another easy way to get oil over there. I only suggested aerosol because it has to go sideways, unlike an overhead valve engine where the spark plug hole is right over the piston, and you can dribble anything in there easily. Here is a Pontiac 8 with the head off (6 is nearly identical):

I would say put the oil in the cylinders NOW so it will have time to soak before you try to turn it. Oil is ok, but diesel, marvel mystery oil, or transmission fluid is even better. If it is not stuck, it is still much nicer to the engine if there is time to soak before anything moves. The plug holes are not over the cylinders on a flathead, so you kind of need to squirt sideways. Hint: Liquid Wrench is very diesel-like, and comes in a spray can. Be careful not to drop the little red tube in.

Yes, there are some Bosch parts. Here is the story as it was told back in the day (I cant prove any of this): Bendix developed Electronic Port Fuel Injection in the late 50s as "Electrojector". It was installed on some top of the line Chrysler products and Ramblers. There were issues. The cars were rare in the first place, and most had the fuel injection removed while still under warranty. Very few exist today. After that massive flop, Bendix sold the rights to Bosch for worldwide production EXCEPT the USA. Bosch continued to develop the system until it was practical, and by the late 60s it became D-Jet. When Cadillac came looking for fuel injection in the 70s, Bendix obliged, using some Bosch technology and parts.

THIS!^^ Yes, any car you buy will need some work, no matter how perfect it looks, but don't buy a project if you want to drive! It is easy to say to yourself "oh I will just fix this little thing and that little thing..." etc. Restoration isn't for everyone. If you want to drive, buy a finished car. Any work that is already done when you buy the car you are getting for about 1/3 the cost (or better!). You wont get everything, but the more you can buy this way the cheaper it is. The difference is huge. Craigslist is full of cars that have "lots of money invested, just need someone to finish it up". Life has way of dropping a piano on your head just as you have the car far enough apart that it wont drive anymore. Fully sorted cars that also look good rarely come up on the market. It is tough to get there even for people with a lot of money. People who made it to that point often are not interested in selling. Sometimes you get extremely lucky and hear about a really well sorted car through a club that the owner became too old to handle the manual steering, or is getting remarried and moving to Bermuda, or died, or something. Otherwise, buy the best car you can possibly get, and start daily driving it around town and see what troubles crop up. If you bought well, in about a year it may very well be good enough to take on long trips. Good luck!

Not often, just often enough to get stuck. P. S. Some 1980s GM products did trigger the electric choke from the charging system.

Welcome! This isn't as active as the Buick section, but there's a few of us in here. My Pontiac is a 1936 Master Six. There a lot of similarity between all of the Pontiac flathead sixes from 1935-1954 and the eights from 1933-1954. You may find a lot of info in old threads here that applies. Also check out: http://www.earlytimeschapter.org

WHAT? Miles per hour?!! For what it is worth, most passenger cars of the period cant go that fast. I would not count on that unless some owner of a similar truck can verify it. I'll bet it goes about 20mph in high over. How fast will a heavy IH from that period go? I like it though. I like it a lot. Good luck.

Exactly this. Also, sometimes differences in parts aren't obvious. It really makes the difference between knowing how something goes together, and screwing around for hours trying to figure it out.

I would sure want some confirmation from an A owner who did it that it makes a good conversion.

I know guys used to do that trick to prevent scuffing in race engines, the knurling gives the oil a place to sit. It seems to me, though. that the expansion would just knock down the knurling to whatever the clearance really needed to be, and the noise would come back. I guess it would be as tight as it could be. I think it might be hard to find anyone to knurl pistons these days. I got some blank looks for suggesting it even in the 80s.

The trouble with doing this is that the second hand goes Tic-Tic-Tic, and in a glance suddenly its 1978, not 1948. On the upside, the clock actually works.

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This is far and away the most likely scenario. It is so easy to do because many 1930s pistons were either cast iron, or aluminum with (Invar?) supports cast in and slots to control expansion. Replacement pistons may be plain aluminum. Plain aluminum pistons, at least the full skirted type used in 1930s cars, expand significantly more than original pistons. It is a major reason they weren't used in the first place. If you set them loose enough to work, they will rattle when cold. Invariably someone will insist on setting the piston clearance to what the manual says it should be. This works fine until the engine gets warm. Keep troubleshooting and hope it turns out to be the starter system.

You might be surprised. These are the coolest things ever when you are standing next to one with the hood open. Some of them even had all-aluminum bodies, but I think I see surface rust on this one.