OrtonvilleBob

Yay! Otto Gas Engine Works had a complete set. Even got a photo. Talk about new old stock, eh? Thanks everyone.

I'm in need of a set of piston rings for my '53 Chieftain flathead 8, oversize .040"

straight8pontiac, thanks for the suggestion. It's becoming apparent that parts to overhaul our beloved flatheads are becoming difficult to find.

I'm looking to purchase a set of piston rings for my '53 Chieftain flathead 8, oversize .040". I've checked with Terrill Machine in Texas and Grant Pistons in California. Neither has any in stock. Any other suppliers I should check with? Thanks in advance for your help.

My '53.

The battery gauge in your '54 is an ammeter and as Bloo pointed out, it doesn't care about voltage. It merely indicates relative amount of current flowing to and from the battery.

October 2023, Ortonville, Michigan.

I used a Dremel tool to cut down the tall capture nut, primed and painted the rusted areas and made a new gasket from rubber sheet. The color match isn't very good but the priority was to seal up the leak, prevent further rusting and get back on the road. The chrome on the bracket is so badly pitted I'm considering sanding it down and simply painting it. Now that the underside of the visor looks good the pitted chrome of that bracket really stands out as an eyesore.

As long as I had the visor off I cleaned up the underside of the visor and gave it a coat of satin black paint. I used an engine hoist not because the visor is heavy but because reinstalling is too awkward to be a one man job.

After driving in a heavy rain I noticed a few water drops on the inside, center section of the windshield. I removed the visor center support bracket and found not only rust but a suspiciously tall capture nut. Unlike the others that are nearly flush with the roof sheet metal, that one looks to extend far enough to prevent the bracket from seating flush with the roof, especially with such a crappy cork gasket.

Phil, I'm curious why you chose to put air shocks on your Chieftain. When I replaced my rear shocks I did some searches to see what was recommended. The general consensus was air shocks weren't justified unless one was hauling heavy loads or was planning to tow something like a boat or trailer.

Glad you posted the photos of the headlight visors. I've seen them for sale on eBay but have hesitated purchasing a set. Now that I see how great they look on your car I'll order a set.

Phil, Nice find on the tachometer. I've added that one to my wish list. I have a question regarding the vacuum gauge. Do you have a snubber in the line to reduce fluctuations at idle?

Phil, could you provide more information on that Mobil oil? I believe you mentioned in another post that it was 20w40 but I can find no Mobil oil listed anywhere with "Delvac" as part of the name in that weight. Thanks.

Andy J, now that we both know the simple pump prime solution I don't believe there's any need to remove the oil pump from the engine to pack the gears with Vaseline. Just remove the four bolts that hold the cover on and the gears are exposed.

Wait, what? I could have just packed the pump with petroleum jelly instead spending a day creating my Rube Goldberg primer?

When I rebuilt my flathead I was super paranoid about getting oil to lubricate the engine during the initial startup. I wasn't sure if the internal oil cleaner had to fill up before the oil pump could built up pressure. I didn't take a chance and devised a relatively simple method to fill and prime the oil passages. I used a brake bleeder jug to force oil into one of the extra, unused oil passages on the side of the block. The line leading to the block is connected so it's under the fluid level. I set my air compressor to a low setting and pushed a quart of oil into the block. Was this necessary or maybe even silly? I don't know. But what I do know is that when I cranked the engine for the first time oil pressure came up in a matter of seconds. Hopefully someone with more experience with these flatheads gives you a definitive answer to your question.

Summershandy has a good eye and is correct about the carb heat shield being installed backwards. Nice catch, I missed that when I first looked at your pics. For reference here's what the correct orientation looks like.

Phil, recalibrating a speedo via its spinning magnets and hairspring isn't typically a diy process. But if anyone could have success with the procedure it's you.

Old school meets new school: Using a GPS based smartphone app to check the accuracy of the 70 year old mechanically driven speedometer. The vehicle had been fitted with radials which have a slightly smaller diameter than the original bias ply tires. That caused the speedo to display a higher speed than I was actually traveling. The fix was to install a speedometer adapter with the correct correction ratio to the speedometer cable where it attaches to the transmission. The one I found on eBay needed cleaning and fresh grease but the end result made the effort worthwhile.

You mentioned you put in new spark plugs and wires, how about the points? I and others can attest to the poor quality of ignition points being sold these days. In my case I wasted days of troubleshooting what I was sure was a fuel or carburetor issue. Engine would start but would die if given any throttle. Spark plugs were sooty. I didn't suspect an ignition problem cause the plugs, plug wires and points had been replaced not that long ago. I eventually checked spark strength by using an inexpensive tool that shows how big of a gap the spark could jump. I'll be darned, the spark was weak. I checked the points. I'll be darned again, they were burnt. I replaced them and bingo, engine started right up and ran great.

Last year I had problems with flooding and in the process of troubleshooting I poured what was in the float bowl thru a coffee filter. This was shortly after a carburetor rebuild so it's not like it represents year's worth of driving, more like a day's worth. I was amazed what passed thru the fuel pump and thru the carb inlet strainer. I subsequently flushed my fuel tank and fuel lines. But having seen what the coffee filter caught I was sold on the merits of having an honest-to-goodness fuel filter.

Summershandy, the internal carb filter Charles is referring to is under the large nut at the inlet of the carburetor. Here's a pic of the nut and strainer unscrewed from the top of the carburetor. It catches debris in the fuel just before it gets to the float needle and seat. The pump strainer shown in your photo is often missing and is not a problem as long as the inlet strainer, or better yet, a filter ahead of the carburetor is in place. The mesh "strainers" in the fuel pump and in the carburetor are so coarse that calling them "filters" is really a misuse of the term. Personally I wouldn't run without a good quality filter installed in the fuel system. The only potential problem with an inline fuel filter is installing a filter with a micron rating so low that it restricts fuel flow. In my experience anything smaller than 20 microns runs the risk of being a restriction.

Better than just safe, it's a good choice. Chevron is an excellent brand. As Pontiac1953 pointed out the Dexron III transmission fluid designation for our vintage hydramatic transmissions is obsolete. The new designation is MD-3. You got great deal.

pont35cpe, I don't see a kit that includes the tapped filler cap either. Either that kit is no longer available or I'm remembering incorrectly (probably the latter). Fortunately, that piece can be purchased separately from suppliers of military jeep brake parts. If a jeep was equipped for fording, meaning driving thru deep water, the standard filler cap couldn't be used because the vent would be underwater. The Willys Jeep part number for the filler cap tapped to accept a 1/8" NPT fitting is WO-119513. There's currently some NOS listed on eBay for $20.