hchris

Disagree as you wish but the priniple of setting the float level has to do with the law of physics, remember a u tube from school days, when you could balance the level of water and then affect the level by blowing or sucking at one end of the tube. Carburettors work on the same process; without getting too technical, the level of fuel in the float bowl and the amount of suction through the venturi action is what makes the fuel flow through the jets and past the throttle plate, in fact the venturi action actually has to lift the fuel out of the fuel bowl then out into the discharge nozzle/s. With this in mind, if you lower the float level the venturi action for a given throttle setting lifts less fuel out of the bowl resulting in a leaner mixture, and if the float is set high the opposite occurs and you finish up with a rich mixture; thats why manufacturers specify a given float level setting. Having said all that, you may not notice too much running difference at town speeds if the float level is off a 1/16" or so, but if you were to go to the trouble of putting an exhaust analyser on the tailpipe you would certainly see the effect; most engines will run on a fairly wide variation of mixture settings but they will run better or more efficiently if the mixture is set correctly. So in the bigger scheme of things your observations are understandable and you may choose to disregard manufacturers specs, where it may impact on your longterm usage is burnt exhaust valves using leaner mixtures, town usage may take a long time for this to show but the cumulative affect of some long hard trips might make a difference. Solving the leakage issues would probably have been addressed by facing the float cover and float bowl joint surfaces, given the material quality and joint screw tension it is inevitable that they will warp in time, but then thats one of the meany frustrations we put up with with our older vewhicles.

All good advice from the above for setting up the idle mixture; assuming you still have the original carb fitted, there is not a lot you can do about affecting the higher speed mixtures, as they are set by the size of the fixed orifice jets within the carb. A good indicator of normal running mixtures is to take a look at the color of the spark plugs, after a lengthy run, with the engine at normal operating temps. If all is well the ceramic insulator under the plug electrode should be a nice light tan/brown color, if it tends too a whitish color you are lean, sooty black is too rich. Often overlooked with mixture issues at all speeds is the correct height setting of the needle/seat and float mechanism, these have a significant impact as a too high setting wil cause rich running and too low float level will cause lean running; as these parts wear in service its always wise to check for the correct float level, if you have the carb apart, or you are dealing with mixture problems.

My 2 cents; there are two or more sets of rings used on most pistons, the upper set maintain compression the lower set are oil scraper rings. You can have good compression but that doesnt mean the oil scraper rings are doing there job; with an engine that has sat around for a while you will inevitabely have a corrosion mark on the bore where the rings sat and the oil scraper rings will probably have gummed up, this combination usually exhibits itself exactly as you are describing once a sitting engine is put back into use. Leak down test, oil in the bore etc. are not going to tell you anymore than you already know, having done the valve seals as you have there arent meany other options, which of course as Rusty has said, means replacing the rings. You could get lucky with some of those oil treatments and I guess its worth a try before you go tearing things apart.

Your starter solenoid should have two smaller wires connected to it as well as the heavy duty wires from battery to starter; one is from the ignition switch the other to the neutral switch on the trans, the latter wire breaks the earth to the starter solenoid if the trans is not in neutral. You could test the function of the neutral switch by putting a test lamp between the wire from the solenoid and the neutral switch, with the ignition on and trans selector in neutral the light should illuminate, moving the trans selector into gear should make the light go out; obviously it would be wise to set the park brake/chock the wheels while doing this. Sometimes its simply a matter of adjustment on the trans selector which could cause a fault, a workshop manual will tell you how to correctly set this up .

One hex would mean to tighten the nut until there is no bearing freeplay then turn the nut a further flat - or one hex side of the nut, then follow the rest of the procedure. Your description of brake problems sounds more like a problem with the left side brake, in other words whilst the right side is doing the braking the left side is not being applied the same amount, if at all, hence the swerve to the right. I would be removing the left brake drum(s) for a looksee, not forgetting that it could be either a front or back brake at fault.

From a recent history of Walter P Chrysler book (Life of an American Workman) it was a conscious decision of his to rename the product Dodge, not sure what year (I suspect 1937), but this occurred in 1938.

Without dotting i`s and crossing t`s the Dodge Bros. commenced manufacturing there own vehicles in 1914 (centenary celebrations next year), unfortunately both brothers died in 1920. The company continued under the direction of the two widows and appointed managers until 1925, it was then sold to a banking consortium who ran it until 1928. Walter Chrysler purchased the company outright in 1928 and continued to produce vehicles labelled as Dodge Brothers until 1938 when the decision was taken to drop the Brothers title.

Not uncommon for this vehicle as manifold studs screw thru into the water jacket. If its not been moved in a while its quite likely the stud has corroded and leak commenced, so first see if the stud can be removed (there is potential for it too break), get it out, find another, goop it up with sealant and stick it back in. A word of caution if you have to remove the exhaust manifold - be careful - they are prone to crack and break and absolutely impossible to find as a replacement

FWIW an absolute must is that it be within easy reach of you whilst in the car, no point in watching the smoke billow as you try and remove covers or get out of the car and run around to open the hood to gain access; by then the damage has well and truly been done. Look at saving the battery when not in use as an added bonus, not a priority.

Don't know about you guys but if they were down here I would say they would fit our Slant sixes 60 thru 70s, your Plymouth Valiants

Lets start with something simple, is the battery charged up ??

That would be 1US gallon; not that it would make a lot of difference if it were Imperial as 1 Imp is equal to 1.2 US, or in the old money approximately a Quart.

Methinks the same thing, have you tried rubbing a soap bar on the v sides of the belt ?

From Pg.10 of the owners manual - the capacity of the oil pan is one gallon.

OK if you dont have a new rebuilt engine then best stick to a non detergent non synthetic oil. Personally, with a number of 30 to 50`s Mopars in my shed, I use a brand name 20W50 grade because I live in a temperate climate, and my drives take in equal amounts of suburban and highway excursions. In the main, as I only do a few hundred miles a year on any given vehicle, I choose to change oil and filter every 6 months, whilst this may sound excessive I believe its cheap insurance in maintaining a healthy sound engine; to date this practice has served me well for the past 30 years.

Getting an answer to this one is like asking what color socks should I wear, but help us out a little by elaborating on the car; is it a new or older engine? how often do you drive it? do you live in the snow or the desert? do you just putter around the back streets or are you frequently at highway speeds? these are just a few of the things which will influence a satisfactory oil to use.

Well spotted keiser, absolutely gorgeous photo

Great progress, I would not mess with the hot / cold plug issue just yet as you have definitely made an improvement with your mixture settings by the sound of it. As others have said it could be that the choke mechanism is at fault, however the fact that you had a good idle makes it unlikely; if it occurs again then its still worth checking that the choke is fully open. You have made a rather large high speed mixture change so that may well be the root cause of your problem, and getting back to the plugs, if they look clean after your next run then leave well enough alone. As to the vac reading, if you are really concerned then have another go at getting it up to about 18" - 20" after your run when the engine is at normal operating temps, not sure if you are aware but the timing will affect this setting also. If you cant achieve this number dont be too concerned particularly if you have an older engine, its more about getting the highest stable reading at idle. So looks like you are heading in the right direction, keep us informed on your progress

With such poor fuel consumption and inability to get beyond 40mph, I would be curious to see what state the plugs are in after you have experienced the missing episodes. If you are able to quickly shut it down having encountered the problem (dont let it idle) then pull the plugs, you may well find they are sooted up which obviously points to over fueling at higher throtlle settings. Even if the plugs are not sooted their colour may tell you something.

Without knowing your specific distributor, most of the breaker plates are secured to the dizzy body by two external screws thru the wall of the dizzy body, one of them usually secures the vac mechanism housing. If this is your setup, first disconnect the vac mechanism arm that passes thru the body wall to the breaker plate, then remove the breaker plate screws and simply lift the plate out of the dizzy body. Your washer should be down there with the advance/retard flyweights.

What keiser31 says - 1929/1930 Desoto K

One way to check is by removing the rocker covers and checking that both inlet and exhaust valves on #1 are loose (ie have clearance) when the pointer is aligned on the TDC pulley mark and the distributor rotor is pointing to #1 plug lead. If you have installed it 180 out then the valves on #6 will be loose and valves on #1 will be rocking as you reach the TDC mark, by rocking I mean the inlet will be opening and exhaust closing.

What Mike says, the relevance of timing marks with todays fuels is somewhat lost. Apart from road testing the only other thing I would recommend is to find the engine "sweet point" using a vacuum guage, if you have a vacuum port on the intake manifold hook a guage up to it, and at idle, move the distributor around until you get the highest vac guage reading, typically around 18 - 20 inches. Now take it for a run and you should find it close to the ideal for smooth runing and acceleration, just be careful in the event you have too much advance, listen for "pinging" under load.

Tell us a bit more, have you just discovered this? have you recently had the lubrication system apart? has the motor been sitting without running for any length of time? does the motor knock when its running?

Probably it would help a lot if we knew where you were