gundog99

I am so sorry you are having such bad luck, but thank goodness none of you are seriously injured.

Looking at the underside pictures of the Victory Six showing the steering rod, has remind me to post the photographs of an original Chrysler mopar steering rod Gaiter of unknown date. I have stupidly lost the box it came in. I suspect this is the most neglected part of a vintage car in terms if restoration and maintenance.This is not helped by the unavailability of new bolt (ball) part 174 and more critically the case harden cups.I was lucky enough to by a set of secondhand cups, still case hardened, to replace the ones in the photograph, one of the original cups was 1 mm oversize or 39.37 thousands The two linkages on the rod are possibly the most exposed to road dirt and water on the car. I made two garters about ten years age, for one of my great grandmother kid skin gloves; these were based on the Chrysler design, but doubling the height from 16mm to 30mm and tapering the top to a near fit; the steel casing part I made from brass .Last year I took one of the off to find out how effective it was, the grease was completely free of dirt.

In the UK Esso and BP still sell non ethanol fuel, I switched to a premium fuel earlier in the year. it is probable not a good idea to mix ethanal fuel with non ethanal. https://ttypes.org/modern-fuel-on-trial/ I can recommend this book, : Classic Engines, Modern Fuel by Paul Ireland

I have had the same problem for about three years now and have tried a number of ideas with limited success. a possible problem with modern fuel is slow ignition, resulting in some of the petrol burning in the manifold,this cause overheating, by setting the advance a few degrees more than the manual setting does help. I am tuning my Senior at the moment and have spent some time making sure the points and spark plugs are in good condition with accent gape setting .Today I will check everything with my digital timing kit. Have a read of Matt's "Restoration of Victory Six sports roadster"? There is a very useful bit about converting his victory six manifold and a senior manifold. Matt has fitted electronic ignition in his car ,I will be doing the same soon. Update. I took my time and was very careful to get the settings absolutely right (adding 2 degrees of advance) I still need to check all by setting digitally. i took the Dodge for a 10 mile run, driving fairly hard to get the engine nice and hot, no sputtering and ran very smoothly; it remains to be seen if it cuts out when idling in traffic. Perhaps using moden speck petrol means we now need to regularly check our cars are in tune.

Thank you for your offer to help, I know I must take it off soon but not until I have built a replacement. Sometime ago i was been given a large sheet of copper more than enough for the outer jacket ,luckily I have a spare water jacket to make a copy from. Do you have any more photographs showing the construction of the outer jacket.

I took the water pump off to check the bronze impeller and everything is as it should be. I asked Matt how much extra advance he had added, I therefore increase my setup by adding 4 deg; this appears to have cured the overheating problem, however the engine sounds a bit harsher but seems to be a bit more powerful . May has been very cold, I will only know for certain when running the car in hot (for the UK) weather, if I have finally sorted out the problem. I did reverse flush the cooling system a few times before fitting a new thermostat, but am now removing the lower hose before refilling with fresh water

I used Fernox Cleaner F3 used in central heating systems in the UK, then Thermocure; I think it is much the same as Evapo Rust rust, remover possibly a refined molasses liquid. I have a major problem flushing the system out, very hard mains water. I am still flushing out rust as brown water and flacks of iron by running the car filled with distilled water which I drain when hot and refill at regular intervals. Ron has confirmed my suspicion that a lot of gunk still remains in the base of the water chamber.

My Senior was fitted allround with 3,5mm toughened glass but I wish a sliding window had been made for the drivers side.

I am also concerned about leaks around the screw holes and a possible corrosion issue mixing Brass with steel. I can see how you made the intersection but how was the outer section made? A flat plate indeed ! it never ceases to amaze me how many people fail to consider why a part was designed a certain way in the first place.

I was thinking of making the flat intersection in brass or copper and separating it from the original steel outer section with a thin gasket. Is this a workable option?

Have you thought of publishing "Restoration of Victory Six sports roadster" as a book? Many of restoration subjects and techniques discussed in these posts are applicable to all vintage and classic cars.

3 months is nothing ,I have been waiting over 3 years to have my 1853 Enfield rifle musket repaired

As I am still having overheating problems ,I thought it might be an idea to remove the water pump to check the impeller, thankfully it is in good shape.I looked into the waterport in the block casting. In the past the water jacket was refitted and sealed with a generous amount of silicone, this had squeezed out into the water port reducing the hole by a good 30%; it remains to be seen if removing this partial blockage improves the water flow. s

Fantastic. If you have the time would you make me a crank hole cover?

I fitted a Edelbrock 8606 High Performance Thermostat (63mm) - 160° in my 2249, after I drilled a 1/8 hole