Jump to content

Rusty_OToole

Members
  • Posts

    13,948
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

Everything posted by Rusty_OToole

  1. If you want to compare flathead to OHV engines in the twenties there was a dandy contest in 1927 to determine the stock car champion at Daytona Beach. The main contenders were the Auburn and Stutz speedsters. Both had straight eight engines of identical bore and stroke but the Auburn had a conventional Lycoming flathead while the Stutz had a very sophisticated overhead cam engine. The Auburn produced 88 HP while the Stutz made 115 HP. In the event they were very close within a couple of MPH of each other but the Stutz pulled off a win. The more powerful Stutz also weighed 700 pounds more than the Auburn. It had a heavier more powerful engine, a heavier drive train and heavier chassis. It also cost twice as much as an Auburn. Given the fact that the two were so close in size and performance, the Auburn for half the money seems like a bargain. 2 years later Auburn brought out an improved engine with 115HP. This was an extreme contrast between the most technically advanced overhead cam engine in America and the most basic flathead. Yet speed and performance were close. The typical pushrod OHV engine would not have done as well as the Stutz. For the ordinary motorist the flathead engine was the best choice.
  2. If you read my post you would know that before the Ricardo head came out, OHV engines did have the advantage over the flathead in power. You car comparing 1923 engines. The Ricardo head came out in 1922. If the Studebaker was an older design it would explain the difference. References I find online say the 1923 Studebaker was a 40HP car and the1927 Buick 60HP. But the difference in year is significant. If you compared both from the same year you would not see such a big difference. I could throw in the 1924 Chrysler flathead six of 201 cubic inches, one of the first "high compression" motors at 68 HP. You notice this outdoes the Buick even though it is slightly smaller and a flathead. This illustrates my point that before 1922 the OHV engine had an advantage in power but with the new head design the advantage largely disappeared.
  3. For an interesting comparison of flathead vs ohv let's look at 2 brand new V8 engines for 1949. Everyone remembers the Cadillac but Lincoln also had a brand new V8 that year, a flathead. Both made by experienced makers of luxury cars, using the state of the art engineering and manufacturing of the time. Both all new V8s Cadillac 331 cu in Lincoln 337 cu in Cadillac 160HP Lincoln 155HP Both had 7.5:1 compression ratio. As you can see there was not much to choose between them. Caddy had a trifle more HP but was it worth the extra cost and complexity? This comparison only lasted a short time. In a few years the Cadillac was improved with higher compression, hotter cams, more carburetors and got up to 230HP in the Eldorado version. Meanwhile Lincoln quietly dropped the flathead after 1951 and replaced it with their own OHV V8. The lesson is, as long as compression ratios stayed below 8:1 and fuel was no better than 70 or 75 octane there was not much point to an OHV engine. If you go back to the thirties and forties and compare HP per cubic inch of Buick and Chevrolet OHV engines to their flathead competitors you will wonder why they bothered to make an OHV engine.
  4. If you find it easy to lift the head off a straight eight Buick you are a better man than I am. Back in the day you could get the auto machinist to come to you to grind valves, true cylinders and grind crank throws. Today you would probably have to tow the car to his shop if you could get it done at all.
  5. We could add to the list, Plymouth and Dodge to 1959, some Dodge trucks to 1962, Rambler to 1964. Not sure when Hudson made their last flathead but believe you could still get one in 1956. Studebaker's small Champion six was only 170 cu in and 85HP later raised to 185 cu in. Rather underpowered. The bigger Commander six at 226 or 245 cu in would give more power. Don't be afraid of a flathead because it is a flathead. They are much easier to work on than more modern engines. I would be concerned about the parts supply. Any Chrysler product six cylinder is very easy and cheap to get parts for. The straight eights, not so much. Flathead Fords are well supported but good blocks without cracks are getting hard to find. Packards seem to be ok except for some prewar senior straight eight and V12 engines which are something of a nightmare to work on. Studebaker, Nash, Hudson,Olds, Pontiac, etc I'm not so sure, you could look into the parts situation before you buy one, possibly by contacting the owner's club.
  6. In the early days meaning before 1920 there were a variety of engine designs tried. Flathead, T head, and OHV engines were popular. Duesenberg made an excellent engine with the valves at 90 degrees to the cylinders called a Walking Beam engine. Flatheads were popular because they were simple, quiet, cheap to build, easy to repair, and if you broke a valve spring (which was a common thing at the time) it did no harm as the valve could not crash into the piston. But the OHV engines, while more expensive, complex and noisier had a slight advantage in efficiency. Then came a major breakthrough called the Ricardo cylinder head. Invention of an English inventor Harry Ricardo and brought to the market in 1922. It introduced the idea of squish or quench. This did 2 things, it reduced the effective size of the combustion chamber at TDC and it caused turbulence. This allowed higher compression and faster combustion. With the new high compression Ricardo design OHV engines had little or no advantage over a flathead. While the flathead still had all the advantages above. Plus, you could use bigger valves in a flathead. With the valve chamber beside the cylinder, it could be wider than the cylinder, while OHV engines were restricted to the diameter of the cylinder. This was an important point with the small bore, long stroke engines then in vogue. So, from 1922 on, the flathead held all the cards. This is why there were practically no new OHV engines from then on, with the exception of a few old line companies that were committed to the OHV principle, and some all out racing engines with hemi heads, that would do anything to eke out a few more Horsepower. This was the rule until the early fifties. There were several technical developments that led to the use of OHV engines, the biggest one being the use of high octane leaded gas. Top compression ratio for a flathead is about 7.5 or 8:1. The highest I know of is 8.2:1 in a 1954 Packard straight eight, and they had to pull every trick in the book to get it that high. If you raise the compression beyond a certain point you cut off the breathing. This is not an issue with OHV engines. Now you know why the flathead was king from the early twenties to the early fifties, and why the OHV took over. There is still nothing wrong with a good flathead. They are smooth, reliable, quiet and a pleasure to drive as the long stroke and high torque make driving easy with almost no shifting required. And with low compression they run fine on the lowest octane regular, in fact, they run better on low octane fuel than high octane. If you want to go fast you need an OHV V8 but for driving pleasure a good flathead is hard to beat. By the way don't think all flatheads are deadheads on the road. The big Packard 400 straight eight could top 100MPH and was only a few tenths of a second behind its OHV competitors in acceleration.
  7. flatHEAD six, flatHEAD six. Flat six engines are found in Porsches and Subarus not Graham Paiges.
  8. Don't go by the sheet that comes with the carb kit. They are incomplete and filled with errors. Get the specs from a Plymouth repair manual, Carter repair manual, or MoToR Repair manual. Set it up exactly as specified and it should work perfect.
  9. They were a continuation of the touring car which was the most common body style up to the mid 1920s. After that closed cars became common. I suppose there were a few old timers who preferred the open body style but by the late 30s they were very few, the last convertible sedans were 1939 models in most lines. Except for a couple of oddities like the Frazer (fake) convertible sedan/hardtop and the sixties Lincoln.
  10. Some years ago I saw an article about the restoration of a 1937 Auto Union race car. The aluminum head needed repair, they consulted the experts at Reynolds Aluminum. They analysed the material and said, "this is the kind of metal we use for lamp posts and lawn furniture". In other words, the best aluminum available in 1937 was of very inferior quality compared to today's alloys. Then there is the fact that aluminum deteriorates or loses strength more than iron or steel. So, an old aluminum engine part is likely garage art unless it is an NOS never used piece. Even then it would be suspect. Have also heard that all Duesenbergs had aluminum connecting rods, and a true expert wouldn't even try to start an old engine until they had been replaced with new steel ones. They are too likely to fail due to age and metal fatigue.
  11. The used car problem was something new in the twenties. For the first time there was a glut of used cars on the market. Ford's plan was to buy up old cars and melt them down for scrap, using the steel to make new Fords. A hundred years ago there was a lot of discussion in the industry about the used car problem and what could be done about it. That was Ford's solution.
  12. Have you tried Egge Machine? They have been around since 1915, they may have made pistons for your car when it was new. https://egge.com/
  13. Have you seen the retreaded tires on some big hiway trucks that are made by gluing a new tread onto an old carcase? The tread comes already vulcanized and molded with treads. I have thought you could retread a solid rubber tire by gluing on this kind of tread material.
  14. On another board I had some correspondence with a woman who bought a 1941 Dodge sedan. It ran but was sluggish and sometimes hard to start. So she took it to a garage for an overhaul. When they took the engine apart the mechanic could not believe it even ran, let alone drove into the shop under its own power. Not only did it have broken rings and worn valves, it had at least one broken piston. Yet it ran without protest and without any bangs or knocks. To complete the story, $3000 later she drove home with a rebuilt engine. This was about 5 years ago, so far as I know she still uses the car as her daily driver in Maine, at least in the summer time.
  15. There is another possibility and that is low compression. A worn engine can be hard to start especially when cold, when warm it starts easier. Chrysler built flathead sixes are foolers. They can be in an advanced state of wear and still start and run with no bangs or knocks, just down on power and hard on oil and gas. I had a 49 Chrysler that would start right up no matter how cold, after a careful tuneup and a new choke.
  16. Rebuilding the carb can't hurt but I would check the choke first. If it has the Sisson choke they work great but do wear out after 70 years and even if not worn out, need to be adjusted and working correctly.
  17. Turn the crankshaft pulley until the notch lines up with the seam or joint in the crankcase. This is your timing mark. Use a 6 volt (or 12 volt, if you have a 12 volt car) test light connected to the points, to tell you the exact moment the points open (the light goes on). Turn the distributor slowly until the points open and lock it down. You must be careful that this is the #1 spark plug. Not all the plugs are timed the same, the #3 is retarded slightly to prevent overheating. If you don't have a test light you can put a cigarette paper between the points and slowly turn the distributor, when you can pull the paper out is the moment the points open. There may be more than one notch in the crankshaft pulley. When you turn it clockwise the first notch will be the advance position, the second TDC in most cases. You will use the advance mark to time the ignition. This is too obvious but the key must be on when you use the light method to set timing. The light must be connected to the points on one end, ground on the other. It will not light up when the points are closed because the current is grounded. When the points open the light lights up.
  18. You can go nuts trying to figure out the welter of transmissions used on Chrysler products 1939 - 1954.
  19. Slight misunderstanding here. There is no overdrive, there is a 4 speed transmission with direct drive top gear. Shifting is done by a hydraulic piston driven by a pump on the back of the transmission. The shift is controlled electrically. There is a manual shift to select Low range, High range or Reverse. Then there is an automatic 1-2 shift in Low range, and an automatic 3-4 shift in High range. Here is the wiring diagram. Power is tapped from the coil. There are 2 on-off switches on the carburetor, one for full throttle one for closed throttle. Then there are 3 controls on the trans, the governor, solenoid and interrupter switch. Below the interrupter switch you can see the hydraulic piston that slides the shifter fork back and forth.
  20. You can do quite a nice paint job with brush and roller if you apply a couple of thin coats, wet sand with 800, couple more coats, wet sand with 600, 2 more coats, wet sand with 1000 and polish and wax. There was quite a bit of discussion of this subject a few years ago on the net.
  21. This is too obvious but a $3 thrift store or yard sale crock pot is just the thing for "cooking" small parts.
  22. Those pressure switches do go bad. You should be able to get a new one from any auto parts store. Access from under the car. If you can rig up a mechanical switch on the brake pedal it should make a permanent repair.
  23. If you want to go way back. Long distance travel by car was rare in the early days of the auto because the roads were terrible and everyone traveled by train if they were going long distances. The rail network was well developed from the mid 19th century on. Roads were neglected and were dirt tracks connecting random towns, in most cases. The good roads movement got going in the teens and by 1930 long distance driving became more common.
  24. Before you do anything price a new paint job. Then come back and wash and polish the car carefully. You will probably find that it looks fine once the chrome trim is back on. If it needs touch up you might ask an old painter if he can tell what kind of paint is on the car. You might also ask the seller if she has a can of leftover paint or the bill from the paint shop, anything that will give you a clue. The bill might be in the glove box, you never know your luck.
  25. I have a circle of rubber cut from an old inner tube with the valve in the middle. I can put it on the fuel tank filler with a hose clamp and pressurize it slightly with an air hose. This always gets the fuel going. You only need a couple of pounds of pressure, enough to bulge the rubber slightly.
×
×
  • Create New...