Rusty_OToole

To remove a stud put 2 nuts on and jam them together. Then you can remove the stud with a wrench. If it is broken off use vice grips. No special stud removal tool necessary although they are nice to have. Usually they come out fairly easily, they are only supposed to be finger tight. An impact wrench will rattle them loose better than a hand wrench. If necessary heat the stud red with an acetylene torch and take it out before it cools, this method never fails.

Are you bragging or complaining?

The other way is to grip the top of the shaft with vice grips. This allows you to unscrew the nut but then the threads are chewed. So once the nut hits the vice grips you have to grab the shaft under the nut to get it off the rest of the way. This usually works but takes some time.

OK good luck with that.

In the early days of the gas engine there were 2 kinds of head gasket. Asbestos or copper. Copper had the advantage of being strong and durable but did not conform to uneven surfaces very well. Asbestos would make a tight seal even on bad surfaces but was weak and blew out too easily. Some genius combined the 2 materials by putting asbestos between 2 thin sheets of copper. This made a gasket that was durable, but would conform to imperfect surfaces. I suppose a single sheet of copper plus asbestos would work too. The copper must be turned over in the cylinder area to form an O ring that protects the asbestos from combustion chamber pressure.

I assume you mean the type of shock where the end of the shaft is threaded. Years ago I worked with a mechanic who made a special tool for this job. It was a socket with a steel bar welded on. He would fit the socket over the nut and bend it back and forth a few times until the shaft broke off. The nuts are hard to remove because the shaft keeps turning. There is a little flat area at the top but it is no use once the nuts have been on for a while. The best thing I can suggest is to try and get a couple of pairs of vice grips on the shaft down below and either unscrew the nut or snap the end off the shaft. It is not easy to get the vice grips on, you have to jack the car up and slip them between the coils of the spring. If you do this be sure to support the wheel, when you break the shock there is nothing to hold the wheel up.

If it's the factory shop manual it's the best money you will ever spend. Wiring diagrams should be in the manual. For roofing paper I suggest a lumber yard.

A propane torch WILL NOT give enough heat. If you do not have access to an acetylene torch, take the car or just the head to a garage. They can take the plugs out in a few minutes. For this method to work you must heat the plug quickly without heating the head too much. It is the heat expansion that loosens the threads. It is not dangerous to heat the head. Any excess oil should be wiped up off the head but a little oil is not dangerous. At this point I would seriously consider removing the head. If the plugs are that rusty it is likely the valves are stuck and at least one cylinder is rusty. Any cylinder that had the intake valve open while the engine sat. It would cost you a head gasket but at least you would know what was inside the engine. Can you turn the engine by hand? If it was stuck I would definitely take off the head.

Window cranks were bought from outside suppliers and sometimes the same crank was used on different makes. Small manufacturers could save money by buying hardware that was originally made for another company. That way they did not have to pay for a new mold. A careful comparison might reveal that the same hardware was used by a bigger manufacturer, a year or 2 previously.

I was thinking of protecting the spark plugs so your car would start in wet weather. If you are thinking of keeping rust off the head perhaps you could add a gutter under the hood hinge? I'm thinking of a metal or plastic gutter held in place by duct tape. Something that can be removed without leaving holes. How about a strip of rubber or vinyl fastened by tape on both sides? It would flex when you open the hood and turn into a gutter when you close it.

Turn signals became mandatory on new vehicles in 1951. Before that they were an option or accessory. I have seen turn signals that were made in the 1920s or at least pictures of them. It is possible that turn signals were available as a dealer installed accessory in 1939 but it is more likely they were added in the early fifties. Careful examination of the lights and turn signal switch should reveal a brand name or maker's trademark. Do they look like they were designed for the truck or like an add on? Most truck turn signals in those days, looked like a can of tuna on its side, bolted to the top of the fender with a single bolt. They had a lense on the front and another lense on the back.

In the 30s and 40s it was the OHV engines that had breathing issues. Their valve sizes were restricted by the size of the cylinder. Flatheads suffered no such restriction. Look at any flathead with the head off. Compare the valve sizes to a pushrod engine with the same bore. The flathead Harley Vtwins were a particularly good example. Their valves are huge. Some racing and performance OHV engines had hemi heads with valves set at an angle. This allowed larger valves less shrouded by the cylinder. Stutz, Duesenberg and Bentley featured the hemi head with overhead cams. They had the advantage over the typical flathead although not by much. The typical pushrod OHV had parallel valves and they were considerably smaller. This design had a hard job keeping up with a good flathead.

There is such a thing as progress. The long stroke flathead was state of the art from 1921 to the early fifties. Then the new short stroke OHV designs took over. What made the difference was the new high octane gas plus the short stroke design. A flathead is limited to about a 7.5:1 compression ratio. Squeeze the combustion chamber any tighter and you cut off the breathing. Plus the new big bore short stroke design made room for bigger valves. Hudson and Packard used some clever design tricks to push the compression higher, even then they could not match the OHV head. Packard at 8.7:1 was the highest compression flathead ever. A few years later OHV high performance gas engines were built with 13:1 compression and diesel engines even higher. Here is another interesting comparison. In 1949 2 American luxury car makers brought out brand new V8s. Everyone remembers the trend setting OHV Cadillac but who remembers the flathead Lincoln? It was obsolete the day it was born and was dropped in 1952 in favor of a new OHV V8. Would it surprise you to learn the Cadillac made just 6 more horsepower than the Lincoln ? That's right the 331 Cu In Caddy made 160 HP the 337 Cu In Lincoln 154HP. This was accounted for by the Caddy's higher compression, 7.5:1 vs 7:1. At that time the OHV had little or no advantage over the flathead but how things changed in the next few years. The Caddy was designed in anticipation of higher octane gas. Once it was on the market they upped the compression and got 235HP with the same displacement. If high octane gas had not become available we would still be driving flatheads.

I've done this a few times too usually on Chev V8s. The later model ones are patsies for this because the metal of the spark plugs is paper thin. If the plugs have been in there for a few years at least one is sure to break off. I use the type of easy out that is square with straight corners. Not the threaded kind. Heat the metal red as C49r suggests, tap the easy out in lightly and it will unscrew. Do not drive the easy out in hard or it can wedge the broken plug end into the head. On the ones where the ceramic is still in there. Does this mean the hex part of the plug is still on? If so heat the plug red and take it out with a socket wrench. When the hex breaks off the ceramic should pull out because there is nothing left holding it. Try wrapping the ceramic with a rag and turning or wiggling with a pair of pliers. The trick is to work it loose without breaking it off.

There is another interesting comparison of flathead vs overhead cam performance. The LeMans 24 hour race of 1929. The winner was a six cylinder Bentley with overhead cam engine. Second was a Stutz overhead cam straight eight. 3d and 4th place were taken by flathead six cylinder Chryslers. The point is that an OHC performance car could beat a flathead, although not by much. The OHV pushrod engines weren't in it and had no performance advantage over a good flathead. This was also proven many times by the Ford flathead V8. It was the hot rod king for many years. The OHV Chev had its fans but seldom beat the Fords.

There were other places that had big auto industries back then, but eventually lost out to Detroit. My guess would be that Indianapolis was the biggest. Does anyone have any statistics on this?

The Chrysler system is available from Chrysler antique parts suppliers. As DeSoto Frank says, it consists of metal bases that go under the spark plugs and a rubber boot that snaps onto the base, completely shielding the plug. There is no reason these parts can't be fitted to any flathead that uses standard size spark plugs. If you wanted to be totally sure you would install new plug wires at the same time and coat all joints with dielectric grease or a special silicone grease made for plug wires. http://www.oldmoparts.com/k.htm Andy Bernbaum scroll down to Everdry kit, 6 cylinder $29.50 8 cylinder $39.50

In the early days of the auto industry Detroit had a number of rivals for the title Motor City. Indianapolis, Cleveland and New York come to mind. Also Buffalo (Pierce Arrow) South Bend (Studebaker) and Kenosha (Nash). Does anyone know which cities were the biggest producers of cars, either in number of makes represented or sheer number of cars produced, between 1900 and the twenties? I know Detroit had a good industrial base in 1900 with foundries machine shops etc but so did a lot of other places. Is it possible Detroit became the Motor City because GM and Ford happened to be based there, and it was largely happenstance that put them there?

If they plan to sell you 3 batteries during the life of the car, and they could sell the nickel iron battery for 3 times the price why would they care? The hard part is finding customers willing to pay the price. Rolls Royce doesn't make that many cars. Look at the sales of Optima batteries vs the cheapest ones Walmart sells.

You could also look up the HP and torque figures for flathead vs OHV engines in the twenties and thirties. You might be surprised.

Whoever wrote the Wikipedia article did not know what he was talking about. It is easier to explain if you have some illustrations. Can you find a picture of a flathead (any make) with the head off? Do you notice that the valve chamber is considerably wider than the cylinder bore and the valves are large? In a typical OHV engine the valves must be small enough to fit within the cylinder bore, and small enough that the cylinder wall does not shroud the valve. In the long stroke, small bore engines of the twenties and thirties the OHV engine is at a considerable breathing disadvantage. But it did have the advantage of a smaller combustion chamber and higher compression. It did, that is, until the Ricardo combustion chamber came along. Ricardo's inspiration was to bring the roof of the combustion chamber down until it practically touched the piston at top dead center. This meant higher compression and a small combustion chamber, negating the advantage of the OHV engine. But the flathead still had the advantage of larger valves, more breathing room around the valves, light weight free revving valve train, and no chance of the valve hitting the piston in case of a broken valve spring. It was also simpler, lighter, more compact, quieter and cheaper to make and cheaper and easier to service. It's no wonder that all new engines designed after 1922 were flatheads. The exceptions that prove the rule, were those makes who were already committed to OHV (Buick Chev and Nash) and Stutz and Duesenberg. These last 2 were cost no object luxury cars with a performance reputation. At that, their overhead cam engines had a hard job outperforming a flathead. Look up the Stutz/Auburn stock car record contest of 1927. Both were straight eights of the same bore and stroke and the same displacement. Stutz had an OHC engine, Auburn had a conventional flathead. On Daytona Beach the Stutz managed to beat the Auburn by less than 2 MPH. The Stutz cost $5000, the Auburn under $2000. There is a similar conparison between the flathead Pierce Arrow V12 and Duesenberg straight eight. In the early 30s Pierce set speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats. I believe their best performance was to average 117 MPH for a full 24 hours. This was real rocket ship stuff for that time. The next year Ab Jenkins broke the record with the Mormon Meteor, a special Duesenberg with supercharged OHC straight eight known to be the most powerful car of its time. It is significant that it took such a car to beat the unsupercharged flathead Pierce. It is also significant that the next time Jenkins brought the car to the flats it had a Curtis Conqueror aircraft engine under the hood. Evidently it strained the supercharged Duesy to the utmost to beat the Pierce and it had reached its limit of performance. Since the Pierce Arrow displaced 429 Cu In and the Duesenberg 427 Cu In this is a fair comparison. The 2 cars were also similar in overall size and weight.

They were available with a V8 when new, on the usual optional at extra cost basis. Oil pan and motor mounts are the main differences and maybe the exhaust manifold. Small block 283 and 327 were used. A 350 will fit as well. No big blocks. There are lots of Chevy sites that can lay out the details. If it was mine I would keep the six even if it needed to be rebuilt. The six had plenty of power for such a light car for every day driving.

Years ago I read an exposition by Ned Jordan of his philosophy of building cars. He started with the idea that by 1920, it was possible to build a high grade chassis of "assembled" parts and build a car comparable to the expensive models, at low cost. He went on to describe how he gave his customers value for their money - bodies copied from the best custom built designs, $8 a yard Laidlaw upholstery, Waltham clock and other costly fittings and accessories. So, in the twenties it appears that a Waltham clock was de rigeur in expensive cars.

I did a search a couple years ago and turned up a maker of whitewall tire paint in Iceland, of all places. It seemed expensive, like $20 a small tin, but seemed an excellent product. Mercedes-Benz Pontons (1953-1962) / White Wall Tire Paint for Diagonal (Cross-Ply) Tires © www.mbzponton.org

In the 50s there was also the Meteor (Canadian Ford) Monarch (Mercury) and the 1960 Frontenac (Falcon). Dodge also had their Plymouth based models in Canada so all the majors made unique Canadian models.