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A little late to the party boys...But the owner of the colorful 1931 Dodge is (was) Wayne Wilson from Ingersoll, Ontario Canada. I met him at Gettysberg in 2010. Pretty sure you met him there, too, Doug. He said that he purchased the car in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2006. He told me about the brochure also. I even took a picture of the brochure. Take a close look on the seat and you'll see it. Maybe that's Wayne in the yellow shorts and purple shirt (kind of matching the car).

This thread gets better every day. Ed, thanks for adding the AFR info you supplied based on actual chassis dyno readings. You indicated 12.3 at idle and 14.0 at cruise. Do you recall your AFR at WOT? I realize every platform has its own set of numbers, but this info is nearly impossible to find for pre-war engines. Thanks a million for sharing that. Dave, I took the octane formula to an excel spreadsheet which makes it super easy to figure out the components in a mixture for any desired octane rating. I would post it here, but the platform apparently doesn't accept .xls (excel spreadsheet files). If anyone knows how, I will post it. For your example, you wanted to mix 90 octane ethanol free fuel with diesel (octane=20). 3 gallons of ethanol free 90 added to 1.25 gallons of diesel yields 4.25 gallons of 70 octane fuel.

Sorry guys, but I am little late to your interesting discussion here. Dave, the Sunoco race fuel website gives a good answer to your fuel cocktail question: 1) Calculate the percentage of each fuel that will be in the final mixture 2) Use this equation to find your octane: (It's a simple porportion calculation) ( [ % Fuel A ] x [ Octane of Fuel A ] ) + ( [ % Fuel B ] x [ Octane of Fuel B ] ) = Octane of Mixture Example. You mix 3 gallons of 110 octane gas with 2 gallons of 100 octane fuel. What's the octane of the resulting 5 gallon mixture? Answer. 1) Calculate the percentage of each type of fuel in the mixture... 3 gals of 110 in the total 5 gal mixture = 3/5 = 0.60 (60%). 2 gals of 100 in the total 5 gal mixture = 2/5 = 0.40 ( 40%). 2) Plug the above into the equation: (0.60 x 110) + (0.40 x 100) = 66 + 40 = 106 The final octane of your cocktail is 106. Dave, you bring up some interesting points. I have been messing around with some of these issues on my 1937 Buick Limited Series 90. Just spitballing here... can you increase your intitial advance to "fix the problem" and then, to avoid detonation, limit the mechanical advance in the distributor (i.e., welding up the slots)?

Ply33 - My bad. I deleted my incorrect info on my earlier post re: bulb base on headlamps. Thank you for making that correction and sharing the correct information. Sorry for picking the wrong nits! Apologies to the forum, Joe

Gotta love a good guessing game!

To Ply33: Not to belabor this point, and I am not disagreeing with your information, but at least in the 1929 Dodge headlamp system, which most definitely is a High Beam/Lo Beam setup, how does one get the bulb to operate properly without indexed pins? Do you just guess which way to insert the bulb?

So are you saying that the engine won't turn over with the starter motor or it wont turn over even when you hand crank it? The first thing that comes to mind in this situation is the engine is hydro-locked. Easy to figure out. Pull all the plugs and see if it will turn over with no compression resistance. If hydro-locking was the problem, usually the engine turns freely after the plugs are removed. Additionally fluid will shoot out from the affected cylinder(s) as you turn the engine over. Another possibility is the engine is truly seized from lack of oil or water in the crankcase oil. What is/was the oil level and how does the oil look/smell? Does the oil look like chocolate milk?

Hey Rick: Sorry to hear about your beautiful DeSoto. I love that car! Help me understand your situation. Are you saying that you had not started the engine for 2.5 yrs, but when you recently tried to start it, it started up ok and ran for 15 minutes and you smelled varnish? Then you cleaned the carb, but when you tried to restart it, suddenly the engine was seized? If I am getting your story correct, no question, over time, unSTABILized modern fuel turns to varnish and will muck up the fuel tank, the carb, and anything in between. The varnish usually is trapped in the fuel line, the carb or the fuel filter, preventing the engine from running very well or at all. I just don't see how a running engine would seize because of the varnish. As Doug points out, it is possible the valves are affected, but if that were the case, the engine would have never run for 15 mins. IMHO something beyond varnish is to blame.

Quote from Ply33: "I bought some Ba15d LED replacements that looked very much like those on your link but from a different vendor and could not get them to focus in my 1933 Plymouth." Ply33 makes a valid point about focusing LED lamps. The vastly oversimplified short story is that factory headlamps utilize a parabolic reflector. The beam of the headlamp is "focused" by moving the bulb's filament (a theoretical "point-source" of light) to a point which is coincident with the parabolic reflector's focal point. This results (theoretically) in a relatively bright parallel headlamp beam. The problem with an LED headlamp is that there is no single "point-source" of light. The lamps contain a multitude of "point-sources" which can differ dramatically in space, by sometimes an inch or more. I question the LED vendor's claim that these bulbs can be "focused" like the original filament type bulbs without some optically engineered reflector. LED's have their advantages, but a good focus is not one of them. Some vendors more accurately describe their LED headlamps as a "soft focus". For example see http://www.classicandvintagebulbs.com/

Found 'em. http://www.logolites.com/products/led-headlights/ LED headlamps: direct replacement for 1929-1935 Dodge Brothers. Features: Dual Hi/Lo Beam / Pos or Neg ground available /6V-12V For use with Generator or Alternator/ Draws minimal current Results look like Matt's but no socket changes needed. Focus is same as OEM. Downside is price --around $30 each.

Matt- No question- safety first. I don't know about Oz, but in San Diego most drivers are preoccupied with texting and earbuds. Anything you do to wake 'em up is a good idea. Kudos to those nice bright LED's. My '29 DA Phaeton has 35-50W halogens on the original BAY15D base. They are nice and bright, but not like your LED's. On my '29 DA Sedan, I have the original 6V (#1000) BAY15D headlamps. You need a match to see if they are lit. If anyone knows of any LED headlight bulbs on the BAY15D base for sale, please come forward. P.S. I love the color scheme on your Victory 6 !

SOLD

stakeside- "Not sure how to remove main shaft. It is frozen solid." Trying to understand the problem. Are you referring to the shaft that your speedometer cable connects to? If so, I am correct in assuming you were attempting to rotate that shaft manually (with a small screwdriver or whatever) and it refuses to rotate? I am also assuming you have soaked it in your favorite penetrating oil and it still wont budge?

Kenendcindyc: Nice forensic axle rundown. It makes sense that it happens over some time and would tend to explain why my axle broke without a sound.

It's the main odometer numbers that are all moving together. I agree, that pin needs to be inspected. But after seeing the bloody wreckage in the above photo, maybe I should reconsider any further investigation!