WANTED; Some general info

[tom1954]

I have a 54 New Yorker with the 331. It runs good, just changed over to a Petronix system and put in plugs, cap,wires. This work helped the mileage but it is still hard to pass a gas station. Anyone have one that could give me a general idea of what I should realistically consider? Timing is good and carb has a good mixture setting capabilities but it still smells rich while it is idling.

Also, does anyone know how the black rubber threshold strips are held in place? There are holes but there do not appear to be screws in the holes. Some type of pop in clips maybe, I do not want to pry too hard as I do not want to break the strips, they are in excellent condition.

[keiser31]

I have a 54 New Yorker with the 331. It runs good, just changed over to a Petronix system and put in plugs, cap,wires. This work helped the mileage but it is still hard to pass a gas station. Anyone have one that could give me a general idea of what I should realistically consider? Timing is good and carb has a good mixture setting capabilities but it still smells rich while it is idling.

Also, does anyone know how the black rubber threshold strips are held in place? There are holes but there do not appear to be screws in the holes. Some type of pop in clips maybe, I do not want to pry too hard as I do not want to break the strips, they are in excellent condition.

The 46-48 sill strips were held in with clips and I believe yours are, too.

[JACK M]

Hemis don't get very good mileage. If its rich at idle turn the screws in a bit.

[28 Chrysler]

When I had my 54 New Yorker 331 2 bbl, I was getting about 20 mpg on the highway, around 15 mpg city.

I would assume that a deluxe model with the single 4 bbl would do worse.

[cpwalter]

The threshhold strips you mention I assume are of the rubber variety. They have rubber 'v' shaped tabs on the bottom that are driven into the holes in the sill. With age they do get hard. Never tried to remove them, but I would think with some lubricant like soapy water sprayed under them you might pry them up. There are quite a few tabs on the underside. If yours are nice I would leave them alone.

[tom1954]

Thanks all for the info. I found out last week (while replacing the rug) that the strips have what appeared to be large rubber cone shaped plugs attached that push into the rocker holes. 3 of the strips are in great shape, still plyable enough to lift the edge without breaking it. The bad one (very hard and brittle) is how I found out how they were installed. The rubber plugs were totally dried out and broke off the back of the strip causing the strip to just fall off. I might be able to make some temp repairs to it and hold it in place with silicone until a replacement is found.

[Rusty_OToole]

15MPG is typical. Not much you can do about it but at least you can burn the cheapest regular gas. They bragged when the car was new that their engine did not need special high octane fuel, and developed full power and performance on 70 octane regular.

A rebuilt carb might help. It should not smell rich after it is warmed up, when it is cold the choke will be on.

That is a big heavy solid iron engine and it takes a long time to warm up. On trips of less than half an hour it will never completely warm up. Plus, stop and go driving is murder on those heavy old luxury cars.

See if you can clock the mileage on a trip of 100 miles or more.

[tom1954]

Leaned up the idle mixture screws a tad today, will see if it makes a difference. We rarely drive it more than about 15 or 20 miles from home. I know it gets good and hot by the temp gauge. It runs about 180 degrees by my infared tester. If you sit in traffic or move very slowly in the heat it goes up from there but goes back to normal as soon as you start moving. I know the choke is working properly as the high idle works and after a short warm up the choke opens enough to knock off the high idle cam. One thing I am still not positive on is the position of the heat riser. It is frozen (rusted) and I am not sure of the exact position it is in. Soon, I hope to put on dual exhaust (my present single system is rusting away) and at that time I will probably eliminate the heat riser unless I can get it working because I have not been able to locate a replacement. Thanks for your input.

[Rusty_OToole]

Heat risers usually rust in the closed position. On the Chrysler it is built into the manifold, you can't replace it without replacing the whole manifold, you have to fix what you have got. Some heat riser lubricating oil and a few minutes of light tapping to loosen rust will usually get them moving. The only thing that wears out is the bimetallic spring. Parts and rebuild kits should be available from Andy Bernbaum or Roberts Motor Parts.

[tom1954]

Thanks for your help Rusty except I believe that they changed things in 54. By my shop manual it indicates that the heat riser is an independent piece sandwiched between the manifold and exhaust pipe and they show a gasket between each piece. I just have not had a chance to get under there and look. Just got back from Davenport where we watched the GREAT RACE cars come in for the night. If it is a separate piece and I can't fix what is there or locate a new one I will have the new pipe made longer to take up the missing section. No big thing if they need to make the pipes for the dual exhaust conversion anyway. Thanks again, Tom.