Just got my 51 truck running after a a year of sitting and have a couple of questions? With a limited budget I have to do things in phases and am not sure what to do next. Carbs or ignition system. The engine I have is a 235 with sn 3738307 on the block. If my research is right that tells me it was built between 58 and 62. Dose that mean it is a full oiler? It has Fenton headers on it with a Offenhouser dual intake with two single down draft Rochesters. To the best of my knowledge it has the orginal ignition system on it. Which upgrade will give the biggest bang for my buck? The reading on the forum suggest that a dual set Carter Webbers would be a good upgrade for the carbs but what about the igition system. Opinions are welcome. Thanks. D Orcutt
Power Tuning The Stovebolt Engine Yes it's a full pressure oiling engine . If you have a Torque Tube in this truck , you're about where you should stop as things will begin breaking if you add much more power . You should invest $50.00 into a good inductive typ timing light with the advance dial on the back of it and set the full advance timing to 30° ~ 34° then do a Throttle Ping Test . careful tuning and the addition of the Pertronix Ignitior should make the engine produce sufficient power to break the U-joint now . Take both Rochester cabys apart and make sure every piece matches , main jets , power valve and spring , floats and float height adjustments etc. then balanced them *perfectly* using a Uni-Syn or better , the air flow meter with a dial on it available from any VW / Porsche partshaus . slack the tie bar on the dual linkage and adjust them @ idle then snug the tie and re-test the flow @ 3,000 RPM's . I assume you've allready hammered a 1" pinchbar through the mufflers to increase flow , the next low buck thing is to add an exhaust crossover pipe as close to the Fentons as you can , this will ad dramatic throttle response at low and mid range RPM's as the Fentons are racing headers and don't help untill the engine is fully wound up going full tilt boogie ~ a dual outlet stock exhaust manifold makes more and better power than Fentons do but few want to hear this as they look cool . Adding a pair of Carter YF carbys is the next step but they're getting $pendy and also must be perfectly matched..... I hope you understand this is a 1930's tech , long stroke , low RPM engine so if you run it fast , it's going to break before long . Breaking the tires loose will cost you plenty of $ in short order but they're very fun to drive quickly too
Many thanks for the help guys. Pertronix ignitor. Any of the classic auto house's carry them? Another question, the electrics have been converted over to 12 volt. Not sure if the coil is a 12 or 6 volt as it has a dropping resistor in series with the positive lead. Voltage wise I believe it is a 6 volt. Why not change to a 12 volt?
I Do! I DO, I DO!!! Tell us more about how this is done. OK, tell ME more about how this is done, since I'm the only one who may be in the dark about this... And thanks for your time to do so, master.
Ignition Ballast Resistor ? O.K. , *IF* you have a by-pass circuit wired in , then (and only then) the ballast resistor is a good thing . If not , then it's a waste of time and needless complexity added by someone who doesn't understand it's purpose . It's late and I am too tired to write a detailed post on ballast resisitors but I am sure there's either an old post of mine explaining it or others will chime in and explain it to you shortly , O.K. ? . If not , ask again and I'll explain it in detail . Basically , if you connect a voltimiter to the + side of your coil and it shows 7 ~ 10 VDC when the engine is iding but jumps up to battery voltage whenever the starter is operated , you have a by-pass and the ballast resistor is O.K. and maybe good even . If the coil voltage _drops_ below 7 ~ 10 volts when you're cranking the engine , junk/bypass the resistor and get a proper 3 Ohm coil , preferably a nice Epoxy filled one . -Nate
Dual Outlet Exhaust Manifold O.K. Zig ; I have the name of a nice fellow in Texas who does this , keep after me and I'll dig it up and post the info here , I might have a JPEG of a finished one on my home 'puter too , 'K ? . when done correctly , there's NO restrictor plate between the two halves and the heat risor remains in place to facilitate rapid warmup and longer engine life... Jeeze , I'm beat ~ good night ! . -Nate
Nate, thanks, the reason for my question is if I go and do the pertronix ignition it seems like a good idea to get the coil as well. If that the case should I get the 12 volt coil or the 6 volt. I"m assuming I have a 6 volt coil and points yet the rest of the truck is set up for 12 volts. Is the resistor a voltage droping resistor to provide 6 volts to the coil instead of 12? Why is it called a ballast resistor. Sorry for all of the basic questions and thanks for your patience. Dave
Thanks, Nate! I'll be sure to drag this up again. Hope ya got a good night's sleep! This person's name wouldn't be "Evan" would it?
There Ya Go ! I'll be back later when I find the guy's address , O.K. ? right now it's time for CBS' Sunday Morning show BYE ! .
216/235 Split Exhaust Manifold SOURCE Here ya go fellas : > If anyone wants a split exhaust manifold Call Fred Majors at > 972-723-8911 He is a member of Inliners International > it will look like this one Please to remember : get a good core to send hm , no broken studs / flanges and a good heat risor flapper too .
Why Thank you, kind sir! All in a day's work, huh?! Thanks for all that, Nate. I'll be checking into that ASAP.
After searching the forum and reading all of the different threads this is my conclusion of my situtation. I can find no bypass circut on on my truck (I do have a starter with a solienod) so I was going to remove the ballast resistor and install the 12 volt coil with the 12 volt pertronixs ignitor system. Let me know if I'm going down the wrong path. Thanks again for all the help and exchange.
Go to NAPA and get an IC64 coil...it is 12v. and has an internal resistor.....get rid of the ceramic one on the firewall. Cleans up the wiring and simplifies things a bit.
OK, I am a bit confused! I recently bought a '57 Suburban with a 250ci in it and I thought it would be easy to put a Clifford header and intake, but now I read things about split manifolds and I do not know what to think anymore.. Why is it so difficult to modify a stock manifold with 2 exits? Can't I just find someone who knows how to weld cast iron, or is there some black magic involved? From Canada, I do not really feel like shipping my manifold to Texas! What about Clifford? Are they better on the street than Fentons? Their headers have only one collector, should be better than Fentons with 2 exits?!?... The nice thing about Clifford is also that they sell ehxasut and intake together, so you know they will fit!... I just want to make my truck a bit more peppy for daily use, no racing involved. Any good comment on intake manifolds?
Welding Cast iron Yep ; There's a definate art to welding Cast Iron so it stays welded and doesn't crack shortly Sadly , this art is nearly gone these days , maybe in Farm welding shops it's still there but 99 % of the In Town weld shops and muffler shops , will ruin your precious exhaust manifold.... I think sending off to Texas is a good idea as this guy knows how to do it and does quite a few.. I cannot tell you about a Clifford exhaust manifold until I see one... Dual outlet will always trump a single bigger one BTW . I can tell you definativley that intake manifolds for InLine engines that simply plop a big carby in the middle , don't work out well , you need carbys spaced out in a line so each intake port gets the same amount of fuel (like Scotty always said ' Ya canna change the Laws of Physics Captain ! ') I know some guys have used a big old 4 barrel carby and the truck goes faster yes but once you've tried a dual or better yet , triple carby InLine intake manifold , you'll understand . I know it's hard to accept this on the word of an old man you've never met .
Thanks Nate, I appreciate the input of an old man, I still have a fair bit to learn about old Chevy engines (among other things!).
I Didn't Catch Your Name But : The really good news is : all these old 6 Bangers and V-ates are really simple to make run nearly ' As new ' 4 cylinder engine like 25° Dwell 6 cylinder engines like 33° Dwell 8 cylinder engines like 27° or so Dwell . Best way to set Dwell is to remove the spark plugs and dizzy cap , crank the engine whilst watching the dwell meter and adjust the points on the fly , more accurate that way due to worn dizzy bushings etc. _ALL_ non high compression engines will run the very best if you set the timing to 28° ~ 32° BTDC ignition timing with the engie revved up to wherever the timing stops advancing ~ usually about 3,000 RPM's . Then you can do a ' Throttle Ping Test ' and adjust a tiny bit more or less total advance as needed by your particular engines needs . Breaker point ignitions like the spark plugs gapped to .035" . Electronic ignitions like the plugs wider , at _least_ .040" and as wide as .060" if it'll run like that without any miss . Platinum plugs are crap for most old tech engines because they run " colder " than regular plugs to and so tend to foul , even if good engines , especially in Air Cooled engines . Copper Cored spark plugs will give the best results in regular old engines . Setting the idle fuel mixture with a vacuum gauge to the highest steady vacuum , will result in best power, easier starting hot or cold and also best fuel economy . Mechanical valve lifters/tappets are best and were used into the early 1980's on many American InLine engines , nearly all imports , they will always need periodic adjustments and this is the FIRST thing to check @ Tune Up Time . As you can see , it's mostly just basics ~ no one seems to pay any attention to the basics anymore , I don't know why . Lastly , the very best Mechanics I have worked with , all were musically gifted so if you can play any instument or sing , I bet you can tune up your old tech engine better than most ' mechanics ' . I hope this helps , carry on then .
