Recent content by Rich/Alabama

Richard, Thats what I was thinking about doing, mostly to keep it out of sight but as you said, it stays out of the weather and heat too. I was also considering moving the coil inside, I had moved it over to the driver's side inner fender to get it away from the engine heat. It gets pretty hot...

I am more interested in points longevity & reliability than anything else. There's nothing more aggravating to me than working on my car when I would really rather (or need to) be driving it. Based on the feedback, I'm going to give the MSD a try. If it doesn't work I can always easily remove...

Jim, What are your thoughts regarding adding a CD box like an MSD6 to an otherwise stock ignition? I have read that it would extend the life of the points a lot. Rich

I used a core designed for the 66 Mustang and it worked out out well. It's close to the same size and required very few modications to the original case. The other big plus is that it's cheap and readily available, the down side is the outlets don't poke through the firewall like the old one...

It didn't have the original engine in it, there was a 59L motor in it. It also clearly had a SBC in it sometime in it's past but the rest of the running gear was stock. I'm going to start looking at the firewall on every 40 I see from now on ;)

I figured it was something like that but they aren't on the 39 firewall I'm using for patch panels. The other interesting thing I discovered is there doesn't seem to be any primer under the original paint on both my firewall and the 39. My 40 paint came off with a putty knife for the most...

When I stripped the paint on the firewall of my 40 DeLuxe, I found a series of numbers with a letter below stamped into it in the upper right hand corner near where the handbrake bolts are. They don't match the serial number on the frame, so what are they?

Well guys, just got a reply from Dave at Seabright Hot Rods and they no longer make the torque tube oil seal. I have a Tardel drain-back tube and there is the Bruce's solution too. I'll probably do one of those two but haven't decided which route to take yet in addition to changing the stock...

32phil; I have the engine and trans out and access is not a problem so I think I'll change the seal. 32Dude; I looked their website and the seal setup they sell but with that 1/8" thick seal housing I'm going to try to solve the problem another way first. surfgeezer; I'll give it another try...

Phil, I have a 40 that the rear sits 4" higher than the front and have the same problem; a small amount of gear oil pools up in the U-joint housing at the trans. The trans is out at the moment for a rebuild and I am debating replacement of the seal and center bearing. What level of difficulty...

Henry/Kahuna, I used Moroso Ceramic Seal when I rebuilt my 59L and it worked pretty good. I still had to seal the threads on each stud with Permatex Aviation sealer. Running more than a 7lb. rad cap will make them weep a little so I only use a 7lb. cap in the hot months and a 0lb. the majority...

38 thats a good idea and I might try it but I think rotorwrench is right, its a 52 or 53 truck motor from what I could find so far. I still like the idea of it being a merc disguised as a truck 239 though Sure wish there was a way to tell using the casting oodes on the back of the block like a...

A Merc? I would never be that lucky, just for it to be a crack free block would be a wonderful thing. Now you have me thinking I might have won the flathead lottery, guess I'll trot back out to the shop and drop the pan. It's really a sludged up mess in there so that won't be fun...

Aluminum timing cover and cast iron distributor & truck oil pan. I haven't gone beyond taking the heads and intake off to peek inside so can't give you anymore than that except under all the grunge it's a light green color.

I've read a lot about flathead cooling systems and different tricks to get them to run cooler, ie; no t-stats, washers instead of t-stats, etc. I tried most of them and found that they really didn't work for me where I live. What did work was to get the timing and carb jetting right and keep...