Recent content by Ross in East Texas

I made a plate out of 3/8" steel with a lifting eye welded to this plate. I drilled 3 - 5/16" holes to match the carb base pattern and bolted this plate to the factory cast iron manifold to lift my 221 out of my '39 frame. I have since used this set up to move flatheads around the shop. Handy...

Many large industrial 2 cycle engines (10"-12" bore or larger) have doweled piston rings to prevent the rings from rotating. This keeps the ring end gaps passing over the webs between the ports to prevent ring clipping and port wear.

I put 1/4" shims under the front motor mounts, ground a slight groove in the left header at the steering box and ground the same corner off of the steering box slightly and used a Allen head hex on this corner. This gave me about 1/4" clearance on my '39 Standard. As to the anti chatter rods...

I purchased my '39 Standard Coupe from the original owner when she entered a nursing home in 1965. I have owned this car since. The original V8 carried the same serial number that appears on the frame and transmission and has been overhauled 3 times and has been bored .020" over.

I agree, the one in my '39 has two settings, "Hot" and "Hotter". Boy, what I would have given to have had that when I was driving it to college!

This is a good chart for reference. Since horsepower is a calculated number from torque and speed, the torque of these engines can be determined by multiplying the HP times 5252 and dividing by the speed. Torque = HP X 5252 / RPM I hope that this helps.

In 1966 my '39 was my daily driver. I was in college at the time and it was 150 miles from home. I would frequently stop for a Coke or such during these trips and if it was during the warm months, I would have to finish my drink so I could put the cup of ice on the fuel pump to get the engine...

What diameter pipes do you recommend if running straights? 1 3/4" or 2" Or other?

On my '39 Coupe I ran a 1" steel rod under the front just behind the firewall and another one just in front of the rear of the body. I used a 3" nylon sling across the ends of these rods (one on each end) and used 2 - 2000# cable come alongs to lift the body with doors attached off of the...

Back in the 60's, this was the first thing I looked for when each issue of Popular Science came in the mail. I was addicted to the Model Garage and Gus' skills at diagnosis and repair.

I have owned my '39 since I was in college in 1965. I drove it weekly on the Interstate at 70+ MPH for 2 years. It has the stock 3.78 gears and never complained. I normally got 15 MPG and it took 5 gallons to get take me the 150 miles home. I knew that the car was old but that never kept me...

Black plugs = Rich mixture, no amount of ignition problems will burn black. Just too much fuel. I would look for carb problems first.

I took the shafts in my '39 and machined O-ring grooves in the ends of the shafts and installed O-rings to seal these shafts, now I have a dry floor under the transmission.

I quit attending the Pate swap meet when they moved from the cow pasture.

Back in the 60's when I was driving my '39 coupe to college, I had a 150 mile trip from my home to where I attended college. I always removed the side panels when the weather got warm to help keep both the engine and passenger compartments cooler. I had no problems with vapor lock until I would...